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Perspectives on Visual Methods

Diversity, Democratisation and Difference: Theories and Methodologies. Umeå -Sussex Doctoral Seminar: Diversity , Democratisation and Difference: Theories and Methodologies. Centre for Higher Education and E quity Research . Perspectives on Visual Methods. John Pryor. In the beginning .

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Perspectives on Visual Methods

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  1. Diversity, Democratisation and Difference: Theories and Methodologies Umeå-Sussex Doctoral Seminar: Diversity, Democratisation and Difference: Theories and Methodologies Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research Perspectives on Visual Methods John Pryor

  2. In the beginning Was the word … … or was it?

  3. Probable agenda • Introductory presentation (with talkback) • Practical activity with task • Plenary session raising issues • Closing thoughts?

  4. Research and the visual • The visual nature of the world • Making understandings of the world through images • Listening only to words is to turn a blind eye to much of the world. • Breaking the hegemony of the word as a means of understanding. • The materiality of the world • The creative tension between the word and the image : questioning established patterns and breaking the taken-for-granted. • The ‘intrusive presence of the researcher’

  5. Epistemology • The visual and the real – naive triangulation • Objectivity / subjectivity • The hidden hand

  6. Doubled meaning • Internal narrative: what is? What is in it? • External narrative: “… the social context that produced the image, and the social relations within which the image is embedded at any moment of viewing” (Banks 2001:11 my emphasis)

  7. Visual data • Photographs • Videos • Drawings • Diagrams • Movements, signs • Representations of the material world

  8. Modes and methods • Researcher-recorded data • Objects of the subjects • Active participation • Stimulated response and data chains

  9. 1. Researcher-recorded data • Researcher is recording a social interaction by producing a visual representation – e.g. filming the meeting; photographs of the class in progress • Fixing the complex • Recollection in tranquility • ‘Naturalistic’

  10. 2. The (visual) objects of the subjects • Participants are producing visual representations for purposes other than the (self conscious) production of research. • Who is the author of the image? • Who is the audience? What are they trying to communicate through their representation? • Content and discourse: semiotic analysis

  11. 3. Active participation • Participants are interpreting social situations, events, worlds through actively producing or collecting visual representations • Giving a camera to participants to record their day, video diaries, drawings, mental maps, artefact narrative … • Phenomenological • ‘Empowering’ - voice, • spontaneous/ reflective, • The researcher ‘as witness giving testimony to the lives of others’ (Lather 2007:41) • opens up the external narrative

  12. 4. Stimulated response and data chains • Researcher is collaborating with participants by asking them to interpret visual representations of social interactions, events, people, objects • Sorting, visual (usually photo) elicitation, ‘forensic’ interviews, stimulated video recall, • Responses: cognitive, affective, aesthetic, physical • Intertextuality • Polyvocality

  13. Playing with photos • How can you use these photos across the three / four modes and methods: • Internal content (1/2): Who are these people? What are they doing? Why? When? Where? In whose interest? • External narrative (3): what are the processes of selection and composition that lie behind the photos? What were their intentions? • Response (4): How could you use these photos for gaining a response with their authors, subjects or others? • How would it be different, if using other media (e.g. video) • What methodological issues does the discussion provoke?

  14. Stimulated video recall • Video-based observation of events and activities provides visual data which may be analysed directly. • After event view with participants generates interview data focusing on: • recall of practices • thought processes • interpretation of practices • status of practices compared with a norm • resonance with other events.

  15. Ethics and Visual data • Anonymity • Sensitivity with participants • Sensitivity with ethics committees • Re-use – requires forethought and persistence • Public data?

  16. Some other issues with visual data • Allowing for genre and aesthetics (often not done with other means) • ‘Reactivity’ • Storage and archiving

  17. Reporting with visual data • Directness • Academic restrictions (theses, journals) • Different strokes … ‘impact’

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