0. Photovoice

9/7/2021

Photovoice NGUYEN DUC HOA CUONG/ MBA. MSC. HANOI UNIVERSITY

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What is photovoice? 

A participatory action research method that uses participant-generated photographs to stimulate critical reflection and engage the public to advocate for actions and changes.

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Participants use their photographs to facilitate reflective discussions, are involved in analyzing their narratives and influence the conclusions to report.

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In a forum, exhibition or on an online platform, the participants can engage with the public including policy-makers and decision-makers on issues captured in the photographs.

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What is needed? 

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Camera(s). The number of camera required would depend on how many people will be photographing and the extent to which the camera(s) can be shared among all the photographers. Simple point-and-shoot digital or phone cameras will be sufficient. Digital and phone cameras have the advantage of letting photographers to review and delete photographs. A way to share photographs during group discussions and forum. Photographs can be printed in-house with a photograph printer or at a print shop. If there are more photographs than there is time to discuss them, it may be necessary to ask the participants to select a subset of photographs. Researchers can also share photographs by projecting them on a screen or internet, including social media platforms. Locations or a platform for group discussions and public forums. Depending on whether any of the discussions and public forums will be done face-to-face or through the World Wide Web, a physical meeting location or an online platform would be necessary to support discussions and to engage the public.

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What is needed? 

A voice-recording device. This would depend on whether the discussions need to be recorded.

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Notebooks. Researchers may want to take notes in addition to voice recording during discussions. Narratives and discussions would need to be stored in a form that can be analyzed and shared to further stimulate critical reflection and shape a discourse.

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Handout. It may help photographers to remember the photograph topics by giving them a hardcopy of the topics. For those who are unfamiliar with using digital or phone camera(s), it may also be helpful to give them a handout of the basic instructions for how to operate and maintain such camera.

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Qualitative data analysis application. Analysis of the narratives and discussions can be either done manually or using a qualitative data analysis application such as NVivo and Atlas ti.

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What is needed? 

Time. Time to get to the photographing locations and to experience the research topics – for the participants to take photographs. There should also be enough time budgeted to allow sufficient opportunities for participants to discuss the photographs and to come to their own conclusions and actions to take.

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Researchers. The researchers are playing the role of facilitators for discussions and learning, and advocates of changes. Therefore, they should be able to create trust and a comfortable platform for participants to discuss openly. They should be comfortable with sharing power with participants on data analysis, formulation of conclusion and actions, and even selection of research topics.

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Participants. They may be randomly or purposively sampled individuals; however, they need to understand what participatory action research means and that are comfortable with playing an advocacy role.

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