Teaching Political Science: The Impact of Narrative through Photovoice

• In Event: TLC at APSA: Creating an Active Learning Environment through Assignments and Class Design

Abstract

In political science, the structure of our discipline is often a barrier to deep intersectional inquiry and analysis due to our ongoing siloing of different areas of the field, particularly those related to gender, race, sexuality, disability, and Indigeneity—areas of research often referred to collectively as “gender and diversity”. This compartmentalization reinforces a structure that situates issues of gender and diversity as “other” and marginal within the study of politics. As a result, political science has generally remained a discipline in which the study of gender, race, disability, and Indigeneity remain siloed as “niche” areas of focus. This paper considers the potential impact of photovoice methodology in challenging this structure through analysis of photovoice projects completed by students in my Gender and Politics seminars. These projects invite participants to use photography, personal narrative, and existing scholarship to centre their experiential knowledge on the politics of gender and/or sex (broadly and intersectionally defined). The projects are later shared in art gallery style exhibits where students, other members of the university community, and members of the broader local community can engage with the projects. Initial findings from student participant surveys designed to explore both the impact(s) of creating individual projects, and the impact(s)of seeing projects created by others, reveal the potential of photovoice as a deeply intersectional approach to political science pedagogy as well as a potential means to challenging the siloed structure of our discipline.

Author

• Fiona MacDonald, University of Northern British Columbia