Page 17 - Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century

Photovoice is most often used to raise awareness of social inequality through photography. Photovoice is a participatory research method that allows community members to share their experiences and collaborate for change. It was developed in 1992 by Caroline C.
Wang and Mary Ann Burris, and is used to give a voice to those who may feel unheard, allowing participants the opportunity to confront or delve into problematic aspects of their lives, while effectively connecting them as a community and motivating change (Wang & Buris 1997). Photovoice provides an ideal vehicle for visual art students to engage with communities and to consider the voices and perspectives of the participants through discussing images. By interviewing participants about their own photographs, students can establish a foundation to build on for future research and development that considers the voice and perspectives of these participant photographers.
A relationship of trust was built between the participants over a series of exchanges over three to four months. The students offered their collaborators a hot meal and the gift of Gibson’s jacket-sleeping bag. The collaborators were then handed a disposable camera and invited
to take photos of their environment, to test the ‘homeless-home’ and to give feedback. The students developed and printed the images and gave a set to the participants. They asked their collaborators how it felt to capture images that told a story of their daily lives, and asked them to choose the images they felt comfortable sharing and to sign consent forms. They had the choice to be anonymous or give their street names. The project took place during a particularly hard winter in which Covid-19 conditions had reduced opportunities for income on the streets. The students learnt an enormous amount from their collaborators through interviews about the photographs they had taken. They developed empathy and connection with their collaborators and gained new insights into the lives and challenges of homeless people. The students discussed their experiences together, shared the photographs and Gibson altered the design of the sleeping bag and produced something less cumbersome and rain-proof for the summer.
A photovoice booklet was subsequently printed and given to each student and the
street person they had worked with. The intention was to enable everyone to share their experience with others and to tell the story of this collaboration. The project was not without significant challenges around missed deadlines, misunderstandings of the purpose of the exercise, the activity itself and the required follow-up. However, most of the students and their collaborators felt enriched by this experience. Each student wrote a reflective essay that required them to reflect on themselves, their community and participatory action research as part of their academic learning.3
Some of the comments by initially resistant students demonstrated a shift in their original reluctance to participate. The comments also reflected shared prejudices about the homeless community. For example, some of the students started off describing ‘these people’ as a generalised ‘other’, and yet one such student concluded their essay with a comment: ‘These photographs allow our research collaborators to tell their own stories instead of the privileged speaking for them. I am hopeful that these photographs can change only a few attitudes that people have towards those in difficult situations like “J”, as I have changed my own ideas while working with him.’
One of the street photographers, who has since been gifted a digital camera by his collaborator, stated in his interview: ‘When I don’t have the camera, I walk and see things that I could be taking pics of. It would mean a lot to have my own camera. When I was at school, I used to borrow a camera and could make money by taking pics. It widens my mind. I think of my schooling.’ He also hopes that ‘one day I will have a place to stay and a better life. I have been in this same situation forever. It doesn’t change. But I can see it can be better. Bit by bit’ (see Appendix 4 with the Photovoice booklet).
Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching and Learning 2021
3 Photovoice booklet
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