The Reflexive Eye: Cellphilms and Self-Study in Teacher Education

• In Event: What Is a Cellphilm? Integrating Mobile Phone Technology Into Participatory Arts–Based Research and Activism

Abstract

Even though there is an increasing awareness that there are rich possibilities for teachers and teacher educators to use digital media in professional development, the use of cellphones and other digital media in teacher education has been to date under-studied (Pithouse et al, in press). We are interested in the ways in which the cellphone as an ever-present multimodal device can become a digital tool supporting reflexivity in teaching, particularly in the context of cellphilm production. In exploring reflexivity and digital self-study, we draw together several broad areas: (1) Denzin’s (2001) work on the reflexive interview and the idea of “turning the video camera on ourselves” through “self-video” (Mitchell & Weber, 1999, p. 191); (2) feminist media and reflexivity (see Mitchell et al, 2007; Moletsane et al, 2009; Spence, 1987; Spence & Solomon, 1995), (3) the use of arts-based methods for engaging in self-study, many of which draw on the visual (collages, photos, performance, installation), and which often give a public face to self-study (see Mitchell, Pithouse & Weber, 2009; Mitchell, Weber & O’Reilly-Scanlon, 2005); and (4) digital memory-work as explored by Strong-Wilson et al ( 2015) to describe the use of a range of digital tools in engaging in reflexive memory-work.

Building on a three-year collaborative study with rural teachers in South Africa, the paper offers a qualitative study of instances of reflexive self-study work, spontaneous and more deliberate, undertaken by three researchers/teacher educators and fourteen rural teachers through the use of cellphones to produce cellphims. We draw on an analysis of teacher-produced cellphilms, interviews with teachers and teacher educators participating in what we term ‘digital retreats’, and self-study/reflexive fieldnotes produced by the research team. In the findings we highlight the value of the production process itself in creating the cellphilms as a tool for reflexivity, the role of public sharing as a key component of reflexivity and self-study, and the significance of engaging with readily available digital technology, particularly in under-resourced settings. The study has significance for developing innovative practices in professional development for both teachers and teacher educators that seek to contribute to the idea of teachers as knowledge producers in relation to their own learning.

Authors

• Claudia Mitchell, McGill University

• Relebohile Moletsane, University of KwaZulu-Natal

• Naydene De Lange, University of KwaZulu-Natal