Photovoice: Integrating Course-Based Research in Undergraduate and Graduate Social Work Education

Abstract

Research skills are vital to students’ professional careers and must be cultivated in the social work curriculum. While students and faculty may hesitate to participate in a course-based research project, the authors believe that the Photovoice method is easily adapted to a variety of class and student needs. Photovoice is a field-oriented and qualitative research method that visually documents and communicates community assets and needs. The first purpose of this article is to offer Photovoice as a potential model for instructors to implement a course-based research project. The second purpose is to quantitatively assess changes in students’ reported confidence in social work topics and research activities. Data revealed that the students reported increased confidence in the majority of the content and research evaluated; content examples include economic justice and determinants of social inequalities; research examples include analysing data for patterns and identifying the limitations of research methods. The data illustrate the pedagogical power of Photovoice.

Introduction

Research plays a central role in social work education. To best prepare students for a variety of careers, educators must integrate research exposure throughout the curriculum and practicum. Instructors may hesitate to include a research component in non-research courses, in part due to their own discomfort with the material and/or because of student anxiety (e.g. Adam et al., 2004; Harder, 2010). This article describes a course-based research experience that used Photovoice, a visual research methodology that assesses, records and communicates community assets and needs (Catalani and Minkler, 2010); this methodology was selected to expose students to qualitative research methods to explore local challenges from a social justice perspective. The article details how we designed a Social Determinants of Health course around the use of Photovoice and offers a quantitative assessment of its effects on students’ learning. While previous assessments of course-based Photovoice projects rely on student qualitative reflections to assess learning, we utilise pre- and post-scores to reveal the value of the method as a teaching tool.

Relevant literature

Course-based research experiences

The centrality of research in social work education is of international relevance (Fish, 2015). The UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (2019) for Higher Education’s Subject Benchmark Statement for Social Work asserts the importance of research throughout a variety of social work subject areas and skills; for example, the document stresses that students understand their role as ‘consumers and producers of social science research’ (p. 12) to the benefit of practice and policy. The U.S.-based Council of Social Work Education (2015) identifies nine competencies that support academic excellence; Competency 4, ‘Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice’, emphasises the ‘science’ of social work, including the systematic process of scientific inquiry and the ethical considerations involved in research. Importantly, the integration of research into the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) curriculum can raise the discipline’s profile (Lyons, 2000; Lewis, 2003) and teach students that the profession is developed on a scientific foundation (Adam et al., 2004; Beddoe, 2011)—valuable instruction to majors and non-majors alike.

Scholarship documents the benefits of engaging students in research, particularly undergraduate students. Undergraduate research is one of the 11 high-impact educational practices named by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (Kuh, 2008). Participating in this experiential learning can increase anticipation for higher education, strengthen content knowledge, improve critical thinking and prepare students for graduate school and/or the workforce (Russell et al., 2007; Cameron and Este, 2008; Corwin et al., 2015). Thus, integrating research in the social work curriculum supports students’ future efforts in practice, policy and/or engaged citizenship (Orme and Powell, 2006).

Research-related anxiety

While the value and benefits of research in the social work curriculum are clear, students and instructors may resist its integration (Lundahl, 2008; Gibbs and Stirling, 2010; Morgenshtern et al., 2011; Bolin et al., 2012). Students often begin course-based research experiences with various obstructive attitudes because they view research projects as mysterious and challenging (e.g. Cameron and Este, 2008; Harder, 2010; Shortlidge et al., 2016) or even bifurcated from social work practice (Bellinger et al., 2014). Such aversion is not limited to students.

Although previous scholarship documents social work academics’ enthusiasm for completing independent research projects (Moriarty et al., 2015), they also confront a ‘circle of resistance’ to teaching research, including but not limited to, high teaching loads and opposition to being aligned with academia (Orme and Powell, 2006). Furthermore, there is no consensus on the purpose of teaching research—the need to critically assess research evidence or prepare students to carry out research are dominant themes, but there is no universal agreement (MacIntyre and Paul, 2013). These complex issues reflect the ‘profession’s deep-rooted climate of research resistance’ (Adam et al., 2004, p. 6). (For a detailed historical look at research in social work, see Adam et al., 2004).

