1. Photo Elicitation.docx

CRITICAL READING: CORNELL NOTES Photo Elicitation Name: Date: 24 August 2023 Section: Lecture 1 Period: Questions/Main Ideas/Vocabulary Notes/Answers/Definitions/Examples/Sentences Design Fit is Still Important As previously discussed, all elements must be cohesive. Deciding on ontolo...

CRITICAL READING: CORNELL NOTES Photo Elicitation Name: Date: 24 August 2023 Section: Lecture 1 Period: Questions/Main Ideas/Vocabulary Notes/Answers/Definitions/Examples/Sentences Design Fit is Still Important As previously discussed, all elements must be cohesive. Deciding on ontology/epistemology will dictate many decisions about your methods. Flexibility All qualitative research can be flexible. For example, your aims/research questions may change as you progress through. Often, you realise an adjacent area is more important than the one you started out with. This is especially true of photo elicitation which is designed to be “participant-led”. Ontology/Epistemology Could be anything but is generally well-suited to a critical realist/contextualist or (social) constructionist approach. What is Photo Elicitation? Sits under the umbrella of participatory action research. Very participant-led: Good for marginalised or disenfranchised groups of people, research topics that may be highly stigmatised, as well as people who may find it hard to communicate verbally and also for children. Clear about desire to enact social change and empower groups of people (hence not suited to a realist/positivist ontology/epistemology). Use photos to identify, represent and enhance their community. Steps to Photo Elicitation Step 1: Getting together. If you’re designing the project together, team meetings are important. Finalise research questions/aims. Discuss reflexivity. Step 2: Meet or discuss the process of taking photographs with participants. Not all participants will have been in stage 1, so you need to explain what you want to understand through the photographs. Step 3: Get participants to send photographs through. Meet to discuss photographs (recorded). This is like an interview but instead of being led by interviewer questions, the discussion is led by the participants’ photographs. Step 4: Analyse data. This could be photos or text. Go back to participants (iterative). Step 5: Finalise analysis. Write up findings. Dissemination. Analysis Interview data (discussion of photos) is often analysed thematically. There are ways to also incorporate an analysis of the photographs. This approximates thematic analysis whereby you’re looking for ‘themes’ across the photos provided by participants. Reflexivity Reflexivity is a key part of good qualitative research. Reflexivity requires you to think about how you’re positioned in relation to your research. What pre-conceived ideas, cultural norms or values, biases might you hold? Reflexivity is what helps us to see how our actions/behaviours may have affected the research. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Why Choose Photo Elicitation? Research in psychology is increasingly moving towards recognition of reflexivity. Some journals make reflexivity statements compulsory, even for quantitative research. Some journals require you to write in an active voice. Trying to minimise researcher-participant relations may improve the robustness of the study. Participants may share more details with you, especially about aspects of their lives that are stigmatised. The photos participants take may allow them to share details they find hard to talk about and wouldn’t include in an interview. The iterative nature of PAR, and especially photo elicitation, means that your research is more likely to make a difference.