(Re)imagining success through photovoice: highlighting a research and teaching strategy that could be useful in physics/stem education

Abstract

Students, especially those facing multiple marginalization, often have limited exposure to opportunities to formulate and express their opinions and interests. This article highlights the use of photovoice, a participatory qualitative research method that enables participants to capture and communicate their perceptions, reality, and social landscapes using the power of visual imagery. Working with minoritized students attending a public charter middle school, the photovoice project reveals how students (re)imagine success and how these conceptualizations mirror a preferred sociocultural learning style. A style which is in tension to the analytic approach offered in their charter school. The photovoice method could be useful in the physics/STEM education research community, particularly to reshape how “bridge programs” that prepare minoritized students to enter STEM degree programs, might (re)imagine success by empowering participants in those programs to share what success looks like to them.