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Visual Research Methods: Qualifying and Quantifying the Visual

The role of visual research methods in ethnographic research has been significant, particularly in place-making and representing visual culture and environments in ways that are not easily substituted by text. Digital media has extended into mundane, everyday existences and routines through most noticeably the modern smartphone, social media and digital artefacts that have created new forms of ethnographic enquiry. Ethnographers have engaged in this relatively new possibility of exploring how social media and new technologies transform the way we view social realities through the digital experience. The paper discusses the possible role of visual research methods in multimethod research and the theoretical underpinning of interpreting visual data. In the process of interpreting and analysing visual data, there is a need to acknowledge the possible ambiguity and polysemic quality of visual representation. It presents selectively the use of visual methods in an ethnographic exploration of early childhood settings through the use of internet-based visual data, researcher and participant-generated visual materials and media, together with visual-elicited (e.g. drawings, still images, video clips) information data through several examples. This approach in ‘visualizing’ the curriculum also unveils some aspects of the visual culture or the ‘hidden curriculum’ in the learning environment.

• 1 Introduction

Although visual methods have become increasing importance, it has traditionally taken a secondary place when compared to narrative approaches based on text and verbal discourse. The internet and electronic communications have made an attentiveness to the ‘visual’ essential in education and educational research. Qualitative researchers have made progress in developing visual methodologies to study visual culture and phenomena ( Metcalfe, 2016 ; Prosser, 2007 ). The issue of new technologies and developments producing shifts in the way we conceptualize and experience social and electronic realities that we experience (Sarah Pink, 2012). Ethnographers have the option to explore the ways in which these new technologies, software and images have become part of their social reality and that their focus may be on how these technologies are appropriated rather than how they transform the basis of the world that we live in ( Coleman, 2010 ; Miller, 2011 ). The role of visual methodologies and ethnography in looking at how the curriculum is enacted and articulated in everyday practice will be explored.

Visual ethnographic study explores the complex interactions and relationships between local practices of the study and global implications and influences of digital media, the materiality and the politics of representation. The representation through visuality of digital media includes the mundane, everyday routines, the manifestation of cultural life and modes of communication. Media in many instances have become central to the articulation and expression of valued beliefs, ceremonious practices and modes of being ( Coleman, 2010 ). It is therefore essential to press beyond the boundaries of narrow presumptions about the limitations of the digital experience.

Visual ethnography engages with methods through its process of research, analysis and representation. It is inescapably collaborative, to a certain extent is participatory, involves analysing visual cultures, and requires an understanding of how the data set materials from both researcher and participant relate to one another. The process of audio-visual recording of research participants while ‘walking with them’ produces a research encounter that captures the ‘place in a phenomenological sense ( Pink, 2014 ). These processes constitute multisensory experiences and a collaborative work of visual (audio) ethnographic representations of urban contexts in the case study. Visual ethnography through photography and video captures a sense of a place, its history and cultural contexts, maybe everyday life, routines, languages, social interactions and gestures of communication, with other material and sensorial realities of the environment and place.

The gathering of pre-existing societal imagery and found imagery although usually regarded as secondary data requires a minimum reflexive knowledge of the technical and expressive aspects of imagery and representational techniques so as to be able to read and utilize them in an appropriate way. Therefore, some form of visual competence is required and the audience often pays attention to the historical and cultural aspects and contexts of production and consumption ( Pauwels, 2007 ). Researcher-generated imagery requires a sufficient degree of technical expertise that allow them to produce images and other forms of visual representations and that they are aware of cultural conventions and perceptual principles of the academic or non-academic audience that they aim to address. Visual ethnography is also concerned with understanding how we know as well as the environments in which knowledge is generated and it involves engaging with the philosophy of knowledge, of practice and of the place and space (Sarah Pink, 2014 ). This form of methodological focus through the visual requires a commitment to visual theory and researcher positionality particularly with respect to the literal and figurative aspects of one’s perspective ( Metcalfe, 2016 ).

Visual culture becomes ingrained in the school culture that is typically unquestioned and unconscious, but it forms a ‘hidden curriculum’ because it is both visual yet unseen. The organizational culture is influential in the organization’s outcomes as the ‘ethos’ links it with the school culture and ultimately the organization’s effectiveness. The organizational culture through ethnographic methodological framework allows an analytic approach to understanding the processes and rationale behind ‘school life’ ( Prosser, 2007 ). The debate goes on regarding the significance of the visual culture of schools and centres and the argument that visual culture and image-based methodologies are as important as number and word-based methodologies in the constructions of school culture and its influence on education policy. Visual-centric approach highlights and gives priority to what is visually perceived rather than what is written, spoken or statistically measured. Observed events, routines, rituals, artefacts, materials, spaces and behaviours in everyday routines are the evidence and markings of the past, present and future hidden curriculum.

