Using Photovoice as a Tool to Engage Social Work Students in Social Justice

Abstract

In order to ensure that social workers graduating from social work programs embrace social justice's central role in their professional careers, educators must find creative, theoretically grounded, practice-relevant ways of conveying this value and socializing social work students. This article describes the use of Photovoice as one tool for helping convey that value and describes its theoretical underpinning and use in a social work course. Originally developed as a participatory action research approach largely in public health, Photovoice can also serve as a powerful social work tool that facilitates the development of critical consciousness among community members who photograph and discuss elements of their lives and community. The author describes using this strategy with social work students, asking them as community members themselves to engage in the process of documenting, discussing, and transforming their analysis into an advocacy plan using the photographs. Through this process, the students learn about the power of collaborative creativity and strategic messaging. In the process of demonstrating the importance of relationship and the power of “problem-posing” the professor, as facilitator, role-models while teaching and engendering increasing critical consciousness among class participants.

Keywords:

• social justice
• Photovoice
• critical consciousness
• critical theory in teaching
• community organizing

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dr. Judith M. Tanur, Dr. Steven M. Rose, and Dr. Diane M. Johnson for their ongoing, and at times, challenging, support.