How to use Visual Research MethodsDr Kate Wall and Dr

Elaine Hall

DEVELOPING THE FIELDDr Kate Wall

Image from: Mastering Differential Equations: The Visual Method (available at: http://www.thegreatcourses.com

Visual methods as a field

• Relatively new and expanding field• Participatory approaches• New ways of looking• New audiences• Inclusivity

BUT…• What does quality look like?– Rigor– Reliability– Validity– Ethics– Analysis processes

• Epistemological fit

Image as record or construct?

• Photos have origins in objectivist stance – when shutter falls...

• Subjectivity before and after

• Photos located in the interaction between objectivism and realism?

Nasaimages.org

G.C. Stanczak (2007) Visual Research Methods, SAGE

Photo elicitationPhoto elicitation is based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research interview. (Harper 2002:

13)

Photo voicePhotographic journalism

http://www.photovoice.org/html/projects/

Jim Hubbard’s work: http://www.shootingback.org/

Annotated Photographs

Photographs: Sorting and categorising

Diamond ranking

0246810121416

frequ

ency top

top tw obottom tw obottom

Its not just photographs

Drawing

Mediating an interaction (and stimulating reflection)

Drawings

Lodge 2005

Scaffolding a response

(Wall, Packard and Higgins 2007)

Visual organisation of a written response

To what extent does this have similarities to a questionnaire?

Concept mapping

• Quantitative and qualitative analysis

(Pearson and Somekh 2003: 15)

And it doesn’t have to be 2D…

Using Lego• David Guantlett’s work www.artlab.org.uk

It doesn’t have to be a still image…

Three types of visual data

Researcher created

Research generated

Researcher found

(Prosser 2007)

What is my research space?

We asked you to bring a piece of visual evidence that represented your research

space…

5 minute task: odd one out

• Groups of 3• Compare and contrast your visual evidence

• How does each piece answer the research question?

• What are the similarities and differences of the different data?

Questions we have about using visual approaches

What is the visual?

How visual does it have to be to be included as visual methodology?

How to deal with the quality versus quantity problem?

Are all visual approaches inherently participatory?

How influential is the researchers’ intent in visual approaches?

How does the visual media chosen impact on the research

process/findings?

At what point in the research process can/ should the visual be incorporated?

Research Process

Facilitate data

collection

The data

Validation of data

To support analysis

Reporting findings

Dissemination

Reporting data

Generate new

understandings of the data

What is the best way to disseminate visually mediated research?

What are the ethical issues of using visual data?

Sourced from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/cartoon/2012/may/11/1#

EXPLORING EXAMPLES OF VISUAL METHODOLOGY

Dr Elaine Hall

Issues in the use of visual methods

1. Confidencea) Is this the best

way to represent a particular experience or artefact?

b) Has the data been collected with fidelity to the research question?

c) Is the interpretation of the data accurate and reliable?

Issues in the use of visual methods

2. Understandinga) Best practice

from the research paradigm

b) Transparency in the decision-making process

c) Reflexive loops, hypothesis testing and member checking

From Onwuegbuzie and Leech 2006, p493

Issues in the use of visual methods

3. Warranta) Does the visual

data triangulate, challenge, complement or facilitate other data?

b) Does this go beyond novelty?

c) Is the attractiveness of the task problematic ethically?

10 minute activity• Each member of the Odd One Out will join one of three groups and create a mindmap:

Confidence:Is this the best way to represent a particular experience or artefact?

Understanding:How can we demonstrate transparency in the decision-making process?

Warrant: Does the visual data triangulate, challenge, complement or facilitate other data?

http://we.makesense.org/?attachment_id=3089

Long-listing categories for analysis

• Visual methods potentially invite a mixed methods approach to analysis, counting instances as well as generating descriptions and narratives

• There is merit in experimenting with a range of approaches that offer more or less structure as well as more and less collaborative meaning making

Diamond ranking• Making explicit the researcher’s

hierarchiesChoose 9 pieces of data-notice your decision making

process, what gets included/ excluded and why?

Using some/all of the following categories, act as

participants and researchers to create and record diamonds and the discussions that support them.

Self – Others Formal – Informal Use/ Absence of Technology

Immersion in the larger data set• Making the entirety of the data count

– Spread out all the data so that it can be viewed as a whole and so that each element can be seen

– As individuals, move around and take in the data, noting your impressions of the whole dataset and of individual or group elements that you particularly notice

– As a group make two lists: 1. Ideas, descriptions and phrases that represent the dataset as a

whole2. Ideas, descriptions and phrases that represent elements within it.

–Select items from the second list and count them – how many instances of significant themes are there? Returning to the first list, how do the sub-groups support or challenge the over-arching description?

Elicitation interviews• Participant generation and validation of themes

– As a large group agree interview questions e.g. “How did you choose this as a representation?” “Which descriptive labels would you give your data?” “What does this not show about your research space?”

– Form interview triads: participant, interviewer, observer– Part One

• The interviewer askes the agreed questions• The participant responds• The observer creates a record of the conversation

– Part Two• The record is checked, amended and agreed• All three reflect on the effectiveness of the questions and process

The analysis challenge• One piece of visual data can be analysed in many ways – has depth and complexity

• However, it is easy to collect multiple pieces of visual data – large data sets

Google images: India People

Inductive Vs Deductive Analysis

Inductive• Theory generating• Driven by the data• Grounded theory based ideas

• Detailed exploration of the emerging themes and concepts

• Smaller samples?• More interpretivist in its origins?

Deductive• Theory testing• Driven by predetermined concepts

• Coding and categorisation

• Counts/ statistics• Larger samples?• More positivist in its origins?

Validating your interpretations

• If one piece of visual data is so complex how can you be sure you have the right interpretation?

• Process of validation

• Returning to respondents?

The importance of intent

• What do you want to know?• What is the most appropriate way of finding out?

• Think about how visual methods support your enquiry (different stages of the research)?

• The process of interpretation – is your view the most appropriate one?

• Being clear about the decisions you have made and why

Contact detailsDr Kate WallReader in Education School of EducationDurham UniversityLeazes RoadDurhamDH1 1TA

Email: Kate.Wall@durham.ac.ukTel: +44 (0) 191 334 8334

Dr Elaine HallReader in Legal Education Research

Northumbria Law SchoolNorthumbria UniversityCity Campus EastNewcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST

Email: Elaine.Hall@Northumbria.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0) 191 2273153