Photovoice in Science Teacher Education

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Photovoice in Science Teacher Education

• Allan Feldman
• School of Education
• University of Massachusetts Amherst

A presentation of the NE Regional Meeting of the
Association of Science Teacher Educators,
Amherst, MA, October 2005
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What is Photovoice?

• Photovoice is a process by which people can
  identify, represent, and enhance their community
  through a specific photographic technique. It
  entrusts cameras to the hands of people to enable
  them to act as recorders, and potential catalysts
  for social action and change, in their own
  communities. It uses the immediacy of the visual
  image and accompanying stories to furnish
  evidence and to promote an effective,
  participatory means of sharing expertise to
  create healthful public policy. -- Carolyn Wang

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Wang developed Photovoice based on

• the theoretical literature on education for
  critical consciousness, feminist theory, and
  documentary photography
• the efforts of community photographers and
  participatory educators to challenge assumptions
  about representation and documentary authorship
  and
• her experience applying the process in the Ford
  Foundation-supported Yunnan Women's Reproductive
  Health and Development Program.

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Teaching as a way of being

• Teachers are people who are being teachers and
  therefore have a stance towards the world that is
  different from people who are not teachers.
• There is a difference between being engaged in
  teaching activities and being immersed in the
  role of schoolteacher.

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Teachers and Photovoice

• My contentionA teacher is in the role of
  community member who can come to understand his
  or her own practice in a new way through the
  creation of a Photovoice essay.

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Photovoice assignment

• This assignment requires you to take a series of
  photographs of your work, put them in some order
  with captions, and write a reflective piece of
  3-5 pages on what you learned about being a
  teacher from the assignment.

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Data

• Students Photovoice essays
• Students reflective pieces
• Students analysis of what they learned from
  Photovoice.

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Research Questions

• What is the added benefit of the assignment?
• Does the assignment help students to understand
  their practice in new ways?
• Will a new perspective on their practice lead to
  changes in their teaching?

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Example 1 KGs Photovoice essay
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KGs reflections

• The Photovoice Reflection assignment has helped
  me to learn some new things about teaching. When
  taking the photos, I was unconsciously
  determining what was important to me in my daily
  routine as a teacher. When the time came to
  compile the photos into the PowerPoint
  Presentation, I was able to clearly see the
  significance of each photo and consciously
  realized why I took the pictures I did. KG

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KGs reflections

• When taking the pictures for my Photovoice, I
  knew I wanted to include pictures of my
  grandparents house, pictures of my apartment,
  and pictures of my car. This is because I have
  realized that I am so devoted to teaching and
  being able to teach in a district with many
  benefits, I was willing to make sacrifices to my
  life outside of school. I have to drive a half
  hour to my job everyday, once a week I drive to
  the University to take graduate classes for my
  Masters degree, and on the weekends I also drive
  home to see my boyfriend, who is now my fiancé.
  KG

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My Photovoice reflection only includes pictures
of my Chemistry classroom and students

• During the week that I teach math I always feel
  I am not prepared to teach my lessons and I am
  less motivated to do so.
• I have to teach in a different classroom no one
  takes ownership of the room and it is dark and
  dirty because there are no decorations, samples
  of student work, or even bookshelves with books
  and materials
• I find it more difficult to teach the math
  students and have not been able to make a
  connection with them like I have with my
  Chemistry classes. I think this is mostly
  because I have not been able to empower them with
  knowledge in the way I have been able to with my
  Chemistry students. -- KG

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Example 2 TDs Photovoice essay
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TDs reflections

• In creating the Photovoice assignment I really
  did not have any idea what it would be, what form
  it would take, what content would compose it. I
  had some inkling that it would involve pictures
  of my teaching environment but nothing beyond
  that. So I threw the camera in my bag for a few
  days and off I went. -- TD

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TDs reflections

• So. Now I had a pile of pictures, or I suppose
  in the lingo of the 21st century, a file of
  pictures. What to do with them? Well I began by
  putting them in order and from that I found that
  I was able to tell the little story that comes
  with them-- TD

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TDs reflections

• I found that it brought out a lot of the things
  that I cover or dont in my school day, it
  brought out ways that I see the school and my
  role in it, even as a student teacher. It showed
  ways that I view my young charges and the ways
  that they perhaps view themselves. It showed me
  what I feel most strongly about in my daily
  routines there. TD

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TDs reflections

• Looking at these images as I placed them in
  PowerPoint and gave them captions I saw the
  students in their usual groups, and saw that
  thats just how I see them, in their usual
  groups. I see them and at this point again, at
  the end of the term, I know what to expect from
  the groups, whos work I wont see for a week,
  who will not need help. TD

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TDs reflections

• I included a few shots of a meeting of the
  Outing Club which Im peripherally involved with
  and it led me to think that much of the gains
  Ive made in teaching, comfort and community in
  this year have come from things outside of the
  classroom. TD

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Research Questions

• What is the added benefit of the assignment?
• Does the assignment help students to understand
  their practice in new ways?
• Will a new perspective on their practice lead to
  changes in their teaching?