Visual Methods with Children and Young People

Academics and Visual Industries in Dialogue

Dylan Yamada-Rice, Eve Stirling, Dylan Yamada-Rice, Eve Stirling

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137402295
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume focuses on using visual research methods with children and young people. Featuring insights from academic experts and established professionals from visual industries, it explores a range of issues from visual ethics to children's interaction with place.

1

Introduction

Eve Stirling and Dylan Yamada-Rice with Kevin Walker

The originality of this book is two-fold. First, it focuses on using visual research methods specifically with children and young people. Second, it is written by a combination of academics and established professionals from visual industries working in the field of visual research and/or production.

The overall structure of the book presents a series of chapters about recent research undertaken using visual methods and means of analysis with children and young people. The book is divided into three parts, reflecting what we believe are essential themes that need considering in relation to developing visual research with and for children and young people. These are:

1.Production and meaning making

2.Remixing, creativity and mess

3.Beyond ethics

These three parts raise points that we consider essential when considering the future of visual research with children and young people. First, meaning making lies at the heart of all research. However, as will be described in the subsequent chapters, the ways in which adult researchers make meaning of children’s understandings is the result of the way in which research methods and means of analysis are used. This book looks specifically at this in relation to visual research and many of the chapters describe innovative ways in which the author-researchers used visual means to seek the knowledge of children and young people. Innovation in visual methods was considered by the group of writers as key in driving forward visual research with children. By its very nature innovation requires processes of remixing, creativity and mess. The final part on beyond ethics arose from the group’s conversations about how visual research methods with children tend to raise similar ethical considerations. These are issues such as getting permission to photograph children and their lives, and whether/how children’s images should be obscured to protect their identity. Our sentiments echo that of Nutbrown (2011), that working with children ‘demands rigor, respect and responsibility’ and that we [should] do this by ‘continually questioning the pictures [and other visuals] we use’ (p. 11). We discuss what would happen if we went beyond the requirements of university ethics boards to consider other ethical issues that are little discussed.

Each of the book’s three parts is introduced by a leading academic in the field and is concluded by a chapter in the form of a Q & A between us and a range of industry professionals to whom we posed questions drawn from the key concepts of each part. We hope that this unique reflection between academics and industry knowledge leads to a reframing of the visual research field, with a particular focus on children and young people. To date, there are a number of texts that describe aspects of undertaking visual-based research (Pink, 2007; Prosser, 1998; Rose, 2011; Spencer, 2011), but there is limited work that focuses specifically on children and young people. Perhaps one of the key exceptions is Thomson’s (2009) edited book of visual research methods with children. Thompson makes the point that developments in this field are rapid, and that ethical guidelines are not keeping pace with the methods researchers are employing, nor the kinds of social practices they are researching. An example here is whether participants from minority or marginalised groups have a say in what they consider to be ethical from the perspectives of their cultural practices and boundaries. Other noteworthy exceptions include the special issue of the International Journal of Research and Methods in Education: Problematising visual methods: Philosophy, ethics and methodologies (Wall et al., 2012) and Hadfield’s (2011) book on participatory video with young people.

The next section presents a short overview of the current visual research field, after which we describe in more detail how reframing visual research in the social sciences with industry representatives in relation to the three parts of this book aims to move the field forward.

Visual research in the social sciences

Margolis and Pauwels’ (2011) Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods is a good indication of where visual research in the social sciences is currently at. In a review of this book by ourselves with Procter and Almanssour (Yamada-Rice et al., 2015) we drew out key themes from the handbook, which we felt were important to the future development of visual research methods. The key ones that we think indicate the present visual research field and are important to consider when attempting to make advances are:

•the importance of cultural interpretations of the visual mode;

•the potential of visual research to gain depth in understanding;

•that visual research is a fragmented field.

We discuss each of these in a little more detail next.

The importance of cultural interpretations of the visual mode

In Yamada-Rice et al. (2015) we described the ideas of Chalfen (2011) who stated that ‘it is often technology as opposed to culture that is the focus of visual research’ (p. 2). We continued to write that ‘it should be remembered that not all cultures have the same historical connection to the visual mode’ (ibid.) or indeed the same access to technologies. Hackett and Yamada-Rice, in Chapter 3 of this volume, continue to discuss the idea that not all cultures draw on the visual mode in the same way. In particular Chapter 3 describes the importance of considering culture in terms of geographical settings and in relation to the lives of very young children. In doing so, the chapter argues for greater consideration to be paid to how visual research methods, means of analysis and dissemination can be tied to theories and practices that have evolved from Western-dominant ideas and adult-centric practices, and to consider how these might need to be adapted, or new frameworks sought for other cultures. Indeed, this aim lies at the heart of this book, which suggests that creativity, remixing and mess will be part of the essential processes needed to seek new ways of meeting these objectives. Finally, the book acknowledges that with the development of new practices it will become important to extend the notions of working ethically with children when using visual research methods.

The potential of visual research to gain depth in understanding

Researching social lives means working alongside people to engage with, explore and communicate their lived experiences. Using a visual approach to data collection, analysis and/or dissemination can offer ways beyond text-based understandings of these lives. As McCandless (2012) suggests, in response to the ubiquity of the multimodal web, ‘we’re all visual now’ (p. 1). Indeed, if we are all visual now, then what insights can visual research methods offer?

Using visual methods can give the opportunity to access embodied and tacit knowledge (Bassett, 2011) of the participants’ relational and situated experiences. It is this link with the situated space (a photograph of an environment for example) that can encourage a participant to discuss a different view on the experience. Mitchell and de Lange (2011) relate visual methods for collecting data as creating agency for the participants through the shared production of videos, as this has the potential to elicit community members’ views in regards to particular social problems. We would argue, however, that it is important to avoid the assumption that visual methods in data collection will foster participation. The relationships between researcher and participants are the important starting point in visual research and the approach should be relational and context specific.

O’Donoghue (2011) proposes that working with artists can draw attention to things that often go unnoticed, providing alternative ways of thinking about how visual means of data collection, analysis and representation are used. Indeed, this is a point that is picked up by Parry, and also Claisse and Sun in their respective chapters on remixing, creativity and mess, where they show the importance of combining academic knowhow with that of professional design and film-making techniques. What we are arguing in this book is that the future of visual research seems to lie in the co-production of knowledge across visual industries and academia.

Visual research is a fragmented field

Kress (2003) shows us how the visual mode has become an increasingly important part of everyday practices when he describes that ‘simultaneous social, economic, communicational and technological changes’ (p. 9) have brought about increasingly multimodal communication practices. Modes are a range of resources such as writing, music, gesture and speech, of which the visual is also one. These modes are increasingly combined in the creation and dissemination of messages across media. Importantly, studies on contemporary practices of combining communicative modes (e.g. Jewitt, 2002; Kress 1997, 2003; Pink, 2001; Walker and Lewis, 1998) suggest that digital technologies have altered the connection between and frequency with which modes are combined. As a result the visual mode now plays an increasingly important role in communication practices where once writing was dominant (Kress, 2003). Following this, it is not surprising that social science research on aspects of visual culture and/or using visual research methods continues to increase.

It is unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising, that given this history Pauwel (2011) writes in reference to social science research that ‘visual methods ... seem to be reinvented over and over again without gaining much methodological depth and often without consideration of long-existing classics in the field’ (p. 3). Although there have been developments in the social sciences over the last 15–20 years to incorporate visual methods, there are so many other disciplines that have a longer history of the visual, both in terms of creation and research methods – such as archaeology, architecture, landscape and anthropology. In relation to this Pink (2003) rightly calls for ‘a certain openness and that we are well informed about the ideas in one another’s respective disciplines and their historical developments’ (p. 191). We feel there is much to be learned from listening to other disciplines – it was one of the reasons for this book project. Through our own research with children and young people we have come to realise that in addition to this, visual research methods for children and young people also tend to be simplified versions of those designed for use with adults.

Visual methods in this book

The visual methods discussed in this book are two-fold: first, those used in research by academics working with children and young people; and second, those used by people working in visual industries who are creating artefacts, experiences and performances for children and young people. We use the term ‘visual methods’ to describe research methods and approaches that have a visual element to them whether in creation, analysis or dissemination. The ones we detail in the following chapters include some that are traditionally used in social science research, such as drawings (Hall, Chapter 10), maps (Hackett, Chapter 3), films (Parry, Chapter 6), and those that are less common, such as animations (Yamada-Rice, Chapter 3), dens (Procter, Chapter 4), rap performances (Hatton, Chapter 4) and the use of emojis (Claisse and Sun, Chapter 7).

The practitioners in the visual industries we invited to take part in this project were purposely drawn from a range of disciplines who use different visual methods in their work, including children’s TV content (Davenport, Chapter 5), exhibitions (Wood-Walker and Scott, Chapter 8), performance arts (Harris, Chapter 5 and Lee, Chapter 8), painting and animation (Peel, Chapter 5), artefacts (Burtonwood, Chapter 5 and Adamson, Chapter 12), picture-book creation (Thandi, Chapter 12) and illustrations (Woodhead, Chapter 12).

The influence of the visual industries

We began our dialogue with the visual industries partners at a workshop, which aimed to bring together academics using visual research approaches to exchange practices with people creating visual outputs for children and young people. As a starting point we asked the industry representatives whether they saw a difference between creating for or with children and young people and what the process entailed. The ultimate aim of this was to gain insights from more established visual fields that could be useful in thinking about the future of the visual mode within social science research. Samples of such discussions are presented in a question and answer format that can be found at the end of each part: Chapter 5 (production and meaning making), Chapter 8 (remix, creativity and mess) and Chapter 12 (beyond ethics).

Both of us have been influenced by the visual industries in our own work and approaches. Yamada-Rice has a fine arts and art history background. Also her recent research has been with industry partners, including: working on an industry sabbatical with Dubit Ltd, a digital games company, to develop a blueprint for including children in digital game design; working with hospital play specialists and videogames designers Stripey Design and Distinctive Games on an AHRC-funded project to consider the design of digital games for hospitalised children; and working with cbeebies, Dubit and Foundling Bird Ltd on an ESRC-funded project to consider the role of creativity and play in app design. In her research work, Stirling (2014) has been heavily influenced by her training as a product designer and she takes a user-centred approach that utilises a design thinking methodology (Cross, 2001). The importance of a multidisciplinary dialogue with industry is an overriding philosophy in the teaching at the Sheffield Inst...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction
• Part I  Production and Meaning Making
• Part II  Remixing, Creativity and Mess
• Part III  Beyond Ethics
• Index