The following sections discuss the methodological, theoretical and conceptual frameworks through which visual data may be interpreted. A combination of methodological strategies, empirical approaches, perspectives and interpretive-analytic stances enhances the rigor, depth and complexity of the research inquiry ( Denzin, 2012 ; Flick, 2018 ).

2 Methodological Consideration Using Visual Methods

The nature of visual research methods has posed some challenges based on issues of concern regarding the validity and rigor of such approaches. This has led to some challenges in identifying studies that integrate these methods with mixed methods research that use both quantitative and qualitative strategies ( Shannon-Baker & Edwards, 2018 ). The intersection of visual methods with mixed methods research allow complements and expansion of qualitative and quantitative data and the approach is also in alignment with philosophical and theoretical assumptions ( Clark & Ivankova, 2016 ), Shannon-Baker & Edwards, (2018) points out that there are methodological differences between a mixed methods study that utilizes visual research methods and visual methods study that utilizes mixed methods approaches. Studies using visual methods are often paired with qualitative methods such as interviewing and written reflective logs and the use of multiple methods speak to diverse experiences and contribute to the philosophical belief in multiple truths ( O’Connell, 2013 ; Prosser, 2007 ; Rule & Harrell, 2010 ). The challenges in using visual methods in mixed methods research include the need to validate the methodological approach particularly in disciplines that are dominated by other methodologies, often training to use particular methods, communicating the research purpose, design and findings, and also articulating appropriate data analysis strategies ( Clark & Ivankova, 2016 ; Creswell & Plano Clark, 2017 ; Pauwels, 2007 ; Shannon-Baker & Edwards, 2018 ). Research studies like Rule & Harrell, (2010) utilized visual methods primarily, but analysed visual data using qualitative methods and the integration of visual data included transformation into quantitative data for further analysis and triangulation. For O’Connell (2013) , visual methods were embedded in the qualitative research design and visual data was contextualized using other qualitative data. Here, there was integration of visual data that also included transformation into quantitative data and the construction of the case studies. The other exemplar is by Shannon-Baker & Edwards, (2018) that uses visual methods as part of an arts-based critical visual research methodology. The commonalities identified in these studies using visual methods is that firstly, participant created visual data is used and also visual data is transformed to quantitative data so that both quantitative and qualitative strategies reinforce and legitimize visual methods.

• 2.1 Realist Positivism vs Social Constructivism

The visual approach has been conventionally grounded on a realist positivist approach that looks upon visual images and data as the objective reality and to be regarded as unbiased and unmediated representations of the social world ( Ortega-Alcázar, 2012 ). Modern contemporary views challenge these assumptions and positivist epistemologies so there is currently a debate on the presumed objectivity and the unambiguity of visual data. Social constructivism takes into perspective the subjective presence of the person behind the camera who plays a crucial role in framing the image captures, the polysemic nature of visual representation and the idea that audiences are not passive consumers but also constructors of meanings and interpretations of the visual. Visual materials through the use of digital photography and videography are acknowledged to be subject to multiple interpretations and perspectives so hold no fixed or single meaning. Images and visual representations have the power construct specific visions of social class, race, and gender and can provide particular perspectives of the social world, thus having an important influence on audiences or those who consume these images.

• 2.2 Analysis and Interpretation of Visual Materials

The acknowledgement of the possible ambiguity of meaning and acknowledgment of the polysemic quality of visual representations has opened the field for the analysis of these images in various contexts including marketing materials, models, and communication to certain groups of audiences. The main methods of analysis of visual materials and data are i) content analysis ii) semiotic analysis iii) discourse analysis ( Ortega-Alcázar, 2012 ). The approach of content analysis of visual data is often a clearly defined methodological process that seeks to produce valid and replicable findings. This approach may be based on counting the frequency in which a certain element or quality appears in a defined set of images. Content analysis would then serve to provide a descriptive account of the content of a given sample set of images rather than the interpretation of various possible meanings. This may help to identify trends through image data sets and certain software applications. nvivo Ncapture for instance can work with large data sets on Facebook posts to provide this form of analysis that has a quantitative aspect in it.

