Abstract:

Photovoice is – as Caroline Wang indicates - a process by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique . Photovoice is an example of a participation research which allows to “give a voice” to excluded or marginalized people or groups as well as the ones who are unable to demonstrate how they see and assess the surrounding reality. This research method is characterized by empowerment, that is an ability to incorporate the researched people into the process of documentation, analysis and attributing meaning to the reality they experience as well as getting them involved in changing this reality. The method emphasizes photographs which the researched participants take and then share their reflections on them.

In the case of young people this method seems to be particularly interesting, especially in the context of the “pictorial turn” announced by Mitchell in the 1980s . Nowadays, when young people communicate mainly using the picture (for example Instagram, Snapchat) it is a method which in the most "natural" way reflects the way they are received and the definition of reality.

In the research conducted by the Social Pedagogy Chair of the University of Warsaw in the years 2019-2020 we are trying to use this method to research youth participation and we asked teenagers (aged 17-19) from Poland, Ukraine and the Netherlands to answer the question: What does it mean to be a good citizen and also asked them to use photos to answer this question. The first conclusions from the study are very interesting, showing differences in the perception of "citizenship" and participation (perception, definition and ways of practicing it in these countries). Particularly important, however, were the experiences and methodological observations that we made during our research.

In my speech I would like to present the following issues:
• Photovoice as an example of visual materials of research on youth participation research, its usefulness, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats;
• Photovoice and its meaning as a way of reaching the subjective image of the reality experienced by young people: emotional and rational aspects of presented visual narratives
• Emancipatory dimension of the Photovoice: strengthening the subjectivity/empowerment, reflectiveness, responsibility oneself and the community as an important component of the research in the opinions of the researchers and project participants
• Social education/empowerment education/education for critical consciousness and social change as an effect of participatory action research.

Keywords:

Photovoice, visual materials, youth research, participation research.