Part of this anxiety stems from limited exposure to research in the curriculum; the department’s research methods course may be the only opportunity for students to carry out research and instructors to lead it. Integration throughout the curriculum to build student’s ‘knowledge, confidence, and appreciation for research’ (Adam et al., 2004, p. 6) is paramount (Cameron and Este, 2008; MacIntyre and Paul, 2013).

Photovoice

Photovoice is a well-established research tool that promotes social justice and community collaboration (Peabody, 2013; Moya et al., 2019) and has been adapted as a pedagogical tool to promote course-based research (Schell et al., 2009; McGovern, 2017). Photovoice works well to introduce students to data collection and analysis; it uses cameras, a tool familiar to students; it is field-oriented and community-based; and it is qualitative, which helps address student anxiety, much of which is attributable to the mathematical analysis required by quantitative methods (Pan and Tang, 2004).

Photovoice uses photography to research, visually document and communicate community assets and needs (Catalani and Minkler, 2010) by enabling participants to convey their personal experience and to shape their own narratives (Wang and Burris, 1997). The Photovoice method is grounded in feminist theory, the principles of Freire's (1970) education for critical consciousness, and participatory approaches to documentary photography (Wang et al., 2000).

Similar to any data collection approach, Photovoice has limitations; Nykiforuk et al. (2011) document a few constraints. For those implementing the project in-person and over numerous meetings, geography may prove restrictive to implementing Photovoice. The method typically prevents large sample sizes, and relatedly, may result in homogenous samples. Lastly, the method usually relies on participants to self-select into the study. These aspects can limit the generalisability of the findings.

Photovoice as a research, advocacy and pedagogical tool aligns with social work values and practices. In the community and/or classroom, it can centre the lived experience, honour a community’s expertise, communicate across language barriers, amplify knowledge and promote social change.

For the above reasons, the method has frequently been used by social workers and educators in both field and classroom. In the field, scholars have used the method with a variety of projects: residents living in US public housing communicated strengths that promote a healthy community environment (Freedman et al., 2014); activists in Flint, Michigan advocated for a diversity of local issues such as violence prevention (Wang and Redwood-Jones, 2001); Nigerian immigrants’ explored dietary practices in Pennsylvania, USA (Turk et al., 2015); adults experiencing homelessness in the US Southwest communicated a call to action to change the conditions that shaped their lives (Moya et al., 2017); and Latina survivors of intimate partner violence in Texas proposed recommendations to promote sexual and reproductive health (Moya et al., 2014). Because this methodology provides participant-driven, participant-selected data that reflect their own perspectives and concerns, it is an especially effective method for working with marginalised populations (Bromfield and Capous-Desyllas, 2017).

Facilitators or researchers using Photovoice begin by providing participants with cameras and training, both in how to use the camera and in ethical considerations around photography. The training is followed with a series of prompts that is intended to empower participants to document their lives, community and environment (Wang and Burris, 1997). After participants have had time to take their photographs (a few days or week), they usually return to a group setting to share interpretations of their photographs (Bromfield and Capous-Desyllas, 2017).

Photovoice has been used as a pedagogical tool in classrooms. For example, Johnson (2010) collaborated with non-profits to use the method in a macro social work practice course in which students collaborated with practitioners to help low-income, first-time mothers photograph their lives. Gutierrez and Wolff (2017) integrated Photovoice into a health sciences core course in which students explored disparities in the communities they serve. Johnson (2010) reports that the Photovoice project fostered stronger relationships with community partners, helped students meet learning objectives and influenced policy makers. Gutierrez and Wolff (2017) report that the use of the method increased students’ content understanding and inspired student action. These are common benefits reported (Peabody, 2013; Bonnycastle and Bonnycastle, 2015; Bromfield and Capous-Desyllas, 2017).

Instructors who implement Photovoice projects often do so because they wish to integrate active and experiential learning methods (Bonnycastle and Bonnycastle, 2015; Rania et al., 2017) and/or arts-based visual methods (Bromfield and Capous-Desyllas, 2017). In fact, social work instructors have a long history of effectively incorporating visual tools into the curriculum, including, but not limited to, videos, mind maps and virtual reality (Ello 2007; Drolet et al., 2015; Huttar and BrintzenhofeSzoc, 2020). However, Photovoice is less frequently discussed as a tool for introducing students to qualitative research methods.

