The visual image as discussion point: increasing validity in boundary crossing research

Abstract

This article is based on a larger study exploring the use of visual methods as a communication tool in research where the researcher is often a ‘border crosser’ (Giroux, 1992). To illustrate the value of this methodology, particularly in instances where power imbalances are heightened in the research context, a case study was conducted with five teenage mothers from a sub-economic community outside Cape Town, South Africa. This article will explore how use of visual methods contributes to increased validity of data. Specifically, this discussion will consider how the use of images as a communication tool, increase participant control over the research process, and incorporates participant self-representation via a period of self-exploration, improving contextual accuracy and relevance of data.

“The Girl Should Just Clean Up the Mess”

“…On the other hand, an important area of inquiry that draws together much of the participatory work with young people concerns the ways in which youth-focused methods can be decolonizing in and of themselves through the use of participatory digital and other arts-based methods (Gubrium & Harper, 2013;Gubrium, Harper, & Otanez, 2015). Participatory interventions are typically part of community-based research, drawing on audio, visual, and performance-based research methods such as photovoice, participatory video, drawing and map making, digital storytelling, theater performance, radio production, podcasts, and collage (see Mitchell, 2011a;Mitchell, 2011b;Moletsane, Mitchell, Smith, & Chisholm, 2008;Clacherty, 2005;Denov, Doucet, & Kamara, 2012;Didkowsky, Ungar, & Liebenberg, 2010;Gubrium, 2009;Liebenberg, 2009aLiebenberg, , 2009bMalone, 2008). Gonick's (2016) work in film with Inuit girls in Iqaluit, Liebenberg's (www.youthspacesandplace s.org) work with participatory video with Aboriginal youth in Atlantic Canada, Mitchell (2015) work with rural South African girls and the use of cellphilms, and Author's work with youth in the area of photovoice in Southern and Eastern Africa (see Mitchell, 2009;Mitchell, 2011a, b;Moletsane et al, 2007) all point to the ways in which these various narrative modes build on storytelling conventions of communities and as such have the potential to both subvert some of the researcher-researched power dimensions and contribute to a milieu where the perspectives of young people are recognized.…”

Discerning Success of Indigenous Health Students in Community-based Programs

“…My hope for this study was to hear the Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices of the community in which community-based healthcare programs had been delivered. Liebenberg (2009) asked researchers "how do we improve the connection between ourselves as privileged and those with whom we interact in the field who are so-often marginalized?" (p. 443).…”

In This Together

“…In both phases, we photographed spaces and places in our community that made us feel safe and gave us a sense of belonging, or conversely did not, over a period of 7 days. Then, we engaged in one-on-one photo-elicitation interviews (Liebenberg, 2009) with academic members of the research team. We also conducted "day-in-the-life" filming sessions (Gillen & Cameron, 2010), where two researchers (one academic team member and one EMHS team member during the first round of filming and two academic team members during the second round of filming), working each as a camera person and note taker, followed us each around for as close to a full day as possible trying to record a day in our lives on film.…”