Photovoice

what do you get if you mix photography and CBPR you get Photovoice spot da da da welcome to another journey with Chris where we will obtain new levels of knowledge and awesome nerves all those dollars today we're going to journey through Photovoice on our journey we're going to cover what is Photovoice for the voice methods and the limitations of photo voice so what is photo voice for the voice is a photographic method of conducting community-based participatory research or CBP are usually Photovoice is conducted with people who have little influence or voice within their own community such as children or homeless people or those on the fringes of society who have very little influence in the society there are three overarching goals of photo voice to empower participants to record their community's needs and strengths to promote critical discussion among the participants regarding their photos and to create a platform for participants to engage with policymakers to hopefully spark some kind of change in the community's structure or environment or policies in photo voice participants are given cameras to photograph their community's strengths and needs things in the community structure or environment that enhance or limit their community's health this is known as a community's a community needs assessment for example let's say children were given cameras and were asked to take photos of aspects of their school environment that either strengthened or limited their health let's imagine that the children took photos of an empty playground their cafeteria and let's say the bathroom we'll talk more about these in a second then in group discussions participants talk with each other about why they took each photo the meaning behind each photo and what the group could do to see things change in their community regarding the health issues that was captured in the photos typically researchers facilitate photo voice group discussions regarding the photos with a mnemonic called showed which stands for what do you see or what is really happening how does this relate to all our lives why does this problem or strength exist what can we do about it so in small groups the researchers ask these questions to get the participants to question what's going on in their photos why they really took it what's going on the deep meaning behind the photo so in our example with the children let's say that in small groups the children talk to each other about how the empty plate talked about how the empty clegg playground was a photo because recess was taken away from them and they took photos of the cafeteria because there's no healthy food options there and they took photos of the bathroom because the soap always runs out and they need soap to wash their hands the purpose of the group discussions comes from paolo ferrari an educator and philosopher in his book called pedagogy of the oppressed in a nutshell Ferrara believed that by having dialogue with others we can start to perceive areas of our own lives and communities that are unfair areas that are unjust and oppressive and through this process of dialogue and waking up to the injustice is and oppression around us we can start to take action to change these things in our environment so based from group discussions participants write captions about their photos the captions are then discussed among the group in place with the photos the captions are an important part of photo voice because when other people view the photos they'll be able to understand the participants meaning behind the photos when they read the captions then researchers guide participants to analyze the data in photo voice the data is the photos and the captions the photos and captions are organized by the participants into various themes the participants also get to name the themes in cbpr allowing the participants to name the themes name the project name the exhibit and so on helps participants feel that they have more ownership over the project and they become more invested in it after analyzing the data the researchers and participants host a photo exhibit so they get a venue hang up the photos and they invite all possible stakeholders stakeholders are people who have a stake or an interest or an investment in the topic at hand stakeholders are usually people and policymakers from the community who would be interested in the projects topic and would want to attend the exhibit policymakers are especially sought after and invited to the exhibit because they are likely to have the authority to make policy changes to the community structure environment to enhance well-being so in our example let's say the children decide to invite their classmates to the exhibit their parents their teachers the principal vice principal superintendent the lunch workers the custodian everyone who has a stake in the Photovoice project's findings and who can make a difference during the photo exhibit the participants use their photos as talking points they stand near their photos and engage in conversation with stakeholders to educate them about the community strengths and needs at this point those who usually don't have a voice in the community or having their voices heard by the community the hope is that the photo exhibit will spark the stakeholders especially policymakers to create change in the community this comes from the theory behind or the theory of philosophies behind photojournalism which use imagery to stimulate social consciousness so in our example the schoolchildren who don't really have a say in their school's environment and structure are using their photos and captions to engage in conversation with grownups who have some authority and power like the superintendent and principal and maybe the stakeholders will see the photos and talk with the children and decide that some changes need to be made like healthier options need to be available in the cafeteria in that the bathrooms soap needs to be filled more often and that research Riis recess shouldn't be taken away let's talk about some limitations of Photovoice one is that it takes a lot of time before the project can even begin the researchers have to gain access into the community recruit participants and educate them about Photovoice about being a co researcher a fellow researcher and the ethics of research and privacy laws concerning taking photos if other people are in the photos it takes time to teach them about how to use the cameras how to take good photos and to give participants enough time to think about their community strengths and needs and to give them enough time to take the photos it also takes time to facilitate group discussion and a lot of participants to really deeply discuss their photos together it takes time to work with the participants also to decide who should be invited to the exhibit who are the stakeholders and it takes time to plan the exhibit send invitations put up the photos and hold the exhibit and on and on and on another limitation of photo voice is that typically in most photo voice projects after the photo exhibit there's typically no follow up with stakeholders the exhibit is over and everyone goes home experts in photo voice suggest that the researchers and participants should conduct some follow-up activities to remind stakeholders and especially policy makers about the changes that need take place these follow-up activities could be making phone calls or writing letters emails to stakeholders or planning face-to-face meetings with stakeholders about the Photovoice project and the next steps that should take place another limitation is that Photovoice does not guarantee that any changes will actually take place it's possible that stakeholders don't want to or don't have the resources to make any changes based from the participants photo exhibit and the health issues that they feel are going on in the environment in their community another limitation is that researchers who conduct Photovoice projects tend to vary in their thoroughness a lot of Photovoice projects and the published literature do not hold a photo exhibit they simply stop the project after the photos are taken and discussed by participants sometimes in Photovoice projects actually a lot of time participants don't speak in groups about their photos they just speak to the researcher so that for Aryan philosophy of critical dialogue and waking up to the injustice 'as kind of doesn't happen because they're not talking in groups to each other and by not holding a photo exhibit the participants don't have their voices heard by the community the point I'm trying to make here is that there's a wide range of photo voice projects not all of them take it to the extent of holding a photo exhibit and getting the participants to really talk together in group dialogue finally photo voice is very unique to the participants and the community therefore the experiences and findings of one photo voice project may not be similar to that of a photo voice project conducted with different participants in a different community so our example of the school children well maybe in a different school children would take photos of different things and choose to invite different stakeholders and as such have different findings different results different changes to be made so when we read about a photo voice project we have to take into consideration the uniqueness of it and not assume that we would get the same results if we held our own photo voice project in conclusion photo voice is a photographic way of conducting CBPR is typically conducted with people who don't have a voice in their community it's three goal to empower participants to record their community's needs and strengths to promote critical discussion among the participants regarding their photos and health topics things that took photos of and to create a platform for participants to engage with policy make to hopefully spark some kind of change in the community structure and an environment and Photovoice has its limitations thanks for a great journey and I'll see you in class

Channel: ChrisFlipp

Views: 27,163

Rating: 4.7477479 out of 5

Keywords: photovoice, cbpr, community based participatory research, research, methods

Id: xyXnnOlvqOM

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2014