Participatory visual methods: tools for
engagement and learning with women
subsistence farmers in Papua New Guinea
Associate Professor Katja Mikhailovich University of Canberra,
Australia
Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
Project website:
http://pngwomen.estem-uc.edu.au/
Papua New Guinea
• Melanesia/ PNG
• 800 languages
• Strong cultural identity
and practices
• Challengesinfrastructure/ safety/
literacy/ education/
rural poverty/ gender
inequality
Examining women’s business acumen in PNG:
Working with women smallholders in
horticulture
• Participatory action
research
• Ethnography
• Methods
–
–
–
–
–
Participant observation
Workshops
Interviews
Survey
VISUAL METHODS
Visual research
methods
Images and technologies
such as photography, film,
art, drawing, sculpture that
are incorporated into into
qualitative social research
Realist observational
approach
• Visual documentation
of events and processes
• Aid memoir
• Formal reporting
Reflexive approach
• Constructedness of images
and knowledge
• Representation
• Subjectivity of the
photographer and viewer
• Dual perspective
– Content
– Meaning
• Meaning making of
representation
Drawing in development research
10 seeds technique
Jayakaran, Ravi. The Ten Seed Technique. Hong Kong: World Vision China,
2002. http://www.fao.org/participation/Ten-Seed%20techniquerevised.PDF
Photovoice
BASIC STEPS
Pose a question
Provide cameras and
training
Selection and
printing of images
Group discussion
Public exhibition
Our photovoice focus
To gain a understanding of the experiences of young subsistence farmers in PNG
Explore young people’s strengths as young smallholders
Identify the challenges they face, what are the problems they encounter as growers.
Explore their perceptions of their future in growing/ farming and business?
.
Photographic themes
Stregths and challenges of VM
Strengths
• Facilitate participation
• Increased self- competence
through learning new skills
• Opportunity for creative
production
• Working together in new ways
• Emerging critical conscousness
of ones environment/ lived
experience
• Gives voice to marginalised
Challenges
• Inadeqaute time limits
dialogue
• Logistics
• Lost in translation- language
barriers
Power and empowerment
• Fosters researcher- participant relationship
• Unequal relations of power- impact on
communication and dialogue
– Gender
– Age
– Religion
– Custom
– Education/ literacy
Dialogue, reflection and agency
• Did we achieve genuine dialogue?
• What learning resulted from reflection?
• Are visual processes in research agentic
activities?
References
Catalani, C., & Minkler, M. (2010). Photovoice: A review of the literature
in Health and Public Health. Health education and Behavior, 37, 424. doi:
DOI: 10.1177/1090198109342084
Clover, D.E. (2006). Out of the Darkroom: Participatory Photography as a
critical, imaginative, and Public Aesthetic Practice of Transformative
Education. Journal of Transformative Education, 4(6), 275-290. doi: DOI:
10.1177/1541344606287782
Drew, Sarah E., Duncan, Rony E., & Sawyer, Susan M. (2010). Visual
Storytelling: A Beneficial But Challenging Method for Health Research
With Young People. Qual Health Res, 20(12), 1677-1688. doi:
10.1177/1049732310377455
Gervais, Myriam, & Rivard, L. (2013). "SMART" Photovoice agricultural
consultation: increasing Rwandan women farmers' active participation in
development. Development in Practice, 23(4), 496-510. doi:
10.1080/09614524.2013.790942
References (continued)
Hinthorne, L. L. (2013). Visual research and Communication techniques: A
'Tasting Menu' for Development Practitioners Working Parer 1: Centre for
Communication & Social Change, University of Queensland, Australia.
Hinthorne, L. L. (2013 ). Evidencing Engagement: Evaluating visual
methods for participatory development communication in rural Papua
New Guinea. Paper presented at the IAMCR Conference: Crises, Creative
Destruction and the Global power of Communication, Dublin.
Jayakaran, R. (2002). The 10 Seed Technique. Peoples Republic of China:
World Vision.
Kindon, S., Pain, R., & Kesby, M. (Eds.), . (2007). Participatory Action
Research: Connecting People, Participation and Place. . London:
Routledge.
Margolis, E. and Pauwels, L . , (Eds). (2011). The Sage Handbook of Visual
Research Methods. London: Sage Publications.
Mitchell, C. (2008). Getting the picture and changing the picture: visual
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References (continued)
Pink, S.A. (2010). Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.
Pink, S.A. (2012). Advances in Visual Methodology. London: Sage.
Prins, E. (2010). Participatory Photography: A tool for empowerment or
surveilance? Action Research, 8(426), 426-443.
Ramos, F.S. (2007). Imaginary pictures, real life stories: the FotoDialogo
method. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(2),
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Riviera, D. (2010). Picture This: A Review of Doing Visual Ethnography:
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SAGE Publications, Inc. Visual Research Methods. SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Strack, R.W., Magill, C., & McDonagh, K. Engaging Youth through
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Theron, L., Mitchell, C., Smith, A., & Stuart, J. (Eds.). (2011). Picturing
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References (continued)
Thomas, V., Papoutsaki, E., & Eggins, J. (2010). Visual Dialogues,
Community Action and Social Change: A South Pacific Islands HIV/AIDS
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University of Surrey. (2003). Photo-Interviewing for research. Social
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Vaughn, C.M. (2011). A Picture of Health: Participation, Photovoice and
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Walsh, S. (2012). "We grew as we grew": Visual methods, social change
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References (continued)
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