As researchers working with youth in educational settings, we enter the research setting with a clear power differential. We used photo projects with the aim of fostering an environment where youth might express themselves freely and choose the starting point for our conversations. In this article, we share our experiences conducting photo-elicitation with youth at a nongovernmental organization in Guatemala and with high school students in Solomon Islands. It is hard for youth to vocalize the tensions and contradictions they experience growing up in contexts where coloniality continues to exert power in daily life. We suggest that using photo projects as an ethnographic method allows youth to reflect on their identities and desires for the future in a way that opens doors to conversations and reduces the power differential between researcher and participant. This is especially important in educational settings, which often rely on Western standards to shape the futures that young people imagine for themselves.
Voicing Contradictions: Photo-Elicitation as an Ethnographic Method in Youth-Centered Research
Rachel Emerine Hicks is a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of California, San Diego. She is trained as a sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist and has conducted ethnographic research on topics related to multilingualism, language shift, secondary education, and youth in Oceania. Her current research examines the educational experiences and opportunities of youth in Solomon Islands as they navigate their cultural values and ethnolinguistic identities, the demands of globalization, and their desires for the future.
Marianinna Villavicencio Miranda holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California San Diego and is currently the Senior Associate Director of DEIB at Lake Forest College. Trained as a sociocultural anthropologist, her research examines the unintended and often ambivalent impact of human rights and social justice programs on historically and intentionally marginalized communities. Grounded in ethnographic practices, her work in the highlands of Guatemala analyzes the way reproductive health interventions produce sites where equality and the right to a “good life” are both contested and reimagined.
Rachel Emerine Hicks, Marianinna Villavicencio Miranda; Voicing Contradictions: Photo-Elicitation as an Ethnographic Method in Youth-Centered Research. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 1 June 2024; 13 (2): 27–52. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2024.13.2.27
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University of California Press