Learning to Focus and Focusing to Learn: Assessing the Use of Photo-Voice in Global/Local Inter-Professional Education

Background and purpose: Social work educators are increasingly called to create interdisciplinary and international opportunities. However, it can be challenging to provide meaningful, in-depth experiences given different perspectives, training, and professional ethics. The authors employed photovoice as a pedagogical tool in a course that examined social justice in global/local context for four cohorts of students from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Haifa (UF) Schools of Social Work, Law, and Nursing. It is largely acknowledged that understandings of justice vary, both among individuals and as individuals themselves change and grow over time (Farmer, 2003; Novak, 2000). Photovoice was chosen to help students with different professional trainings communicate on equal footing. It is also designed to help students communicate across language and cultural barriers.

Methods: The authors conducted in-depth, open-ended interviews with approximately one quarter (N=20) of the students who participated in the course from 2013-2017. Questions focused on students’ understanding of justice as it evolved throughout the course with travel abroad and interactions with students across disciplines and cultures and how they believe this understanding will impact their future practice. Photovoice is an interactive research method guided by study participants, who choose what to photograph, which in turn shapes the dialogue and definitions of concepts and ideas (Packard, 2008).  In our interviews, students were asked to choose and discuss photographs that captured their understanding of social justice in both US and Israel contexts (Carlson, Engebretson, Camberlain, 2006; Wang & Redwood-Jones, 2001).

All interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed, together with the photographs, by the authors and a research assistant. The research team developed a coding scheme from initial analyses, and recoded into themes. The research team utilized peer debriefing to enhance the rigor of the analysis, meeting to discuss the interviews and photographic data and revise codes as necessary.

Findings: Participants reported that visual images provided them with a starting point for thinking about justice and engaging in conversation. Being required to record visual manifestations of (in)justice made them conscious of problems to which they had become inured, such as homelessness and blight in their home and school communities. Discussing images with students from other cultures and disciplines encouraged them to articulate their perceptions of the cause of the injustices and identify potential professional responses. Study respondents reported discomfort with voyeuristic elements of photovoice and ethical dilemmas related to this research methodology. However, students unanimously reported that their understanding of social justice was expanded and enriched by photovoice. 

Conclusion and implications: Photovoice is a valuable tool in social work education for connecting abstract concepts that are at the heart of professional ethics, such as social justice, with their concrete manifestations in everyday life. As a visual method, photographs and the discussion that they generate provide an important tool to bridge disciplinary and cultural gaps. Our findings suggest that photovoice can be adapted for pedagogical use in a variety of educational settings to further student learning and to connect between the classroom and practice settings.