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Picturing Self Picturing Family: Children's autodriven photographs as a research tool
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Picturing Self, Picturing Family Children’s Photographs as a Research Tool
Transcript of Picturing Self Picturing Family: Children's autodriven photographs as a research tool
Picturing Self, Picturing Family Children’s Photographs as a Research Tool
OverviewStructure of Presentation
Brief introduction Key points from the literature Study initial findings Comments on the efficacy of autodriven photographs as a tool for research with children
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PhD focusParenting in Indian single parent homes in Singapore
Qualitative study: Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-Ecological Theory was used as a frame. Focus: to understand the parenting practices that the mothers adopted and examine how children understood and reacted to these practices
With a view to comment on the parent-child relationship that is emerging in context
To understand how poverty and single parenthood (exo/macrosystemic conditions) influenced parenting and the parent-child relationship (microsystem)
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VoiceForegrounding the voices of the participants in order to juxtapose parent and child views to ascertain where perceptions meet and part ways. Methods that enable participants to freely share their views on their lived conditions
Wanted the children to share how they visualized the parent-child relations, that is to understand their understandings of parenting
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Method adoptedAutodriven photo elicitation Semi-structured interviews (3 single)1 joint interview with mother, child and researcher
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On choosing autodriven photographsFocus was 2 fold
Examine the ways the children think and feel about themselves and their families
Develop a method for listening to children’s perspectives on their lives
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Build RapportTo get the children to feel comfortable with me as I was a relatively powerful adult.
To set the tone as open, focused on child perceptions and to provide space for the child to share his conceptions of self and family
AUTODRIVEN PHOTO ELICITATION was done before the semi-structured interviews were mounted with the children
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Keys from the literature
Children are agentic – social actors capable of informing listening adults of their model of the world ( Christensen & Prout, 2002: Lewis, 2004) Their views can differ markedly from how adults may perceive the same event (Einarsdottir, 2005)
Important to hear from them on how they perceive their world
Apart of the use of interviews – using arts based methods when engaging children provides a richer data source, while respecting the voice of the child. Such methods empower the child. Puppets: Epstein, I., Stevens, B., McKeever, P., Baruchel, S., & Jones, H, 2008; Naylor, S., Keogh, B., Downing, B., Maloney, J., & Simon, S, 2007.
Persona dolls: MacNaughton, (2001,2003,2005); Jesuvadian and Wright, 2011
Drawings: Wright, 1997, 2010; Merriman, B., & Guerin, S, 2006; Tay-Lim, J., & Lim, S, 2013.
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On Autodriven Photo ElicitationPowerFocus on child perspectiveAlternative communication methodActive Child InvolvementA relationship of trust
Einarsdottir, 2006
Faster rapport building
Samuels, 2007
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Deconstruction is KeyPhotographs by themselves, without the children’s deconstruction of them, only presented an incomplete view of the phenomenon to the researcher.
The conversation with the child about the photograph is essential in understanding how the child perceived the situation, people, events or things that are presented in the photograph.
Clark-Ibanez,2007; Samuels, 2007
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Questions for the Photo Task
I would like to know more about you as a child in this family. I am asking you to tell me how it feels to be you, by taking photographs for the next 1 week, 7 days. Using a digital camera, please take about 20 photographs that will tell me who you are as a person – these photographs can be about things that you like to do; they can be about the people you like and want to spend time with or even about the kinds of things you would like to have more of. I would like to know more about your family also- so take photos of your time with your family, the people in your family you like to spend time with, and the kinds of things you do as a family. You can take photos of the things you like and of the things you don’t like. Once your 20 photos are taken, I will visit you and together we can talk about your photos.
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A review of the experience
3 children have since completed their photo journals for my analysis. The photos
1. Center on the child – 3 children began their series of photos with what they liked to do – interests like playing computer games/reading/playgrounds
2. People they spent their time with- a close second to the things they liked to do.
3. Pictures of themselves – 2 out of 3 . The children specifically posed for the shots and asked family members to take these pictures, showcasing leisure activities and their talents
4. Significant number of food items – 2 out of 3 children showcased food items that they enjoyed and or wanted more of
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• Comments on what they want more of
• Recognition
• Preferred activities
• Resources available
• Places• People• Activities
Daily Life
Leisure Activit
ies
DesiresSpecial Talents
Overview of emergent themes
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Family
Resourcesand
limitation
Affection demonstrate
d
InteractionAnd
availability
Initial Impressions
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Daily Life.. After schoolThe photos narrate how their daily life proceeds – for instance Habib shares how he spends his time ‘see TV… sometime my mother order Macdonald… sometimes my sister and brother… fight’
‘Sometime DVD, sometime TV… sometime fight’ ‘First I watch TV, cannot, watch DVD, then fight if no fight then I listen to songs’ When asked how many songs and how he had the songs downloaded – he shared that his father was the one who did the downloading but since he has ‘gone in’ meaning is currently incarcerated – he is unable to help.
