The Intersections of Personal Reflections and Metatheory: A Photovoice Project

• In Event: 29.090 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.090-26 - (Fem)Powered!? Inquiry Together

Abstract

Purpose & Objectives
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss our experiences in the dual roles of researchers/participants in a collaborative Photovoice research project. Photovoice is a participatory action research strategy with the aim of promoting social justice and equity. It asks community members to record (through photo, audio, and written works) and reflect upon their community concerns, engage in critical dialogue, and share those concerns with policymakers (Wang, 1999). Through exploring the metatheory of Photovoice data generation and reflecting on our experience with it, we begin to make connections between the theoretical underpinnings of qualitative feminist methodology and our own experiences as researchers.

Perspective & Theoretical Framework Investigating where each form of data (photo, audio, written) converges with and diverges from one another, we articulate how these points inform our own experiences as researcher-participants (Barone & Eisner, 2012). This project seeks alternative points of view through ‘feminine’ modes of knowing associated with the practical, emotional, particular, and embodied (Code, 1991). Through the use of multiple forms of discourse (Narayan, 1989; Reed, 2005), challenging value neutrality (Korth, 2002; Tanesini, 1999), embracing emotion in cognition (Gilligan, 1982; Jaggar, 1989), exploring subjectivity’s connection to objectivity (Code, 1991; Lather, 1986), and focusing on reflexivity as an important part of the research process (Hesse-Biber, 2014; St. Louis & Calabrese Barton, 2002), we ground our research in feminist epistemology, in particular the specific strategies and methods associated with Photovoice.

Methods, Techniques & Modes of Inquiry
Reflecting on our personal experiences with generating, analyzing, and interpreting the myriad of data, we examined the affordances and constraints of using all three forms of data in conjunction with the process of making meaning.

Dialogue Points
Each form of data representation offered a unique entry point for us, as researcher-participants, to perceive-express varying aspects of lived experiences. This process allowed us to explore layers of experiences, providing a richer portrayal of personal understanding resulting in our advocating for a plurality in data forms, complexity of being researcher-participants, and negotiation of vulnerability and care in the research process. We are left with two central questions:
• How has this experience acted as a catalyst in terms of a democratization, ethics, and care in practice as feminist researchers and scholars?
• How does our situated knowledge generated through this process connect to the metatheory of the research experience?

Scholarly Significance
The process of engaging in research as researcher-participants generated a sense of empathy and care in us in ways that “seek to transform the social inequities exposed through the research, by facilitating and engaging in specific actions that contribute toward human well-being and a more just and equitable world” (Hesse-Biber, 2014, p. 147). In the process of sharing stories through various data formats and challenging dominant paradigms of thought and action embedded in research practices, a transformative process takes place in moving issues from the “personal to the political through collective dialogue, discussions, and debate” (Reed, 2005, p. 87).

Authors

• Libba Wilcox, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Leah Peck, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Alexandra Panos, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Dianna Huxhold, Indiana University - Bloomington