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Photovoice: understanding high school females’ conceptions of mathematics and learning mathematics

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Abstract

Photovoice is a participatory action research tool that is grounded in the literature for critical consciousness (Wang & Burris, 1997). Four creative high school girls who reported struggles with mathematics were given cameras and asked to take photographs to answer the following questions: (1) What is mathematics? (2) What is your ideal learning environment? (3) What things impede your learning of mathematics? Within-case and cross-case analyses of the photographs and interview responses were conducted. Each individual case was analyzed using the work of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (Women’s Ways of Knowing, 1986) who investigated women’s epistemological perspectives. The girls were either silenced (disconnected from the mathematical knowledge of the teacher), received (lacked confidence to do mathematics independently), or “fragily” subjective (viewed mathematical knowledge as personal rather than imparted by the teacher) knowers of mathematics. The use of photovoice has the power to facilitate the nurturing of silence as it moves toward the “roar which is on the other side of silence” (Belenky et al., 1986, p. 4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Shelly Sheats Harkness

  2. Hughes STEM High School, Cincinnati Public Schools, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    James Stallworth

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  1. Shelly Sheats Harkness
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  2. James Stallworth
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Correspondence to Shelly Sheats Harkness.

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Harkness, S.S., Stallworth, J. Photovoice: understanding high school females’ conceptions of mathematics and learning mathematics. Educ Stud Math 84, 329–347 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9485-3

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