Using visual vignettes to explore sensitive topics: a research note on exploring attitudes towards people with albinism in Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This study is one of the first to explore the use of (drawn) visual vignettes in qualitative research in Africa. The vignette method was used to discuss the sensitive topic of people’s attitudes towards people with albinism in Tanzania among high school students. Focus was on two key questions: (i) To what extent was the vignette method implemented as intended?; (ii) Has the vignette method achieved its goal?. This research note discusses the effectivity of the visual vignette method as a tool to gain a better insight into people’s attitudes towards people with albinism, but also describes the possibilities of visual vignettes as a tool for research on other sensitive topics.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual vignettes
• health-related stigma
• albinism
• Tanzania

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by VLIR-UOS through a VLADOC PhD scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Tjitske de Groot

Tjitske de Groot is completing her PhD research in Educational Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, she focusses on the development and assessment of stigma reduction interventions related to albinism in Tanzania. Her research interests are health-related stigma, stigma reduction intervention, disability and education.

Wolfgang Jacquet

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Jacquet is qualitative and quantitative methodological expert, applied mathematician – biostatistician at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His major scientific interest is the development of assessment and measurements systems both from a practical and a theoretical point of view.

Free De Backer

Free De Backer is professor at the Department of Educational Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her teaching and research focus on arts and cultural education in various learning environments and at different ages, socially engaged art, cultural participation in later life and between generations, and the dynamics of lifelong learning.

Ruth Peters

Dr. Ruth Peters is an assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She defended her PhD thesis on stigma reduction in leprosy in 2015. Her research interests are health-related stigma, disability and inclusion.

Pieter Meurs

Prof. Dr. Pieter Meurs is linked to the Education Sciences departments of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research interests are philosophy of globalisation and alter globalisation, cosmopolitanism, contemporary continental philosophy (Jean-Luc Nancy), hermeneutics.