brief
Photovoices
project details
Type: Community Engagement/Social Design
Collaboration: Design & Community
Partnerships: University of Iowa and Muscatine High School
Deliverable: Gain insight about students’ experiences in school; Enhance their sense of school belonging; Positively impact their psychological wellbeing
Year: 2019
Field: Design Empathy, Socially Conscious Design, Culturally Conscious Design, Human-Centered Design, Systems Thinking
Funding: Carver Trust ($85,000),Public Policy Center Summer Scholars ($6,000), Obermann Fellowship ($18,000), University of Iowa Office of Outreach and Engagement Micro Grant ($1,500)
This interdisciplinary collaboration informed by Photovoice involved the design and implementation of an intervention with Latinx students enrolled in a rural Iowa High school
Through photography and dialogue, this collaboration gained insight about Latinx high school students’ experiences in school, their thoughts and feelings about their community, as well as their aspirations for the future. This project culminated in a poster series that presented an innovative way of combining visual and qualitative data through both photographs that were taken by the students, as well as quotes that were shared during group discussions. The resulting poster series has been displayed in various public art shows and forums, where community and school stakeholders were invited to reflect on the results presented in the posters, as well as continue the dialogue initiated by the students, eliciting valuable community input and exchange and raising awareness about the barriers and needs of Latinx students in rural Iowa schools
Photovoice is a qualitative methodology that seeks to empower individuals whose voices are not typically heard, to examine their world critically through photography and reflective discussion, and engage in dialogue within a larger community context.
Participatory and Co-creative
Students were active agents in how the project unfolded. Each week, students shared photographs that held personal meaning related to their experience of being Latinx students in their high school and engaged in reflective group discussions to increase agency and connectedness. Additionally, students were responsible for choosing the images that were to be used in the final poster series.
The audio recordings from each group session were transcribed verbatim and analyzed per the constant comparative method in relation to the photos.
Photos were matched with the participants’ quotes to give meaning and depth to the images. These photos, along with participant quotes centering on specific themes that aligned with the photos, were combined graphically to create posters.
This project culminated in a poster series that presented an innovative way of combining visual and qualitative data through both photographs that were taken by the students, as well as quotes that were shared during group discussions.
The resulting poster series has been displayed in various public art shows and forums, where community and school stakeholders were invited to reflect on the results presented in the posters, as well as continue the dialogue initiated by the students, eliciting valuable community input and exchange and raising awareness about the barriers and needs of Latinx students in rural Iowa schools.