Assessment

Photovoice is used across a variety of disciplines, with diverse content, class sizes and structure. Considering such diversity, evaluation tools require different strategies as well. Current assessments of this method in the classroom tend to focus on themes identified in student photographs and narratives, participant observation, post-Photovoice faculty reflections and/or students’ written feedback (e.g. Johnson, 2010; Mulder and Dull, 2014; Bonnycastle and Bonnycastle, 2015). While valuable, these qualitative post-assessments are too often informal and cannot measure learning growth. Missing from most studies are quantitative pre- and post-intervention measures. As Mulder and Dull (2014) point out, rigorous evaluation of new social work teaching models has not kept pace with their use—a difficulty that is compounded for approaches considered experiential and/or arts-based. We, therefore, sought to quantitatively assess and analyse how the use of Photovoice affected students’ confidence in their knowledge of social work topics and their confidence in carrying out research activities.

A Photovoice project in a social determinants of health course

University context

The Photovoice project, course and associated assessment occurred in the Department of Social Work at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a southwest metropolitan university along the USA–Mexico border. UTEP is a Hispanic-Serving Institution with more than 23,000 students enrolled. Because of UTEP’s commitment to access and excellence, about 50 per cent of its students are first-generation, and on average, its students provide twenty hours of dependent care per week (Collins et al., 2017). The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work and has more than 150 students enrolled at the BSW and MSW level.

Course and photovoice project implementation

The Photovoice project was implemented by the authors of this article, who co-taught the Social Determinants of Health course (fall 2017), an upper-division, interdisciplinary, social work elective course that was cross-listed in the Departments of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies. The course was supported by a National Institutes of Health-funded programme grant for Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity: Southwest Consortium of Health-Oriented Education Leaders and Research Scholars (BUILDing SCHOLARS), a centre of excellence at UTEP. The seminar-style sixteen-week course met once a week with six undergraduate and four master’s students enrolled.

The course’s title refers to the social factors—including sexism, racism and geography—that profoundly affect patterns of health and illness (Solar and Irwin, 2010). Using a social justice lens, the co-instructors selected and implemented curriculum—readings, films, guest presenters and discussions—that would examine individual and population-level health and the theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the social determinants of health.

We chose to implement Photovoice in this course because we wanted a meaningful assignment that would deepen students’ understanding of root causes of inequalities and introduce them to qualitative research methods. We followed a model similar to other instructors (e.g. Mulder and Dull, 2014; Bonnycastle and Bonnycastle, 2015; Bromfield and Capous-Desyllas, 2017; McGovern, 2017). Students were assigned readings on the method; we also devoted numerous class periods across the semester to this project. To help students understand the agency of visual images, a first-day activity asked each student to choose a photograph from a pile and describe why that photograph attracted their attention; this activity helped students begin to understand the power of photos and the messages they convey. During Week 3, we devoted the entire class session to introducing Photovoice as a research methodology, advocacy model and pedagogical tool.

We offered students the opportunity to borrow digital cameras. Most students used smartphones. The instructors discussed the logistics of photo taking, and the ethical issues involved, such as safety, the right to privacy and informed consent (Wang and Redwood-Jones, 2001). Each student was provided with a UTEP Institutional Review Board-approved letter of introduction and consent forms for any identifiable person they photographed, although we did not require that students take photographs of people.

Students were nervous about how their photographs and narratives would be evaluated; we informed them that they would not be graded on the technical merit of the photographs, but on the timely completion of the assignment. Over the semester, students took photographs inspired by themes found in the readings and in response to instructor-written prompts (Table 1). The prompts were designed to encourage them to consider the subject matter of the course, to focus attention on their personal and community-wide experiences, and, to promote social action. Each prompt or framing question was introduced a week prior to the assignment due date.

Table 1.

Photovoice prompts

Prompt	Week assigned within the semester	Description
1	3	Who are the people, natural and human-made features and social systems that make up our community? What is the quality of life and health in our community?
2	4	What do disparities look like and mean to you? (Regarding health, society, economics, etc.)
3	5	As informed by course readings and your life experiences, unpack the disparity in health that you are most passionate about.
4	8	Choose a disparity of your choice and (A) make bold recommendations for upstream actions and (B) What are you capable of doing to reduce the disparity?

