Using Photovoice to Explore Environmental Sustainability Across Languages and Cultures

Though work in the area of photovoice (in which students take photos to structure a dialogue that can serve to advance social action as the community responds to the participants’ perspectives and locates them in solution-generation) has been conducted in science education research to focus on learner’s experiences, little has been done to showcase community members’ perspectives resulting from the photovoice experience—though it is here that photovoice holds the most potential to effect positive change locally. The research presented here, conducted during a study abroad course taught in Costa Rica, seeks to understand the ways in which the experience of photovoice stimulated an understanding of and connection to local sustainability issues and to those for whom these issues are most pressing. The study involves a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic exchange of ideas regarding sustainable crop development between study abroad students and community members in a rural mountain town in Costa Rica. Results indicated that the experience of photovoice broadened and enriched all participants’ understanding of environmental sustainability—university students and local residents—as well as inspired critique of socio-scientific issues of personal relevance and impact. Photovoice is thus presented as a rich and engaging instructional technique that also serves as a community participation tool with potential for connecting students and communities from distinct cultures and languages.