PHOTO-RESEARCH(ING): APPLICATIONS, OPPORTUNITIES AND CRITICAL ISSUES IN USING PHOTOGRAPHY IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

This contribution aims to reflect, starting from a narrative literature review [1] (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 [2]. In the field of education, photography has been widely used as a visual archive [3] concerning spaces [4], schools, and marginalised populations[5] . The contribution will focus, in particular, on three uses of photography in educational research: Photo elicitation interview, is based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research interview [6]. 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 [7]. Participant Photography [8][9], a visual method in which research participants are encouraged, using photography, to visually document their social landscapes [10]. 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 [11]. The use of photography in research with children [12] [13]. An example is offered by Mosaic Approach [14][15] 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 in the study, also balancing the power between participants and researchers [16] This can lead to the "overturning" of more traditional research approaches - focused on verbal and text form - and characterised by an adult-centred perspective [17]. Photographs are not only a window into people’s lives but are a specific cultural construction [18]. Caine [19], 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 [20]. 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 [21]. 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 [22].