To complete each prompt, students independently generated and printed at least 10 photographs, then sorted through and selected 2–4 to write accompanying SHOWeD forms. SHOWeD is a set of directed questions to guide analysis developed by Wang (2006). The acronym stands for ‘What do we See here? What is really Happening here? How does this relate to Our lives? Why does this situation, concern, or strength Exist? What can we Do about it?’ (p. 188). SHOWeD is commonly utilised to prompt photo discussion or analysis, however, other facilitators have developed their own set of directed questions and/or encouraged participants to modify SHOWeD questions (Hergenrather et al., 2009).

The instructors reserved time, during four classes, for students to paste their photographs, SHOWeD forms and consent forms (for those students who had photographed people) to large self-stick easel pad sheets and to informally present to their peers and instructors. We believed that this exercise was particularly helpful to develop social work skills, because, as Mulder and Dull (2014, p. 1020) have suggested,

by sharing their responses with peers in the classroom, students could have the opportunity to absorb the perspectives of others and recognize the validity of multiple perspectives in response to the same set of prompts. This complements social workers’ ability to recognize multiple and diverse perspectives.

After completing all four prompts, students had a wealth of visual and narrative responses from which to create a PowerPoint presentation to share at the end of the semester. The goal of this presentation was to explore the social determinants of a health disparity by weaving class readings, student-generated photos and narratives. The nature of the method required that students conclude their presentation with a Call to Action; therefore, UTEP faculty and administrators as well as local community leaders attended these presentations. The oral presentation was assessed separately from the PowerPoint slides. Students also prepared a project-related essay as part of their final exam.

Methods

Pedagogical evaluation procedure

To assess students’ perceived level of knowledge of social work topics and their confidence to carry out research activities, the students completed voluntary and confidential surveys. University evaluators conducted this assessment as part of other Institutional Review Board-approved responsibilities associated with BUILDing SCHOLARS. The assessment included a quantitative pre-survey the first week of class, and a quantitative post-survey at the end of the semester. The survey questions asked students to self-rate their confidence in performing research activities and perceived level of knowledge of social work topics. The co-teachers added specialised questions to the surveys to assess course-specific learning outcomes. Of the ten students enrolled, eight consented and completed both the pre-course and post-course evaluation surveys.

Based on the unique outputs of the project, the authors submitted a separate UTEP IRB project to analyse students’ photos. While the Photovoice assignment was a required part of the course, students were given the option to voluntarily consent to our use of the photos. In this separate consent process, all ten students agreed to allow the authors to publicly share their photograph submissions.

Sample

The surveys collected participant demographic data (N = 8). All eight students identified as female. Six self-identified as being Hispanic/Latino/a, one self-identified as being Black or African American, and one left the response blank. One student reported being a junior, four reported being seniors and three reported being graduate students. While the curriculum focused on social work, the course enrolled a high number of non-social work majors. Some of the students were taking the course for sociology or women and gender studies credit; however, they were still learning the content and skills associated with social work. Four students reported that they had not participated in research before; three students reported having participated in a research programme and/or spending time in a research lab prior to the course and one student reported being previously employed in research.

Measures

Our research examines enrolled students’ perceived gains in knowledge and in level of confidence in conducting research. To answer the research questions, we rely on self-reported knowledge offered in the surveys. All student responses were recorded on a 5-point scale, with response categories being ‘not at all’ (i) ‘slightly’ (ii), ‘somewhat’ (iii), ‘very’ (iv) and ‘extremely’ (v).

The first set of questions asks students to self-assess their level of knowledge on seven items related to the course content: social work and social determinants of health. This section asked, ‘How knowledgeable are you currently about the following topics?’ The assessed topics include the social factors contributing to health inequalities, methodological approaches, and determinants of social inequalities, risk factors, principles of justice, Photovoice and ethics.

The second set of questions focuses on assessing confidence levels in conducting general research activities. The students were presented with items that were adopted from the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (Weston and Laursen, 2015) to use in pre- and post-surveys. The items are used in course evaluation surveys across courses and disciplines at UTEP, and we, therefore, report only on eight items applicable to our course curriculum. This section asked, ‘How confident are you currently to conduct the following general research activities?’ The assessed activities include analysing data for patterns, problem-solving, identifying the limitations of research, understanding theory and concepts that guide research, critically reading articles, recognising a sound argument, delivering oral presentations and explaining your research to others.

