The potential for (more-than-)representational video in education research

ABSTRACT

Education researchers have traditionally understood video as a useful tool for collecting and analyzing data in order to study a vast array of learning ecologies. However, video scholarship in fields outside of education, namely anthropology and sociology, have been able to put video to greater use by conducting studies that take advantage of the inherently visual, sonic, and sensorial affordances of visual scholarship. This article discusses the ways in which representational and more-than-representational theories have been put to work using video as a tool, both for collecting data and reporting findings. Additional considerations such as new methods and tools for conducting video research as well as ethical considerations of working with video recording youth in school settings are addressed. The article concludes with a discussion of how video can provide new orientations toward research participants that allow for novel approaches to qualitative inquiry in education.

KEYWORDS:

• video methods
• qualitative research
• affect
• representation
• more-than representational theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 From here on I use the term ‘more-than-representation’ for the sake of clarity, understanding that many of the ideas and approaches can also apply to non-representational video work as well.