Donal O'Donoghue's (2007) article "'James always hangs out here': making space for place in studying masculinities in school" looks at an urban, single-sex, primary (5 - 11 year olds) school in Ireland. O'Donoghue's research draws on social constructivist, feminist informed and post-structuralist narratives of masculinity and theories of space and place. When conducting the research his methods draw on Art Based Educational Research A/r/tography and arts informed research. The study centred on 17 boys age 10 to 11 years old. The boys were involved in conversation and discussion regarding space, place, photography and different ways photographers represent themselves in their work. They were then each given a disposable camera and asked to take photos of spaces and places with meaning within their school environment. These, along with written testimony, were analysed in terms of what they depicted and revealed about notions of masculinity in spaces in schools outside the classroom.
What does this particular visual research method offer and what does it not offer?
This particular visual research method offers the participants an opportunity to reflect their individual perspectives, literally as they are taking photos and figuratively as they were given free range to take photos of what they wanted (although it wasn't random, but systematic, as a result of discussions prior to the photos being taken). The photos were accompanied by written accounts / narratives which gave the participants the opportunity to add further depth to their photos and explain their artistic intention.
As the boys were only 10-11 and needed some guidance in how to take photos what they produced was in a way guided by the researcher. In terms of visual research, this lack of creativity could be a limitation to the research.
How does this method compare to interviewing both in terms of collection strategies and analysis methods?
O'Donoghue makes the point that when considering space and place the experiences that people remember, create and speak to are non-verbal, multimodal, multidimensional and non-verbal. Research practices into space and place should therefore reflect this. I think, for this research, the used of visual research methods was very useful and powerful as it allowed the participants to reveal ideas about masculinity that they may not have considered before of been able to put into words. Sometimes what was revealed probably was not something that the participants even knew they felt or thought. It is a more complicated form of collection, and would need an expert (in this case an artist with experience of photography) in order to guide the research to produce fruitful data to analyse.
It's interesting to notice that this sort of method might open a door to creativity, but this one specifically might have hindered creative expression due to age level of the participants. I wonder if a follow-up interview or narrative describing the photos taken is always a requirement, otherwise it would count much onto the interpretation of the photo by the researcher, right?
ReplyDeleteI think it is a very interesting and innovative method. It is very useful especially when you are researching children because they might not be able to give a detailed oral descripton of what they have in their mind in interview. In addition, instead of giving prompt answer, participants can take their time to find out their in depth understanding of the topic.
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