The final set of questions asked students about their confidence in conducting social work research activities, like ‘How confident are you currently to conduct the following research activities?’ The assessed activities include: identifying factors that influence people’s health status, using multiple frameworks to analyse social inequalities, identifying strategies of advocacy, analysing contemporary issues, assessing how the structure of current social welfare policies affects people, assessing how the structure of current welfare policies affect the USA–Mexico border region, critically evaluating evidence, exploring data related to health disparities, capturing images of everyday life and work and articulating social determinants of health through Photovoice.

We expected to find reported knowledge gains between the pre- and post-course data in specialised social work knowledge, Photovoice knowledge and research methods.

Analysis

All analyses were done in SPSS version 24 (SPSS Inc., 2016). Paired sample t tests were not conducted for question subscales because of the small number of responses (N = 8). Instead, the descriptive statistics are included below, as well as the mean and standard deviation.

Results

Table 2 shows the results from the pre- and post-course surveys assessing students’ perceived knowledge about social work and social determinants of health. Post-course, score means increased for all measures, indicating students felt more knowledgeable in all topics.

Table 2.

Reported Knowledge in Social Work Topics (N = 8).

Topic	Pre/post	Mean	Standard deviation
The social factors contributing to health inequalities (the relationships between diversity, poverty, race, ethnicity, gender and health, mental illness and substance abuse)	Pre	3.50	0.54
	Post	4.25	0.46
Methodological approaches to the study of social determinants of health	Pre	2.75	1.17
	Post	3.88	0.35
Underlying determinants of social inequalities (causes, consequences and the relationship to individual health) and their relationship to social welfare policy	Pre	3.25	1.04
	Post	4.00	0.54
Risk factors and populations at risk	Pre	3.50	1.07
	Post	4.13	0.35
Principles of social and economic justice	Pre	3.63	0.92
	Post	4.00	0.76
Photovoice, a qualitative method for community-based participatory research, as a tool to document a range of health issues	Pre	2.00	0.93
	Post	3.88	0.64
Ethical issues involved in using Photovoice in a research project	Pre	2.13	1.13
	Post	4.50	0.54

Results from pre- and post-course surveys reported in Table 3 indicate how confident students felt conducting general research activities. As evident, the majority of the post-course scores increased, indicating growing self-confidence. Interestingly, one research activity decreased between the reported pre- and post-course scores, the measure of recognising a sound argument and appropriate use of evidence.

Table 3.

Reported Confidence Conducting General Research Activities (N = 8).

Research activity	Pre/post	Mean (Standard deviation)
Analysing data for patterns	Pre	3.57 (0.79)
	Post	4.38 (0.52)
Problem solving in general	Pre	3.63 (0.74)
	Post	4.13 (0.64)
Identifying the limitations of research methods and designs	Pre	3.25 (0.89)
	Post	3.88 (0.84)
Understanding theory and concepts that guide research	Pre	3.50 (0.93)
	Post	3.88 (0.35)
Critically reading articles about issues raised in class	Pre	4.0 (0.76)
	Post	4.25 (0.71)
Recognising a sound argument and appropriate use of evidence	Pre	3.88 (0.84)
	Post	3.63 (0.52)
Preparing and delivering oral presentations	Pre	3.25 (1.28)
	Post	4.25 (0.71)
Explaining your research/scholarly work to others	Pre	3.83 (0.92)
	Post	4.13 (0.84)

In the third and final section of the pre- and post-course surveys, students indicated how confident they felt regarding social work research activities. Post-course scores increased for all assessed activities. These data are reported in Table 4.

Table 4.

Reported Confidence in Conducting Social Work Research Activities (N = 8).

Research activity	Pre/post	Mean (Standard deviation)
Identify, analyse, and interpret the myriad of factors that influence people's health status using a social determinants of health lens	Pre	2.88 (0.99)
	Post	3.88 (0.64)
Use multiple frameworks to analyse social inequalities	Pre	3.25 (1.04)
	Post	3.75 (0.71)
Identify strategies of advocacy and social change to advance social and economic justice	Pre	3.29 (1.11)
	Post	4.00 (0.76)
Analyse contemporary issues in the development and implementation of social welfare policy	Pre	3.00 (1.20)
	Post	3.88 (0.64)
Assess how the structure of current social welfare policies affect men, women, and people of colour, various ages, ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, genders and physical and mental disabilities	Pre	3.43 (0.98)
	Post	4.25 (0.46)
Assess how the structure of current social welfare policies affect the USA–Mexico border region	Pre	3.50 (1.07)
	Post	3.63 (0.52)
Critically evaluate evidence for social determinants of health and identify gaps in the current knowledge base	Pre	3.00 (1.07)
	Post	3.88 (0.64)
Explore data related to local and regional and national health disparities	Pre	3.25 (1.04)
	Post	3.63 (0.74)
Capture images of everyday life and work	Pre	3.75 (1.28)
	Post	4.50 (0.54)
Articulate social determinants of health through a Photovoice presentation (including the disparity, the root causes and recommendations for solutions)	Pre	3.00 (1.41)
	Post	3.88 (0.84)

