Interpersonal Relationships: using Photography to support learning on an MBA module. Part 2

This blog is the second in a three part series looking at a recent project using photography as a tool to support learning on an MBA module about Interpersonal Relationships. If you haven’t read part 1 yet then please take a look HERE or if you don’t mind diving into the story right here then read on!

Last time I set the scene for the MBA module and how it came about through a conversation with Dr Nic Stenberg from the Business School at The University of Huddersfield. We looked at the different Photovoice activities undertaken by the students and gave some context around the focus of the module on Interpersonal Relationships.

In this blog I want to share the results of two of the Photography activities that we invited the students to participate in.

Students were given input from Nic around the topic of inclusive communication and how it relates to the wider subject of interpersonal relationships. Students were then asked to work in small groups with a camera and to take three photos as outlined below before coming back together and sharing with the group.

Upon returning to the classroom we gathered all of the photos together and shared them with the rest of the group.

We gave the group the opportunity to guess what they thought the photos represented before inviting the person who took it to explain what it meant to them.

This created the opportunity for discussion around the ideas present in the room and in one instance someone changed their mind completely about their own photograph. The photos prompted conversations which in some cases challenged assumptions and perspectives on the subject of what constitutes inclusive communication.

The final Photowalk was done as part of the evaluation and reflection of the module as a whole, students were given a camera and asked to take a walk around the University Campus.

Students were asked to ‘take a photograph which represents what you have enjoyed most about this module’. We asked each student to take only one photograph. The students were given 10 mins to conduct their photowalk after which we reconvened and each student share their photograph along with their reasons for choosing it.

We recorded the session so that we could capture their words - the images and captions created were as follows:

At this stage I want to let the photos and captions speak for themselves without any form of input or reflections from me. I am resisting the urge at this stage to share my reactions and responses to these images (instead I will save those for the third and final blog in this series).

Suffice it to say that I am supremely grateful to all of the students for embracing photography within their learning environment with such enthusiasm and to Nic for the invitation and opportunity to be involved. If you hadn’t guessed already I feel that photovoice has strongly impacted the learning experience of those who took part and I am keen to consider this further, with that in mind there are some exciting plans afoot for sharing this work with a wider audience, Nic and I will be facilitating a workshop as part of the University of Huddersfield’s Teaching and Learning Conference on the 28th June to talk more about our experience - after which I’ll write up the third and final blog in this series which will examine our perspective on this process and what we learned along the way.

In the meantime I’d love to know what you think about using Photovoice in this context? Have you applied photography to support learning in your work? Share your experiences with us in the comments or drop me a message at hello@ourcreativeconnection.org