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Photovoice training

Council Bluffs, June 4th 2011

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This project is:

Involving New Immigrants and Minorities in Local Food SystemsJanuary 2011- January 2012

“Start your own Diversified Farm” class—Marshalltown, IA, Spring 2009

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Involving New Immigrants and Minorities in Local Food

Systems• Incorporate immigrants and other

minority members into the food chain as participating members of the Value Chain Partnerships.

• This should “increase access to healthy, nutritious, affordable local food that is produced using principles of sustainable agriculture… [by and] for families coping with economic hardship” – particularly immigrant and minority farmers and gardeners themselves.

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Participatory Action Research Participatory Action Research approaches (PAR)approaches (PAR)

Photovoice

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Why are you participating in this project?

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OutlineOutline

Participatory Action Research Participatory Action Research approaches (PAR)approaches (PAR)What are the goals of PAR?What are key components of PAR?Why is it important to conduct PAR?

PhotovoicePhotovoice What is it? How can it be used? Why are we deciding to use it?

Voices that we want to start hearing

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PAR

It is a process of “investigating reality in order to change it”It is research with, rather that research on or for. It is rooted in resistant values such as mutual aid, care, communalism, intentionality, and reflective action.

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Key features of PAR

Participants examine their own knowledge and understandingThe research is self-directed rather than other-directedPracticalCollaborativeCriticalEmancipatoryReflexive

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Co-researcher• A member of a group who shares

responsibility for planning and carrying out a research project. In photovoice, community members are co-researchers along with a photovoice facilitator.

• Together, they make decisions about the focus of the project, collect and analyze data, create new knowledge and share findings with others.

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The role of the co-The role of the co-researchersresearchers

Shifting the role of marginalized youth from simply giving voice to one of becoming change agents through educational research.People directly affected by a problem under investigation engage as co- researchers in the research process, which includes action, or intervention, into the problem.

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Why did we decided to work with youth?

“young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and schooling; that their insights warrant not only the attention but also the responses of adults; and that they should be afforded opportunities to actively shape their education.”

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Transformative and Transformative and activistactivist

Youth have well-articulated critiques of school and society, but they often lack opportunities to share their ideas and concerns.Helping young people develop the knowledge, leadership skills, and sociopolitical power needed to redress mounting educational and social injustices.

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Conclusion

You’re a co-researcher, you are one of the experts. RFWGs want to learn from you!

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Photovoice

• Community members are empowered to share their words and photographs as a way to reach decision-makers and implement positive change in their home communities.

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Photovoice

A participatory action research method that employs photography and group dialogue as a means for marginalized individuals to deepen their understanding of a community issue or concern.

The visual images and accompanying stories are the tools used to reach policy- and decision-makers.

The aim of this research method is to improve conditions by making changes at the community level.

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• Photovoice equips individuals with cameras so they can create photographic evidence and symbolic representations to help others see the world through their eyes

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• As a photovoice participant, individuals share ideas and concerns about their experiences and their community.

• They also take on the role of photographer where they have the responsibility of capturing photographic evidence. Additionally, participants assume the role of co-researcher

• Responsibilities around setting research goals, data collection, data analysis and sharing research findings.

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Identify and record their community strengths and struggles;Explain their experiences through critical reflection and group dialogue; andInform decision-makers and influence policy (Wang and Burris 1997).

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Five key concepts1. Images Teach2. Pictures can influence policy3. Community members ought to

participate in shaping public policy4. Influential policy-makers must be

audience to the perspectives of community members

5. Photovoice emphasizes individual and community action

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Images Teach

Images captured through photovoice tell stories that identify concerns, depict struggles or show a particular view of a community.Through photographs, marginalized individuals offer insight and teach others about their experiences.

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Pictures can influence policy

Photographs force the viewer to see an experience from the standpoint of another person.Photographs offer powerful concrete evidence of a reality in a way that words simply cannot capture.Photographs can capture the attention of policy-makers and influence their awareness and understanding of a specific issue or of a reality that is quite different from their own.

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Community members Community members ought to participate in ought to participate in shaping public policyshaping public policy

As photographers, individuals must question how they have represented and defined their communities and experiences.This process can aid community members in understanding that they have a right to have a say in shaping the public policies that influence their health and the health of their family and friends.

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Influential policy-makers must Influential policy-makers must be audience to the be audience to the

perspectives of community perspectives of community membersmembers

Influential decision-makers need to be the audience.

