A picture's worth a thousand words: Enhancing qualitative data collection with rich pictures

Abstract

The use of qualitative research methods is growing among scholars interested in exploring and understanding the distinct context of anatomy education. While verbal and text-based methods like interviews and focus groups are frequently used for data collection, anatomy education scholars may benefit from including visual methods such as photovoice or diagramming in their data collection toolbox. Often used in conjunction with oral, language-based qualitative methods, visual methods aid researchers in exploring phenomena which may be difficult for participants to express. Rich pictures are a type of visual method which has gained popularity in the health professions education literature. Generated through asking participants to draw a detailed representation of a particular situation, rich pictures can afford researchers deeper insight into participants' perspectives and experiences while exploring complex phenomena within the context of teaching and learning. This article provides a four-part description of rich pictures to support the application of this visual method within qualitative anatomical sciences education research by: (1) describing the background and offering an overview of this method, (2) explaining how to use rich pictures as an elicitation tool during interviews to stimulate participants' reflections and responses, (3) offering two analysis strategies for interpreting the visual content created through rich pictures (i.e., visual grammar for systematically analyzing the features of a participant's drawing, and gallery walks for engaging research teams in collaborative analysis of the collection of all study participants' drawings), and (4) providing reflections on the use of rich pictures in anatomic science education's qualitative studies.