Challenging the status quo of schooling post-pregnancy: Participatory visual methodologies as a form of resistance against violence towards girls’ education

• In Event: Counternarratives, Decolonising Methodologies, and Gender Justice in Research

Proposal

In recent years, there has been a notable shift in social justice movements toward embracing participatory digital approaches as powerful tools for mobilizing resistance, inspiring new generations of activists, pushing for accountability, and confronting various forms of systemic oppression on a global scale (Fife, Flinn, & Nyhan, 2023). This transformative wave encompasses diverse mediums such as compelling photographs, impactful digital stories, and captivating murals that aim to narrate complex lived experiences, challenge forms of power that marginalize “others,” and mobilize collective efforts to promote social change in various areas, including education. In a similar vein, researchers in the field of women and gender studies continue to incorporate creative and non-traditional methods within qualitative inquiry (Chinkondenji, 2022; MacEntee et al., 2022; McIntyre, 2003; Nyariro, 2021; Nyariro, 2018; Wang, 1999) not only to challenge hierarchical modes of knowledge creation and distribution (Hesse-Biber et al., 2003) but to also position participatory visual methodologies as a form of resistance to social oppression. Academic scholarship that draws from such feminist onto-epistemologies is “attentive to issues of difference, questions social power, resists to scientific oppression and commits to political activism and social justice” (Hesse-Biber et al., 2003, p.3)

There are various forms of participatory visual methodologies, including “photovoice, participatory video, and digital story-telling” (Mitchell, De Lange, & Moletsane, 2017, p. 16) that researchers utilize to address educational policy issues and inequities. The sites of knowledge production through these methodologies and the distribution of the digital/visual stories are also entangled with “political listening” (Mitchell, De Lange, & Moletsane, 2017, p. 10). Researchers’ methodological attention to political listening and viewing when using participatory visual methodologies creates room for enforcing resistance or protest in pushing for which stories ‘should (not)’ be told in addressing oppression and who ‘should (not)’ tell those narratives. In this paper, utilizing photovoice, I draw upon the experiences of pregnant learners and school-aged mothers in challenging societal norms and educational practices that impede them from returning to school or continuing their education post-pregnancy.

As a way of centering on participatory visual methodologies in understanding resistance and contestation in education post-pregnancy, this paper presents findings from a photo exhibition co-curated with pregnant learners and school-aged mothers in Mangochi, Malawi, to identify a support framework for increased school re-entry of student mothers, continued learning for pregnant learners, and an enabling policy environment that allows equitable and inclusive education. This analysis is part of a more extensive mixed methods study that examines the experiences of pregnant learners and student mothers. Drawing from decolonial, Afrocentric, and feminist perspectives, the broader research project utilized a mixed-methods participatory-social justice (MMP/SJ) design incorporating photovoice and survey methods to address discriminatory practices pushing pregnant and mothering learners out of the school system. Data for this paper is drawn from the photovoice (qualitative) phase, particularly from the photo exhibition that brought together 50 participants, which included community leaders, teachers, headteachers, young adults, and co-researchers who participated in the photovoice workshops.

Drawing from Mitchell, De Lange, and Moletsane’s (2017) framework of critical audience engagement in visual methodologies and African feminisms (Alexander, 2005; Beoku-Betts & Njambi, 2005; Nnaemeka, 2004; Tamale, 2020), the findings from this paper highlight diverse ways in which pregnant learners and school-aged mothers showcase visual and dialogical resistance during the photo exhibition to challenge, critique and subvert oppressive practices, norms and ideologies. The visual and textual narratives participants shared highlighted various complex and nuanced experiences that centered on several themes, including (1) alternative schools as sights of resistance, belonging, and liberation; and (2) “sinning against parents” vs. agency. The participatory visual methods in this study created a form of creative expression and activism that intentionally aimed to provoke critical thought, inspire change, and disrupt the status quo through visual and dialogical (re)presentations.

By harnessing the power of visual methods, the visual/digital creations co-curated by research participants serve as powerful tools for dismantling oppressive stereotypes and practices in educational work. This study makes a methodological contribution to educational research by exploring the utilization of participatory visual methodologies to generate power through collective action in knowledge distribution. Specifically, it examines the use of photography in educational research to document and address social justice issues in girls’ education. By leveraging the potency of visuals within qualitative inquiry, this study aims to challenge imbalanced power dynamics and engage in visual and dialogical resistance that advocates for social change.

Author

• Pempho Chinkondenji, University of North Dakota