Shooting Your Voice: Challenging Power Relations at School Through Student Photovoice

• In Event: 77.058 - MTCC Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: 77.058-1 - Politics and Voice in Youth-Centered Collaborative Inquiry

Abstract

Despite the popularity of student voice works, there is ample evidence that many initiatives that attempt to facilitate student voice fail to challenge existing power relations at school and to help marginalized students make their voices heard and experience the ability to influence their school life. In this paper, we present a Photovoice project with marginalized youth in an urban high-school in Israel, designed to interrupt existing power relations and enable students to "sound" their voices. Findings show that students experienced a significant improvement in their self-confidence and self-esteem and their ability to engage in a dialogue with school administration in a way that alters their school life.

Authors

• Avy Dwight Hemy, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Assaf Meshulam, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev