Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress International Special Education Conference Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity? 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland

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Listening to children’s voices:
the use of images in inclusive education

Mr Ian Kaplan
EENET, c/o School of Education, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PL
ian.Kaplan@manchester.ac.uk

Co-presenter: Miss Ingrid Lewis

Using images to promote reflection was one of a range of action research methods developed collaboratively by researchers linked to the Enabling Education Network (EENET) at the University of Manchester and colleagues in Zambia and Tanzania. School communities in Mpika, Zambia, and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania provided the context for the action research study within which this image-based work took place.   EENET is a participatory international network which provides information about including all children in education, focusing on income-poor countries. The network makes easy-to-read information about inclusive education available through its website and newsletter, and by responding to individual enquiries.

In Tanzania the study focused on five primary schools and one special school in Dar es Salaam, which had all been designated as pilot inclusive education schools by the Ministry of Education. In Zambia 12 primary and basic schools in the Mpika area were involved in the study, including two schools which had special units attached. In both countries there was already some experience of implementing inclusive practices - with a particular emphasis on disabled children and those identified as having special needs. The research facilitator in Zambia has continued to develop an action research approach to his in-service teacher education role in the Mpika area. In collaboration with EENET, the use of images in action research has been further explored as part of the dissemination phase of the project, funded by DFID.

The study was exploratory, short-term, small-scale and carried out on a very low budget in each country – approximately £10,000 in each country over two years . It was important to adopt a sustainable approach to action research if it was going to be continued after the life of the project.

Using photography

We adopted an experimental approach to the use of images in this study. Our thinking developed in an organic way in response to the feedback received from the children, parents and teachers in both countries. It took time to develop the necessary skills and capacity to incorporate an image-based approach during the study, and our learning is ongoing. Subsequent visits to Zambia in September 2004 and May 2005 have further helped to refine the methods used, and in particular to involve children as central players in capturing images (photographs and drawings) of their own educational experiences.

Building on Delamont’s suggestion of devising strategies for “making the familiar bizarre, unusual and novel” so that “the familiarity is thus thrown into relief by the unfamiliar” (Delamont, 1992:45), we used images to stimulate reflection and a new way of looking at the familiar.

On a visit to Zambia in July 2002 one of the UK-based research facilitators took a set of over 200 digital photographs, being careful not to take close-up photographs in order not to intrude, and to be conscious of child protection issues. A lot of effort was also made to take natural, rather than posed shots.

Following a discussion with UK colleagues about the use of photographs as part of an inclusive education project in an economically deprived part of the UK, a decision was taken (midway through the study) to use photographs to elicit responses in focus groups and during workshops. This was also inspired by recent literature on photo elicitation and image-based research (Prosser, 1998), in which photos are used to elicit responses as part of research interviews (Harper, 2002).

Pairs of digital photographs were selected by the UK-based research facilitators and printed in black and white in size A4 for use in the field. The photos were grouped under headings such as the external environment, classroom practice, disability, and working in groups. The images were sent to Tanzania as a suggested activity for a series of writing workshops which were taking places as part of the action research study. The aim was to encourage research participants to reflect on their own familiar situations using the unfamiliar photographs from Zambia as a stimulus.

Three focus groups of children, parents and teachers were formed and each asked to respond to a set of questions, prepared by the research facilitators in Tanzania. The whole exercise was carried out in KiSwahili. It was then translated into English and sent to the UK. In analysing the responses to this exercise, it seemed clear that it had provoked a different quality of discussion than some of the other action research methods used, such as mind maps, brainstorming, interviewing, and so on. In a   very short time the participants had identified some of the key themes in inclusive education in the Tanzanian context. These were: school environments (both outside and inside the classroom); teaching methodology and training; and collaboration, including listening to children’s voices.

The photographs provoked comments such as:

• “Our school is not like this.”
• “This classroom is not inclusive – it is too crowded.”
• “We do not sit in groups like this.”

The children reacted quite differently to the photos. For example, in reaction to a picture taken in a special unit for deaf children the teachers and parents groups commented on the fact that it was a very small class in which some children were sitting alone with no apparent activity. However the children inferred that some children had been punished and made to sit alone, perhaps because they had been naughty. This led to a much longer discussion about the use of corporal punishment in schools and teacher cruelty.

It made sense, methodologically, to use the images to stimulate an open discussion about inclusion (Banks, 1998). It enabled a discussion to take place which went beyond disability, which is so often a central concern in the inclusive education debate. It also gave the facilitators a good idea of the way the research participants were thinking about the issue, and so enabled them to begin to analyse their existing ideas and experience. A great deal was achieved in a relatively short amount of time within a one day workshop which involved a range of other related activities.

In addition to using photographs taken by a UK researcher to stimulate discussions among adults and children, we facilitated primary-school children in Zambia to take their own photographs and create displays. We made a decision at the beginning to use digital and re-usable 35mm cameras, not so-called ‘disposable’ cameras, although we know that these have been used to good effect in visual research (for example, Schratz and Steiner-Löffler (1998), Karlsson (2001). Our decision was made in keeping with our commitment to develop a sustainable approach to the capacity building of teachers and the development of information technology and photography skills, and to discourage a ‘throw-away’ mentality.

By taking their own photographs (negotiating in groups what to photograph and how to present the prints) children were able to engage in discussions about aspects of their school and their education that they felt were inclusive or exclusive. They were able to present views to their peers and to teachers/parents about issues that often had not been discussed before. The children (and the adults) increasingly appreciated the role that children can and should play in the development and improvement of the school. By identifying and photographing ‘problems’ (unwelcoming/exclusive aspects of school) or ‘solutions’ (welcoming/inclusive aspects) the children became more aware of what was happening in the school and the community. The familiar, that was previously unseen by most, became less familiar once they looked closely. On seeing the images and hearing the children’s discussions, the adults also began to open up and share more information about aspects of school life and the education system they had previously thought too complex or too ‘adult’ for children to understand.

The children thus felt more interested and/or more able to suggest improvements, or even to take direct action themselves to make improvements (most notably with improving the cleanliness of the school environment). The quality of the children’s photographs, displays and discussions impressed their teachers, and has encouraged them to adapt some of the elements of the photography activity (group work, discussions, etc) for use in their day-to-day teaching and learning practice. The teachers felt the approach would help them to put into practice the theory of children’s rights and listening to children’s voices that they had previously believed in but not known how to implement.

Engaging with images enabled the Zambian and Tanzanian research facilitators and participants to reflect on what the concept of inclusive education meant in their context. It is also a way of making research more accessible to a wider range of participants, including children, whatever their level of formal education or literacy. Images can play an important role in stimulating people to think about and communicate their own experience.

Representing potential barriers to learning and participation visually is, however, not an easy task. For example, how can an image portray whether girls have equal access to the educational process and are fairly treated? Harsh physical punishments given by teachers, inflexible curricula, undemocratic practices in classrooms, rigid teaching methodology and the lack of mother tongue teaching are some examples of educational barriers affecting large numbers of children in many countries in the world, yet these may be harder to capture visually. Although images can play a useful role in presenting these perspectives, therefore, we would argue that they are best used in combination with written, and other forms of, documentation and communication.

Conclusion

From the evidence of this small study we have been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of using images to stimulate reflection. Photo elicitation methods of engaging research participants in reflecting on their existing experiences, using images of familiar teaching and learning environments proved to be both immediate and thought-provoking. It was also a way in which people with very different types of knowledge, skills and perspectives could think more deeply about their understanding and experience of inclusive education.

The use of images in educational research is relatively new in the field of qualitative research and as a result “it lacks a history of accepted ethical practice or a range of theoretical positions on which to base ethical judgements” (Prosser, 2000:116). Initially we were concerned about child protection issues and were careful to conceal the identities of individual children. However, over time, more subtle ethical dilemmas emerged such as the desire of participants for their identity to be known, rather than anonymised. Many of the ethical issues we have raised in this article, such as child protection, anonymity and sustainable approaches to capacity building, have relevance beyond image-based action research. For instance, we see a clear link between issues of power, control and ownership of research and the research process, and the right of participants to have access to the process, the findings and the products (in this case the images, which were left with the schools rather than taken away by external researchers).

From our limited experience in using images to promote reflection, it appears that they can be used as part of action research to bridge the gap between oral and literacy-based cultures, and between adult and child perspectives. This image-based approach can also help to communicate ideas in contexts where a range of different languages are used, and, potentially, this helps make research accessible to people who have learning difficulties. Our research has led us to conclude that images can be a relevant and accessible form of engagement, particularly in the context of oral cultures.

References

Banks, M. (1998). ‘Visual Anthropology: Image, Object and Interpretation’ in J.

Prosser (ed.) Image-based Research. London: Routledge Falmer

Delamont, S. (1992) Fieldwork in Educational Settings: Methods, Pitfalls and Perspectives. London: The Falmer Press

Harper, D. (2002) ‘Talking About Pictures: A Case for Photo Elicitation’. Visual Studies, 17(1) pp.13-26

Karlsson, J. (2001) 'Doing visual research with young learners in

South Africa' Visual Sociology, 16(2):23-37.

Prosser, J. (1998) (ed.) Image-based Research: A source book for qualitative researchers. London: Routledge Falmer

Schratz, M and Steiner-Löffler, U. (1998) Pupils using photographs in school self-evaluation. In J. Prosser (ed) Image-based Research: A source book for qualitative researchers. London: Routledge Falmer.

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