They need to listen to the stories and view the photographs of the photovoice project so that the ideas and experiences of community members can inform their policy decisions.

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Photovoice emphasizes Photovoice emphasizes individual and community individual and community

actionaction• It is not enough just to examine

community problems and struggles; there must be energy put toward identifying community solutions and doing what is needed to implement those solutions.

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Some challengesClose examination of an issue of concern can cause negative feelings.Participants continuously make choices about what they select as subject matter for their photographs. They also make choices about what is not included in their photographs. These choices obviously influence the research findings.

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A Quick Glance at the Steps in A Quick Glance at the Steps in PhotovoicePhotovoice

1. Connecting and Consulting with the Community2. Planning a Photovoice Project3. Recruiting Photovoice Participants and Target

audience Members4. Beginning the Photovoice Project5. Photovoice Group Meetings6. Data Collection7. Data Analysis8. Preparing and Sharing the Photovoice Exhibit9. Social Action and Policy Change

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Timeline 20 mins

– What to do and when? (timeline in excel)• Take pictures of food events and

issues, analyze and describe them• From June 7th until *August 14th

– How?– Results– Who is going to monitor all the

activities?

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Results

1. Quality photos and descriptions 2. Critical thinking and analysis about

agriculture and food issues in participants communities or surrounding areas.

3. Students will write a final report about their experience when participating in this project along with their picasaweb portafolio.

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Who is going to monitor all the activities?• Jan L. Flora

floraj@iastate.edu Extension Community

and Agricultural Sociologist and

Professor of Sociology. Iowa State University

Graduate ResearchAssistants, Iowa StateUniversity:• Claudia Marcela

Prado cmprado@iastate.edu

• Diego Thompson diego@iastate.edu

• Saul Abarca Orozco saula@iastate.edu

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Photovoice in action

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How?

• Students will take photographs of food events meals, gardens, and other agriculture and food issues in the Latino communities where they live or surrounding areas (example: food stands at soccer fields).

• Students will gather information about why food and agriculture are important for the Latino/as, and will share the photos with people of their communities.

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For example:

In many ways Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen in Berkeley — just a few doors down the street

from Chez Panisse, the grande dame of the slow-food movement in the Bay Area — is the

quintessential farm-to-table restaurant. It features local food, organic produce and a seasonal menu.

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Some examples:

"Mom's favorite"

• This photograph was taken and selected by Lola; she named this photograph "Mom's favorite“ because she likes asparagus ("I ate most of it") and made it for her family. As Lola described, "I put some on their plate, but they, they afraid to try it, but they just tasted one and..." Even though she knows her children might not like asparagus at first, she wanted them to try the vegetable. This practice of providing vegetables and teaching her children to eat vegetables was learned from her mother. Interview 2009.

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"Grandma's treats".

• This photograph was taken in Pat's home. Researchers selected this photograph to

discuss, but Pat provided the title. Throughout Pat's interview, she described

frustration with her mother, especially in how her mother "feeds" her children. Pat

recalled, "And I had made 'em like a big breakfast- sausage, eggs and potatoes and

all that stuff. And then she came over, my mom came over and she brought donuts. And they just sat there and sat there cuz

they weren't hungry..." This photograph of three iced donuts illustrates grandmother

undermining Pat's control over her children's food choices-Pat, Interview 2009.

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Photovoice in action 40

mins

• Examples of previous photovoice projects– How are the photos described?– Possible outcomes

• Is it possible to create social change using photovoice?

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Examples of other photovoice projects

International Projects: http://www.photovoice.org/projects– Images of What is Ours - Paraguay (2009-2010)

Location: ParaguayYoung Lives, Save the Children - Ethiopia (2008)Location: Ethiopia Keywords: Health Project Background Addis, Ethiopia, 2005. Sirba and Goditz, Debrezeit region and Megara, Awassa Region 2008

Partner organizations: Save the Children UK

All rights reserved. Copyrighted Webpage.

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Possible outcomes: Is it possible to create social change

using photovoice?• Time is a significant constraint for

the ambitiousness of the social action projects and for photovoice itself. However, youth will discover that scarce time forces a compromise in the time allocated to photography, Photovoice captions, critical dialogue, and conducting the social action project.