Discussion

According to the literature on research in the social work curriculum, instructors and students often hesitate when asked to integrate or complete a course-based research project into the curriculum. However, social work scholars and practitioners attest to the need and the benefits for such integration. The discipline, therefore, needs to identify meaningful research tools that are accessible and high-impact practices. Since Wang and Burris (1997) introduced the Photovoice method, it has grown in popularity in the classroom, and a large body of literature documents the successful use as a pedagogical tool (e.g. Johnson, 2010; Gutierrez and Wolff, 2017). While much of the scholarship is framed in Photovoice’s ability to nurture community-oriented, art and collaborative skills (Johnson, 2010; Bonnycastle and Bonnycastle 2015; Gutierrez and Wolff, 2017), we add to the growing literature on its ability to introduce and develop research skills (Schell et al., 2009; Walsh et al., 2015; McGovern, 2017). Our one concern is the dominant assessment strategies used, like the majority of pedagogical articles, centre data from student/faculty written reflection, which is often focused on enjoyment of or interest in Photovoice, and content analysis of student-submitted photographs. Here, we offer a pre- and post-survey for assessment.

To assess our content and research-associated goals, we selected a survey focused on short-term student outcomes. Data reveal that the enrolled students reported increased confidence in the majority of the content and research activities evaluated. Importantly, the data indicate that Photovoice is a useful method for introducing, organising and enhancing content themes associated with social determinants of health. Although we did not collect data on a control group, the authors do not believe that the simultaneous teaching of methods and content reduced student learning in either category. In fact, we hypothesise that they complement one another, supporting student learning in both categories. Both the content and skills evaluated here are vital to students’ futures, whether they go into micro, mezzo or macro social work practice, or work outside of the field of social work. The relevance of research skills in any professional trajectory cannot be overstated; for future practitioners, our graduates with a strong grounding in research skills will document client outcomes, evaluate their practice and advocate for evidence-based practices. Similarly, a solid understanding of the determinants of health will enable students to engage and serve the community in a more comprehensive manner.

Our data indicate that Photovoice is a useful tool for teaching social work content and qualitative research methods in the higher education social work classroom—to majors and non-majors alike. The method was an ideal pedagogical resource to promote knowledge building in topics such as health inequalities and risk factors, which encouraged critical thinking and problem-based learning practices.

The data show increases in all self-reported measures of content and research skill mastery except one: recognising a sound argument and appropriate use of evidence. The mean pre-score was 3.88 and the mean post-course score was 3.63. While we were surprised to find this minor decline, we believe it is quite telling. Since most of our students were not social work majors, they may have not been familiar with the discipline’s central understandings, including that there are multiple ways of knowing (Council of Social Work Education, 2015). Because students collected, analysed and shared their own data, all of which was valued in the classroom, they were introduced to multiple and diverse perspectives. While the authors support Bellinger et al.'s (2014) ‘assertion that students can be equal contributors in generating knowledge in, and for practice’ (p. 58), the course assignments likely challenged how students perceived intellectual contributions and this decrease between pre- and post-course scores may represent their struggle with such a framework.

We believe that the findings can be translated and adapted into a variety of classrooms. Most college students have smart phones, making photography more accessible; students can take as many photos as they like, at a pace that is feasible for any course structure. Photovoice works for nearly any course topic and it would likely work well in online courses and for a diversity of learners. The tool can be used in independent projects or in paired and team projects. Every faculty member has finite resources and expanding responsibilities in their curriculum (MacIntyre and Paul, 2013); fortunately, a Photovoice-based research project may require less student-contact time than other types of research and is flexible enough to include across a variety of course topics. Still, we cannot claim that participation in this class was the only intervention that led to the students’ reported increase in knowledge and skills. Students build knowledge in these areas from a variety of sources, including other courses. That being said, we have no evidence to suggest that Photovoice nor the social determinants of health were an explicit focus of other courses on our campus, during the semester or the recent past.