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Comment on available resourcesIn the Habib family though money is limited and that curtails doing things that the children like, for instance, going to the movies, Hessa buys books for the children to read like the Mr. Midnight series from her earnings, in addition to the electronic items like Xbox, other game sets, computer that has games in it along with internet connection at home.
Hessa spends a large amount of time at work, working two jobs. She is unable to physically monitor how the children actually spend their time.
In this family, there are many electronic devices for the children to use –
When asked why she made such provisions – she replied that her husband was the game addict and he started the process but she preferred the children stay home and play rather than go out or go to the playground because she is fearful of the kind of friends or company the children may keep.
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TalentEach photo added to the composite picture the children were building of themselves…
Photographed: Vijay: bicycling and sport (self-esteem), his special talent (art)
Habib: computer games, Beyblade set and X Box (his favourite pastimes), badminton rackets, books that he likes Took a picture of his sister’s phone (Iphone) with garage band loaded in – Habib said that ‘ you can even make your own music…I really like this cool type of thing… I make my own music’.
Specifically chose items to discuss which showcased what they believed were their strengths.
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Desires…. Affection …. ConnectionIn the case of Vijay, we discern his yearning for concrete connection with his mother
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Conversation openersEach of the photos opened up many trajectories for discussion- the talk forayed into the child’s daily routines, the friends that the child had, the things they talked about to their parent/siblings/friends.
As a researcher- I kept my questions open:What is this?Where is this place?Why did you choose to take a picture of this?Tell me more about the time when you took this picture?
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Empowerment
The child took control of the conversationTalk was very animated and the child made links from the photo being discussed to other aspects of her/his everyday life and relationships, without much prompting from me.
The conversation begins in a rather guarded way but once the child realizes that the researcher is really interested in what he is saying, the child directs the conversation more and the conversation becomes smooth and resembles a typical conversation that familiar people may have with each other.
If the parent is nearby- conversations happen and this also yields rich observation data on the interaction and relationship between the child and the mother.
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Active Child InvolvementThe children selected items and actively framed the pictures
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Power & Child PerspectiveThe use of the camera increased the children’s power because they could exercise choice, and focus on things that are important to them in relation to the task posed to them
I had no clue on the kinds of items that they may photograph
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Links to Family Through the discussions of the particular photographs the children have taken, I was able to piece together how the children viewed their family. Siblings are a source of joy and irritation
Habib mentioned playing and fighting with his brother and sister
Zahi photographed his sisters and shared how he spent his time with them – involved much fighting too.
With their mothers not home for large amounts of time, the children sought each other’s company and depended on each other. Zahi, for example, has his sisters’ make Milo for him!
Adult interaction Limited interaction with their mothers – only when the mothers’ were at home and not tired.
Mothers were usually too tired to have meaningful conversations – children then compensated by spending time with each other
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Deeper understanding of family dynamicsWhen the children spoke about their pictures, they spoke about the ways their families functioned. For instance, Habib had photographed this game set as being an activity that he enjoyed very much
But then he informed me that he could not play it at the moment because it was exam time and his mother restricted his play time – though Hessa was not home for long hours, she monitored Habib’s activities.
Hasina (12), Habib’s sister informed me that her mother would check on them through phone calls.
Which I noted and picked up during the interviews with both the child and the mothers
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Summing Up
The initial findings suggest that using autodriven photo elicitation as a data gathering method with children is a viable and workable option. It provides opportunity for children to take control of conversations
It enables them to speak about matters which are important to them – they became the experts, which was empowering
In this study, this method enabled me to build rapport and initiate a relationship with the child. Each child saw me as an approachable adult
It provided me with guides or prompts to add to the pool of interview prompts I had prepared already
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Summing UpThe findings suggest that if this method is chosen as a research option, it is necessary that the photos be discussed with the child because on their own the pictures are incomplete.
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