Abstract:

Children’s experiences are often returned through forms of documentation carried out by adults who observe, collect and share pupil’s lives through their own interpretive lenses. However, the expectation placed on the documentation process has been changing over the past years (Mangusson, 2018) in accordance with a new vision of the child. So, what would happen if it were the children themselves who carried out forms of documentation with respect to their life contexts?
In recent years, the recognition of children as experts in their own lives (Percy-Smith, Thomas, 2010), with agency (James, Prout, 1990) and capable of playing an active role in their own communities (UN, 1989), calls the scientific community and practitioners to identify and experiment documentation strategies capable of promoting full participation and able to support the expression of their voice not only through words but also with other communicative mediums close to children's interests and competencies (Derbyshire et al., 2005; Carter, Ford, 2012).
The aim of this contribution lies in presenting some reflections emerging from empirical research using the photovoice methodology (Wang, Burris, 1997) declined as a tool for documenting children's life experiences, from their privileged perspective.
Photovoice (Wang, 1999; Latz, Mulvhill, 2017) is a form of participatory action research that allows to represent contexts and experiences through the autonomous production of photographs (Sutton-Brown, 2014); participants in this sense are no longer regarded as passive subjects (Whyte, Greenwood, Lazes, 1991) but play an active role in the creation and interpretation of self-produced photographs in order to reveal deep understandings with respect to personal needs, desires, and preferences (Beazley, 2008). The photographic material, produced freely or from open-ended stimulus questions, is selected by each participant and then discussed during interviews or focus groups (Strack et al., 2004). Participants, understood here as active co-researchers in the process (Argyris, Schon, 1991), have the opportunity to tell their stories through images and to construct narratives that rely on concrete elements that arise from their own personal view of the world. Furthermore, photovoice intends to solicit groups of people who are normally excluded or little considered in decision-making processes so that they can take an active part in redefining their life contexts through the production of snapshots, which offer a glimpse of reality from the privileged observatory of insiders: this leads the adult to look at things from a different perspective (Moran, 2009).
Trying to propose a possible declination of the photovoice methodology in early childhood contexts, it is possible to shed light on its potential as a tool for documentation and self-expression implemented by children themselves: allowing them to document their own contexts through photographs; to reflect individually and collectively through opportunities for dialogue with respect to the images, and finally, enter into dialogue with the broader community through the creation of photographic exhibitions, reaching out parents, neighborhoods, the mayor, etc., appears to be a promising documentary proposal capable of restoring children’s perspectives in light of their personal vision of the contexts and in the recognition of their active role in changing society.

Keywords:

Photovoice, documentation, children’s perspectives, agency, educational context.