Photo Narration

Many people already take and share photos when they visit new places, making photo narration— a method where students provide written commentary on their photos—feel familiar.

 

Photo narration is a qualitative research method where students use photos and narratives to convey their understanding of a phenomenon, experience, or context (Strickland et al., 2010). This approach allows instructors to see the student’s perspective both as a teacher and a researcher, using the photos and narratives as evidence of the student’s learning through their COIL experience.

What Are the Possibilities?

The following are case studies of possible applications of photo narration in COIL collaborative projects.

A nursing instructor integrates an COIL project where students discuss cultural similarities and differences in patient care. For an assignment, students take photos representing care for others (with permission) and discuss them. After the course, the professor uses these photos for a research project on students’ perceptions of care, with implications for teaching and practice.

An information systems instructor has an COIL project on equity and inclusion in data science. For an assignment, students take photos that tell stories about inclusion and exclusion, which serve as the basis for dialogues between students from two schools. After the course, the instructor uses these photos for a research project exploring strategies to teach these principles in data science practice.

A biology professor has an COIL project on sustainability, focusing on water sources. Students take photos exploring the meaning of water in their cultures. These photos are used to create a collage or similar artifact about the global meaning of water. After the course, the professor uses the photos for a research project on the relationship between meaning-making and belonging in STEM fields, measured by a survey.

How Do I Do It?

Step 1: Your Research Question

The first step of nearly all research projects is to develop your research question.

Ask yourself: What do you want to understand about how your students are learning?

For most of you, the answer will center on a dimension of learning and development that is an integral part of your COIL course. This outcome will then become the basis of your research question.

Ask yourself: How can the participants demonstrate their learning through photo narration in such a way that addresses the research question?

Step 2: The Photo Narration Assignment

Develop a course assignment where students take photos and provide written commentary or annotations.

  1. Explain the purpose of the assignment.
  2. Provide prompts to elicit photos and their narration, based on your course goals and relevant research.
  3. Determine presentation format for the photo narration, either digital (e.g., PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva) or physical (e.g., gallery walk, photo album).

Tips:

  • Use open-ended prompts for more meaningful results. For example, “What does family mean to you?” is richer than “Take a photo of your family.”
  • Recommend 3-5 photos with narratives per student for sufficient text analysis.
  • Include instructions (like those found below) to ensure photos can be used for research purposes.

Step 3: Recruitment and Consent

At the beginning of the semester, students must be recruited and provide written consent for their work to be included in the research study. Recruitment and consent must be conducted by someone other than the course instructor who has completed CITI training in the last three years.

Step 4: Extracting Your Data

After recruitment and consent are completed, continue teaching as usual for the rest of the semester. Once the course ends and you’ve submitted final grades, extract student artifacts (photos and written commentary) from Canvas.

The person who handled consent will provide a list of consenting students. For those students only, download their assignments from Canvas and upload them to a Penn State-owned OneDrive folder created for the project.

Recommended De-Identification Process:

  • A research team member (not the instructor) assigns a random STUDY ID to each student.
  • This person removes identifying information from assignments, replacing names with STUDY IDs.
  • Keep the key matching STUDY IDs to actual names separate from other research materials.

Once de-identified, share the data with the instructor and research team. This is your research data.

Step 5: Data Analysis

Photo narration is typically analyzed using qualitative research methods or textual analysis, similar to approaches in the humanities or arts. Refer to the further reading section below for guides on these methods.

Step 6: Write up and Dissemination

Review the Audience 4: People Interested in Virtual Exchange of the Research section for a list of journals that publish on COIL projects and related topics. Photo narration studies may also interest methodologically focused journals (e.g., Qualitative Methods), outlets focusing on visual representation, or web-based sites with visual elements.

If you include photos in your publication, editors may require permission to reprint them for research purposes, beyond IRB requirements. Be prepared to name the photographer and have release forms for anyone appearing in the photos.

What Are the Pitfalls?

Qualitative research doesn’t align with how everyone thinks about the world. Consider how you and your discipline view knowledge, research, and learning. Photo narration shifts from objective truth to interpretative realities. We are not discovering knowledge; we are (co)constructing knowledge (Tracy, 2024).

Photo narration might seem easier than other methods, but while the initial process is straightforward, the qualitative data analysis can be complex and time-consuming. However, the findings will provide a rich story about learning.

When students do photo narration projects, it’s a form of representation. It’s tempting to assume we understand their representations, but this is an assumption. The accompanying text is crucial. Also, remember that students may be influenced by your position of power, affecting what and how they choose to represent.

Where Can I Read More about Photo Narration?

Creighton, G., Oliffe, J. L., Ferlatte, O., Bottorff, J., Broom, A., & Jenkins, E. K. (2018). Photovoice ethics: Critical reflections from men’s mental health research. Qualitative Health Research, 28(3), 446-455.

Gray, T., Downey, G., Jones, B. T., Truong, S., Hall, T., & Power, A. (2018). Generating and deepening reflection whilst studying abroad: incorporating photo elicitation in transformative travel. In The Globalisation of Higher Education (pp. 229-251). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Hartman, E., Reynolds, N. P., Ferrarini, C., Messmore, N., Evans, S., Al-Ebahim, B., & Brown, J. M. (2020). Coloniality-decoloniality and critical global citizenship: Identity, belonging, and education abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 32(1), 33-59.

Kelley, J. & Cruz, L. (2024). Photo narration in global learning. New Directions in Teaching and Learning

Kronk, R., Weideman, Y., Cunningham, L., & Resick, L. (2015). Capturing student transformation from a global service-learning experience: the efficacy of photo-elicitation as a qualitative research method. Journal of Nursing Education, 54(9), S99-S102.

Mathews, S. A. (2018). Mediating the space between: Using photo-elicitation to prompt cultural consciousness-raising. In Participant Empowerment through Photo-Elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research (pp. 177-200). Springer, Cham.

Ryan, M., Feld, H., & Yarrison, R. (2020). Using photovoice to encourage reflection in health professions students completing a short-term experience in global health. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 84(4).

Skaggs, C. T., & Izumi, M. (2018). Becoming an agent of memory: Using visual literacy to move beyond tourism in study abroad. Journal of Transformative Learning, 5(1).

Wang, Q., Leen, S., & Hannes, K. (2019). How do South American international students experience student life in Flanders? A photo elicitation project. Journal of International Students, 8(2), 742-768.

References

Strickland, M. J., Keat, J. B., & Marinak, B. A. (2010). Connecting worlds: Using photo narrations to connect immigrant children, preschool teachers, and immigrant families. School Community Journal, 20(1), 81-102. 

Tracy, S. J. (2024). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. John Wiley & Sons.