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What is photovoice?

Photovoice is a participatory, action-oriented research method which empowers community members to take photographs around a specified theme, with photographs and narrative description gathered using a short worksheet used to code emerging themes (Strack et al., 2004).

An essential component of photovoice is sharing the results back with the community to advocate for change. Due to Photovoice’s engaging nature, it is often used with youth and communities to study many topic areas, such as diet, physical activity, climate change, disease management, health inequities, and social issues (Hergenrather et al., 2009).

The methodology was designed to amplify marginalized voices and engage community members in research (Budig et al., 2018).

What are the objectives of this website?

Facilitator objectives

Learn how to lead a group of learners through the photovoice process
Engage learners in critical dialogue and generation of new knowledge
Apply principles of research ethics when obtaining consent and engaging learners in photography-related evaluation research

Learner objectives

Apply a research methodology to ask a research question
Apply research ethics to photovoice research, including issues related to photography, document management, and qualitative coding

What equipment & technology

will you need?

Camera

Learners will need access to a camera. Smart phones with a camera are most common, but film and digital cameras are wonderful if learners are familiar with them.
If not all learners have cameras, they can work in small groups.
Another option is to find open-source images on the internet, cited appropriately, and build a narrative around that.

Computer with Internet

Facilitators will need at least one computer to manage files and lead coding activities.
Internet access is needed to upload photographs and code resulting data.
If internet access is intermittent, downloads can support offline work.

Coding Software

A software to support coding activities is recommended; free qualitative coding software is available.
Alternatively, qualitative coding can be done using Microsoft Word and Excel, using paper and pen/pencil, or on dry erase or chalkboards.

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