VISUAL MEDIA IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION & KEITH MORRISON

STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER

• Photographs and still images• Video and moving images• Artifacts• Ethical practices in visual research

VISUAL IMAGES• Anything we see, watch or look at counts as a

visual image• Four kinds of visual data:

– Found data– Researcher created data– Respondent created data– Representations (e.g. graphical representations)

• Using visual media concerns:– The production of the image– The image itself– The audiences of the image

VISUAL IMAGES• Visual media are not neutral; they give messages,

and we interpret them in many different ways. • We bring our own values, biographies, cultures and

background to bear on images.• Images cannot be viewed outside the social and

cultural contexts of the production of the image, the observing and interpretation of the image, the consideration of who are the audiences, intended or otherwise, of the image.

• Images are made, kept and displayed in different places, each of which confers its own required social behaviours and audience reactions.

VISUAL IMAGES

• An image is the product of:– Certain technologies – Certain compositional features – Certain social contexts

• The image maker is selective: s/he has already decided what to include or not to include, what to focus on, what not to focus on, where to point the camera, where not to point the camera.

• Regard images as discourses.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND STILL IMAGES

• Photographs and still images are both emic and etic. They carry documentary and interpretive meaning, either posed or natural.

• Researchers can take photographs and ask the participants to comment on them

• Researchers can ask participants either to take their own photographs or bring them to an interview to discuss them.

PHOTO-ELICITATION TECHNIQUE

• The photograph, or set of photographs, or sequence of photographs, is used to invoke, prompt and promote discussion, reflections, comments, observations and memories.

• Discuss what they show, who took them, when, where, what is the story behind them.

• Ask participants to select images from their own or researcher-provided images, or images selected on the basis of sampling techniques.

VIDEO AND MOVING IMAGES• Video material is live.• Video material can record evolving situations and

interactions, details that the observer may miss, and non‑verbal matters.

• Video material enables repeated viewing/checking.• Video material catches:

– Natural social situations– Contrived situations– Posed situations – Special events– Commissioned materials (e.g. a commemorative

activity)

VIDEO AND MOVING IMAGES• Video material is selective (focus and location of

camera, fixed or moving camera).• Consider:

– Where, how, why, for whom, how and under what conditions the video was produced

– The interpretations that he or she (or indeed others) make or may make of the moving images

– How these interpretations are influenced by the interpreters’ own backgrounds, values and purposes (i.e. reflexivity)

• How to analyze complex images and detail/data overload.

VIDEO AND MOVING IMAGES• Address legal and ethical matters:

– Permission to film– Data protection– Privacy– Covert research – Permission to show– Intrusiveness

ARTIFACTS• Artifacts may be easy to see/find but difficult to

interpret: they do not always carry clear meanings in themselves.

• Artifacts can be interpreted very differently; they have multiple interpretations.

• Artifacts may indicate the hidden curriculum of an organization.

• Artifacts can be seen, heard, smelt, touched, felt, tasted and heard; they are multi-sensory and may require multi-sensory analysis.

• Artifacts may be provided by the researcher, participants, others or be present in a situation.

ARTIFACTS• Consider:

– The purpose of the production and location of the artifact

– What it is/was used for and by whom

– Who produced it

– When was it made

– What materials have been used in its making

– What is/was its actual and/or symbolic purpose or function

– How has it been preserved and in what condition

– What value it has to the provider or user

ARTIFACTS• Artifacts may be used for exploring sensitive

issues:– The use of dolls in cases of sexual abuse– The use of puppets with different facial

expressions– The use of puppets to act out a situation of

conflict

ETHICAL PRACTICES IN VISUAL RESEARCH

• Informed consent

• Permission for taking images

• Permission for using images

• Permission to take images in public places

• Legally and illegally taking or storing images

• Preferred and non-preferred sites for taking pictures

• Identification, anonymization and obscuring of individuals and places (ethical and legal regulation)

• Informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality may be very difficult

• Ethical codes for using images in research