Possible outcomes: Is it possible to create social change

using photovoice?• Photography is an incentive for

participation and a vehicle for Photovoice. Participants need to spend an equal amount of time taking pictures, and expressing their ideas in free writing, at the same time facilitators will engage participants in critical dialogue about pictures or to assist reluctant writers in expressing their ideas.

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Sharing ourWork with others

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If we are researching, what is our data?

• Data: all of the information gained through the research process. The photographs, taken by community members, and their own words describing and explaining the photographs, are the main data collected in photovoice.

• Data Collection: the process of gathering information through a variety of activities and events. Taking photographs, participating in group meetings, recording discussions, guided dialogue, journaling, exhibition feedback and debriefing are all opportunities for data collection in photovoice. Data collection is ongoing in photovoice because information is gained right from the beginning until the end.

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Data Analysis is… • the process of carefully exploring,

examining and comparing the data collected. In photovoice, data analysis develops a better understanding of the issue of concern being addressed by photovoice. By analyzing the data, co-researchers can determine general themes and patterns, and identify how individual issues relate to the experiences of others.

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Sharing our work with others

• Using picasa to share our work with others,– You need a gmail account

• If you do not have one, please take five mins to create one.

• Click on photos, it will take you directly to picasa

• Create two albums, – Name of the community, your name_Everything– Name of the community, your name_Selected

» Ames, Prado-Meza, Claudia M._Everything• Please share the two albums through a link,

and send them in an email to diego@iastate.edu, saula@iastate.edu and cmprado@iastate.edu

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The albums

– Everything: In this album you will upload all the pictures that you have been taking.

– Selected: Each week you will select 3 to 5 pictures from all the pictures that you have been taking and upload them in this albums, these pics have to have the following.-

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About the ‘SELECTED’ album• All the pictures in this album should be titled• To describe the photos, please answer (most) the

following questions:– what do you see in this picture; – what does this picture mean to you? – what's happening in this picture; – why did you take this picture; – what is missing from this picture; – When was this picture taken; – what was special about this picture;– what does the picture symbolize; – how does this picture make you feel; – did you set-up this picture and why; and,– what were you doing when this picture was taken?

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Describing the photosIn Photovoice, participants will have to represent their world with photographs that they then analyze to surface their meaning. Also, respond to the following questions:

•Why food and agriculture are important for Latino/as?

•What do we see in this picture? •What’s really happening***? How these

could integrate…about the training part.

•How does this relate to your lives? •Why does it exist?•What can we do about it? (Shaffer,

1983).

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Describing the photos

• How would you like to get your food in the future?– To prepare for this intellectual

work, the group first will do preliminary activities to learn how to take documentary pictures and to write about images, leading to group critical dialogue to generate a social action project.

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Selecting Photographs

• Participants choose photographs they think reflect their community strengths and struggles.

• Choose the photographs you want to have included as photovoice evidence and photographs you feel are representative of your experiences.

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How to organize your albums

• Please upload your pictures as often as possible, if you have internet restrictions, you’ll have to upload them on:– Date1, date2, date3

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About the shared photos• Is there a limit to the number of

photos you share?– No

• How are the other participants going to participate in the process?– All the other participants should look

at all their colleagues’ selected albums and make comments or questions about the pictures uploaded

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• Participants offer ideas and insight, while the facilitator uses open-ended questions to elicit discussion of the photographs

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State - Compilation

• These pictures will be printed in 16 x 20“ or 20 x 30" depending the picture and will be shown in the state event

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The google document

• Open your gmail account– Go to documents

• Create a new document– Save the document with your name, and what

community you are from, ex» Ames, Prado-Meza, Claudia

– Share this document with, diego@iastate.edu, saula@iastate.edu, floraj@iastate.edu, cmprado@iastate.edu

– Please describe your experience with the photography activity

• What did I learn from this activity?• Why is this project important?

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Cont..

• Write a 3 to 5 pages essay in which you explain your selected album, and the message that you want others to hear, and the changes that you would like to see in the near future

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The google document, Contd.Contd.• Demographic data to include:

– Name– Age– Education (highest completed)– Car ownership

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What else do you need to consider?

How will you ensure your research is ethical? What practices do you want to adopt and implement to hold yourself accountable during the research process?

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Ethical GuidelinesAll research is governed by strict

ethical considerations and guidelines. Researchers are expected to do no harm through research activities. The ethical principles ensure that photovoice participants and other individuals or groups are not harmed as a result of photovoice activities.