Abstract:

This contribution aims to reflect, starting from a narrative literature review (Bourhis,2017) on the potential and critical issues offered by photography in educational research. Visual images have played a role in different disciplinary fields: starting from drawings in early medical books to photographs in visual anthropology (Collier&Collier, 1986). In the field of education, photography has been widely used as a visual archive (Holm,2014: 382) concerning spaces
(Grosvenor et Al, 2004), schools, and marginalised populations (Devlieger et Al., 2008).

The contribution will focus, in particular, on three uses of photography in educational research:
- Photoelicitation interview, is based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research interview (Harper,2002:13). Three types of material can be distinguished in research using photography: photographs taken by the researcher, photographs taken by the participants and the use of existing photographs (Holm, 2014).
- Participant Photography (Clover, 2006; Daniels, 2003), a visual method in which research participants are encouraged, using photography, to visually document their social landscapes (Allen,2012:443). Photography provides the basis to reflect and generate personal narratives. This technique can be particularly powerful for human populations whose voice has been historically marginalised (Wang, 2003).
- The use of photography in research with children (Clark, 2005; Prosser&Burke,2008).

An example is offered by Mosaic Approach (Clark,2005), a multimodal approach that also allows photography. Children, in producing visual material, and thus representations, become co-participants in the production of knowledge, and promote a sense of ownership to the study, also balancing the power between participants and researchers (O’Hara et Al., 2019). This can lead to the "overturning" of more traditional research approaches - focused on verbal and text form - and characterised by an adult-centred perspective (Semec, 2018).

Photographs are not only a window into people’s lives but are a specific cultural construction (Kinnunen&Puroila, 2016). Caine (2010), describes photography as a process of composing who we are and as a way of expressing our individual experiences. As Siegesmund et Al. state, images are created, not 'found', in other words, they are generated and bring levels of complexity (Siegesmund et Al,2013). The idea that photographs are something given, able to record and document the world in a neutral manner, is a simplifying view. This complexity can also be found in the political dimension of photography: it should be understood as a collective event in which vision, speech and action are intertwined and inseparable from the ongoing global struggles between dominant violence and civil society (Azoulay,2018). In conclusion, and on the basis of this brief premise, the contribution intends to explore the use of photography as a tool for educational research, while also emphasising its more critical aspects, including its ethical dimension(Wang and Redwood-Jones, 2001).

Keywords:

Photography, educational research, visual methods.