Limitations

This project’s limitations are similar to those of other teaching and learning research efforts and/or evaluations of course-based research experiences: the small sample was not randomly selected and we offer this study from a single course. Future studies should address these limitations by including a control group, collecting longitudinal data and focusing on a larger sample of BSW and MSW students; confining future studies to BSW and MSW students may prove fruitful. The authors encourage such studies to occur across several classrooms and even several countries.

Another limitation is that the data are from student self-reports of short-term outcomes. While assessments that report on self-reported learning are quite common, they confront validity and reliability problems as well as social bias. Still, Corwin et al. (2015) advise that novice implementers and evaluators of undergraduate research courses begin by assessing such outcomes with such tools. However, as urged by numerous teaching and learning scholars (Brownell and Kloser, 2015; Shortlidge et al., 2016), we went beyond a single measurement of student enjoyment or interest, instead assessing learning outcomes, including growth in numerous content areas and skills.

Student images

Although we do not include a thematic content analysis here, we would be remiss not to share several of the powerful images and segments of the narratives generated by students. At the end of this article, we include three examples from three of the enrolled students (see Figures 1–3); the authors did not edit the students’ writing for grammar.

Figure 1.

Prescribe Me Well Being. In this photo, you see two females holding hands in an arm wrestling position. You can see that the woman to the left is smaller in reference to body fat, compared to the woman on the right. Below their hands is a table with bottles of prescribed medications, vitamins and supplements on top of it. There is also a food log and a Healthy Lifestyle Recommendations brochure. The woman to the left is me. I have been in considerably good health throughout my life thus far and have never had blood sugar issues. The woman to the right is my mother. She has been diagnosed with ‘pre diabetes’ and has been prescribed medications such as metformin. The symbolism behind the arm wrestling position is not the typical interpretation of a dispute between two opponents, but of support, control and strength. My mom and I support each other and lean on each other for strength and control.

Figure 3.

In case of Fire, Use Stairs. This picture is of a residential building owned by the Housing Authority of El Paso. It is a 10 story low-income housing complex for the elderly. This building has 330 rooms, what fascinated me about this place was that it only has two elevators that fit at most four people or one wheelchair and an extra person. The other exit consists of nine flights of stairs. In our jobs, we may encounter clients who have no other option than to afford what housing provides, but that also means that they should be afforded the right to live in a place that is mindful of their wellness and ability or lack thereof.

Figure 2.

Muerto En Vida/ Living Dead. Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican traditional celebration that honours those who passed away. This altar honours those immigrants who have lost their life trying to cross the border. While looking at the altar, I overheard an older women say, ‘This altar is also for those who crossed and are dying’. Without social support of the government, of our social institutions, of schools, of our communities, young immigrants become invisible. Death is not only physical, is emotional too. The death of culture, traditions, family, freedom, choices, safety and peace.

Conclusion

It is an instructor’s responsibility to integrate curriculum that reflects accreditation expectations and prepares students for professional practice. Our data illuminate the pedagogical power of Photovoice in an upper division social work course to do just that. We document successful efforts to create a Social Determinants of Health course with a research component. We required students to examine course themes by collecting and analysing data through Photovoice. Since the scholarship indicates that faculty and students are hesitant to engage in course-based research (Lundahl, 2008; Gibbs and Stirling, 2010; Morgenshtern et al., 2011; Bolin et al., 2012), we offer a model of how to move students from consuming research to producing it in a 16-week course. Evaluations indicate that students perceive both content and skill benefits. In addition, while integrating research into your classroom may be daunting because of student resistance or a high number of enrolled non-majors, we hope this model feels attainable to instructors. After all, the Photovoice model is flexible. Most students have a camera phone and are used to documenting their lives through photos. If printing is cost-prohibitive or the course occurs online, social networking platforms such as Instagram offer a helpful alternative (Ryan et al., 2020). We hope we have highlighted a teaching effort that will help students embrace the central role of participatory research to inform practice in their professional lives and empower the communities they serve.