The second method to the analysis of visual data is the use of semiotic analysis. This approach is grounded on the theory of Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure who proposed that the sound of speech and signs have no intrinsic meaning, but meanings are ascribed through linguistic signs that are made of the signifier and the signified. The relationships between the signifier and the signified are arbitrary. Poststructuralists challenge the concept by Saussure that once the signifier and signified are integrated to forms a sign, the sign has a fixed meaning. Poststructuralist theory and semiotics argue that meanings are not fixed but are continually being open to interpretation as signifiers are detachable from the things that are being signified. Barthes developed Saussure’s theory to argue that there are two levels of signification, denotation and connotation. The first level is the literal (denotative) and at the second level, signs can have other attached meanings (connotative).

The third form of interpretation is that of discourse analysis and stems from a critique of the realist approach to language. It claims that meaning is constituted within language and therefore language is constitutive of the social realm. Discourses are constructed from a series of related statements (both visual and textual) on a particular topic or theme and make up an authoritative language for speaking about the topic and shape the way a particular topic or issue is understood and interpreted. It does not attempt to read or analyse images but seeks to understand what the images or text claim is the ‘truth’.

• 2.3 Grounded Theory and Visual Analysis

Ethnographic research is used to document events, objects and activities of interest. This has led to a collective analysis of participant-generated images rather than researcher generated digital documentation. The site or sites of data collection may be expanded by visual participatory methods or participant representation of activities and events in spaces and places that the researcher would normally not have access to ( Hicks, 2018 ). Such visual methods may allow participants across linguistic, social and geographical divides to visually represent what may not always be visible or accessible to the researcher or audience outside the setting ( Greyson et al., 2017 ). The use of visual methods expands grounded theoretical approaches by diversifying the data that the researcher has access to. While photographs and videography may not form a wholly objective representation of reality, participant generated images help to magnify and elaborate an understanding of the social enactment of activities, interactions and relationships through a detailed and multi-faceted perspective (Croghan et al., 2008). In allowing participants, a means to portray and represent what is of priority and importance to them rather than what is important to the researcher alone. Constructivist grounded theory transpires through the understanding that meaning is co-constructed between research participant and researcher rather than merely brought into existence through an objective and neutral observer ( Charmaz, 2015 ).

3 Description of the Research Scenario

The research settings included various centres in Singapore and these were of three main types: privately owned, corporately owned and community-based early childhood centres. Although the study was based on an exploratory-sequential mixed methods design, the methodology and some of the findings shared in the context of this paper will be mostly limited to those derived from visual research methods and would not discuss the quantitative findings. The initial method used with internet-based visual data aimed to obtain a visual account of how the curriculum was enacted in the different learning environments and centre types. The priorities and commonalities in the activities and curriculum programmes in these settings were also investigated through data generation and analysis using visual research methods that included: i) internet based visual data ii) participant generated data and iii) image or photo-elicited data.

• 3.1 Internet-based Visual Data

The first stage of data generation involved social media data or essentially posts by a selection of centres. These centres were a representative sample using social media or Facebook posts over a period of 12 months. The posts that were selected fulfilled certain criteria and were images captured i) involving the children as active participants in the learning environment ii) involving both children and teachers and/or facilitators engaged in activity iii) involving children, teachers and parents involved in an event or participating in activity. It was essential to note that the learning environment was not always within the ece centre setting itself but also constituted of the environments that the class was immersed while on field trips and excursions. The constantly transforming environment within the centre itself during various festivities and celebrations was also observed and captured in the posts over the period of time.

Each social media Facebook post consisted of a cluster of photographic images capture during a particular activity or event ( Figure 1 and 2 ). In total, the sample demonstrated here were 72 such posts by five different representative early childhood education centres. Each of these main posts was coded via ground theory analysis and the distribution of frequency for each thematic code is represented in Table 1 . As coding of the visual materials is often arbitrary and often subject to personal judgment, the images were also represented by text with short bulleted points based on the visual and caption or commentary that accompanied the image (See Figure 2 ). The visual image was there also represented in text and this was also coded into the various themes.

Thematic coding with NVIVO12 Pro

Citation: Beijing International Review of Education 2, 1 (2020) ; 10.1163/25902539-00201004

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NVIVO image-pic view of selected code

• 3.2 Researcher and Participant-generated Visual Material
• 3.3 Visual/Photo-elicited Data
• 4 Summary and Conclusions
• Acknowledgements

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