Exploring the ethics of the participant-produced archive: The complexities of dissemination

Abstract

Cellphilm methodology is a process where research participants create short cellphone videos in an effort to move toward social change. Cellphilms can be disseminated across physical spaces (eg. through sharing phone-to-phone and through screenings) and digital spaces (eg. by uploadig to social media sites). This chapter focuses on the use of participatory digital archives, such as YouTube, as a means for teachers to view and review their cellphilms to encourage reflection on teacher identity and the use of cellphilms as an educational tool. We see cellphilming as an emerging participatory research methodology and its integration with online participatory digital archives holds both promise and challenges. As such, our chapter explores the development of a researcher/participant collaborative cellphilm archive in a project with pre-service social studies teachers at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. We discuss some of the ethical issues that are associated with relying on YouTube as a digital archival space when conducting visual participatory research with pre-service teachers.