Exploring Students’ Language Minority Identity Through Photography

• In Event: Roundtable Session 83
  In Roundtable Session: Voice and Identity

Abstract

This study explores ninth graders’ perceptions of belonging to a language minority group by using photography as the data collection method. We explore how teenagers perceive their own reality and identity in an adversarial language climate. The study is based on 403 photographs taken by students and 22 photo-elicitation interviews. The results show how it is easier for teenagers to express their own identity through photos than verbally through interviews. Many more aspects of their identities and realities are expressed through the photos while mostly their own language is emphasized in the interviews. Furthermore the study shows that is possible to use only photographs with short explanations as the primary data source without photo-elicitation interviews.

Authors

• Gunilla Holm, University of Helsinki

• Jan-Erik Mansikka, University of Helsinki

• Monica Londen, University of Helsinki

• Charlotta Rehn, University of Helsinki