Child-Caregiver Interaction for Learning through Play in Uganda: The use of photovoice as part of a mixed-method approach to survey development

• In Event: Participatory Visual Research Methods with Displaced Learners: A Deep Dive on Learning through Play

Proposal

Photovoice is a method in which participants use photography to capture experiences. Using their own photos, participants reflect and explore the rationale underlying their experiences (Wang and Burris, 1997). When photovoice is used to distill knowledge, it has three main goals: 1) to register participants' perceptions on important issues in their daily lives; 2) to promote dialogue and knowledge generation through small and larger group discussions regarding the photographic information collected; and 3) to influence key decision and policy makers. Photovoice has also been known to increase critical awareness and transform self-perception (Kirsten et al., 2018) and is useful in accessing perspectives from difficult-to-reach indigenous communities (Gabel, 2018). In this mixed-method study, photovoice was used to gain insight into how the home environment could be a supportive and enabling factor for learning through play at school, as home and school are the two socio-ecological contexts that are of great importance for children's holistic development. Through the participants' lens of child-caregiver interactions at home, both qualitative and quantitative measures were used to understand perceptions of play and playful learning in a refugee settlement, in order to inform larger PlayMatters interventions.

This formative study utilized photovoice to capture the lived experiences of refugee children, ages 8-10, and their caregivers during natural interactions at home. The experiences documented by parents and children were then used to inform a survey that was used at a larger scale within the refugee settlement to gain insight about child and caregiver perspectives of learning through play at home. The photovoice method, as part of the larger study, was conducted in the spring and summer of 2022 in the Imvepi refugee settlement in Uganda. Twenty-five caregivers and 25 children participated in the photovoice activity. The method consisted of three phases: the pre-workshops, the actual photo taking, and the post-photovoice discussion workshops. The full method took three weeks to be conducted. The photovoice methodology yielded interesting insights about child-caregiver interactions and the need to contextualize the photovoice methodology itself for specific refugee settings. Additionally, the study also generated evidence on the effectiveness of the use of photovoice to develop a quantitative survey tool.

While preliminary findings are still being analyzed, this paper focuses on the use of the photovoice methodology with refugee communities and on the need to develop contextualized research methods and tools in such contexts. Challenges and successes are also presented, as well as the use of photovoice in the generation of survey tool construction. Recommendations for future participatory visual research are also discussed.

Author

• Eva Sophia Smallegange, War Child Holland