Together, We Can Show You: Using Participant-Generated Visual Data in Collaborative Research

What is a gesture? A lesson from comparative gesture research

“…In effect, an educator or interpreter's fluency in sign language may enhance (or inhibit) their ability to predict the steps that learners take (please see also Pfister, in press). Therefore, in educational environments for deaf students, fluent signerssuch as children and adults capable of modeling sign language vocabulary and syntaxas well as the availability of well-trained sign language interpreters, are additional factors that influence learning readiness and meaning making among deaf students (Pfister 2015a;2015b;Pfister et al 2014).…”

“…The authors miss this crucial aspect of language by promoting an overly formulaic "communicative act" that they suggest consists of only imagistic and categorical formats. Research among deaf youth who experience language socialization among signing peers in Mexico City has provided an example of how community participation and sociality cannot be divorced from understanding (Pfister 2015a;2015b;2015c;in press;Pfister et al 2014). We argue that the social components of language influence meaning making because the context, sociality, and shared experience conveyed within communities of practice factor heavily into better understanding, and researching further, G-M&B's emphasis on the "whole of a communicative act" (sect.…”

Visual Narratives: Exploring the Impacts of Tourism Development in Placencia, Belize

“…Based on the findings of our study, we suggest that photovoice and other visual approaches may allow a relatively low‐cost and participatory way for local residents and researchers to work together to reflect visually upon and represent the role of foreign investment and tourism expansion in environmental change. As Pfister, Johnson, and Vindrola‐Padros (2014, 37) suggest, “Photovoice involves providing research participants with cameras to self‐document their lives.” In a photovoice study of Sudanese women refugees living in Cairo, Johnson carried out “one‐on‐one photo‐elicitation interviews during the final stages of research, and photographers chose a set of their images to illustrate the photostory” they wished to tell (ibid.). In this way, photovoice and visual methods can serve many purposes, both individual and collective, a vehicle for reflexivity and with the aim of fostering creative action or resistance.…”

Using reflexive lifelines in biographical interviews to aid the collection, visualisation and analysis of resilience

“…Lifelines and related instruments -such as life history calendars (Freedman et al 1988) and life grids (Berney and Blane 2013;Nico 2016;Parry et al 1999;Wilson et al 2007) -improve the accuracy of participants' recall of the timing, chronology and detail of events (Glasner and van der Waart 2007;Hope et al 2013). Scholars also use lifelines to encourage participant reflection on the course of their lives (Clausen, 1998;Sheridan et al, 2011), to identify turning points and epiphanies (Hanks and Carr, 2008;Nico and van der Waart, 2012)), and to elicit participant reflexivity within the context of collaborative and participatory research methodologies (Bagnoli, 2009;Jackson, 2012;Kolar et al, 2015;Pfister et al, 2014).…”