ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on photovoice, an approach to incorporating visual methods that has received attention from scholars within occupational science and occupational therapy during the past decade. Using illustrations and reflections from the authors’ own photovoice projects spanning three countries, this chapter provides key examples of how theoretical frameworks can be used to guide planning, conducting, analyzing, and presenting findings in photovoice research. The authors will examine how epistemological orientations guided choices in the field; specifically, approaches to ethics; relationships with those who were engaged in the photovoice projects; and how data were generated, analyzed, interpreted, and disseminated. It is posited that photovoice is inherently occupational in the sense that engagement in the project means that people will plan things, do things, reflect on their plans and engagements, share in others’ experiences, as well as communicate their realities and reflections visually, textually, and/or verbally. Photovoice can be used to address many types of research aims relevant for informing occupational therapy practice and advocacy, such as raising awareness around environmental barriers to participation, engaging in a group process aimed at changing aspects of peoples’ daily lives, or raising awareness of the social and political production of marginalization to key stakeholder groups.
