Introduction

This chapter addresses the possibility of using the interrelation processes facilitated by photo-elicitation sessions to interchange the roles initially played by teachers and students in teaching and learning actions in the Practicum. This approach is motivated by the existing literature on the subject and by the formative dimension of the teaching practices described in chapter four. The practicum is a space that combines pre-service and in-service education where tutors and teachers students can develop professionally. The regulations governing the practicum, far from facilitating photo-elicitation sessions in school spaces where the tutor-student relationship occurs, are at times an obstacle to this practice due to the difficulties to use photographic cameras, and the lack of space and time to stage the photograph-mediated exchanges. To this end, in addition to the educational and legal context of the practicum, we will analyse the literature on the subject in order to understand the configuration and evolution of the interactions between school teachers and university students, paying special attention to two case studies on the practicum in pre-school education carried out by the authors of this chapter. In these case studies, we explore the levels of reciprocal complicity, understanding, questioning and mutual improvement emerging between two teachers and two students mediated by photo-elicitation sessions.

Photo-Elicitation in the Pre-service Teacher Practicum

Although photo-elicitation has only recently been introduced in the field of education, it is even more novel, particularly in Spain, in pre-service teacher training. Our review in the principle multidisciplinary and specialised databases shows that, except for some isolated cases, studies on the aforementioned subject have only emerged in the past ten years. In this pre-service training literature we find a notable interest in identifying the potential of photo-elicitation—it has been used to investigate teachers’ cognition, their theories, ideas, beliefs and values, providing knowledge that enables awareness and reflection, influencing their development or modification and, consequently, in decision-making in educational action (Bautista, 2016, 2017; Caielli et al., 2018; DiCicco, 2015; Graziano, 2011; Johnson & Smagorinsky, 2013; Mathews & Crew, 2016; McCartney & Harris, 2014; Sinclair & Thornton, 2018; Stockall & Davis, 2011; Varea & Pang, 2018; White & Murray, 2016). Likewise, the teacher’s understanding and thinking are enhanced through photo-elicitation, and several studies have reported that this technique has a positive impact on their professional identity (Allen & Labbo, 2001; Bailey & Van Harken, 2014; Da Cunha et al., 2014; Mitchell et al., 2010; Salazar et al., 2016; Savva & Erakleous, 2018; Seow, 2016; Villacanas de Castro, 2017; White & Murray, 2016). This technique has been used in various subjects during pre-service teacher training, but most studies have focussed on Physical education and English (Da Cunha et al., 2014; Langdon et al., 2014; Legge & Smith, 2014; Sinclair & Thornton, 2018; Varea & Pang, 2018; Walker et al., 2017; for the second, Caielli et al., 2018; Dicicco, 2015; Graziano, 2011; Johnson & Smagorinsky, 2013; Villacanas de Castro, 2017; White & Murray, 2016), while two have dealt with photo-elicitation in social studies (Garrett & Matthews, 2014; Mathews & Crew, 2016). The development of visual literacy skills in undergraduate and post-graduate teachers has also been investigated (Bailey & Van Harken, 2014; Sadik, 2011).

In several studies, photo-elicitation was used during the practicum, although in some cases it was part of a course. A number of studies have investigated this technique in undergraduate students, and in others it was part of post-graduate programmes. Pereiro and Páramo (2016) reported the emergent use of photography in the practicum, namely, participatory photography and the techniques of photovoice and photo narration, and have incorporated it and other technologies in an intervention designed for undergraduate students of primary education.

Several studies have focussed on the intercultural training of teachers. Allen and Labbo (2001), based on their exploration of literacy courses in undergraduate teacher training that include a four-week practicum, have described the strategy they follow for culturally committed teaching, which combines photography and narrative with the creation of cultural memories to enable future teachers to explore themselves as cultural beings.

Brown’s (2005) study focused on an alternative secondary school teacher qualification pathway aimed at increasing intercultural sensitivity. The programme, divided into three phases—the second consisting of six weeks of practicum—used photography as a self-examination tool to reveal subconscious beliefs and overcome problems of resistance to inter-cultural concepts, and to address the lack of knowledge of and sensitivity to such concepts in future candidates. Based on the foregoing study, and with the aim of providing teacher trainers with strategies, instead of indicators, to improve inter-cultural awareness among future teachers, this study by Brown shows that prior cross-cultural experiences are more significant factors than residency status among future teachers, and that self-photography can be effective in aiding this training process.

Mitchell et al. (2010) carried out several alternative pre‐service teacher education projects that used photographic images to encourage reflection. In one such project, a group of teachers was given the opportunity to live together in a local lodge and undergo their four-week practicum in a rural setting. Photographs not only document the process and contribute to their teaching portfolios, but can also serve as photovoice to show a thoughtful approach to “seeing for ourselves” more publicly. One result of this proyect has been an exhibition of the teacher’s photographs at a national conference. The study also shows ways in which teacher educators can use visual tools to examine and interrogate teacher education practices.

McCartney and Harris (2014) explored the experience of international practicum in a master's program participated by pre-school and primary school trainee teachers. Using photovoice, these teachers photographed different teaching, living contexts and people that were meaningful to them. During subsequent focus groups, they shared their images and the stories they evoked to continue exploring those contexts, people, and experiences that were personally meaningful. The study describes the changes observed in photographs taken by these pre-service teachers of children and of themselves as teachers.

Wolfenden and Buckler (2015) explored both the challenges and the potential use of photography in inter-cultural research in an undergraduate teacher training program in Sudan, in which many students lack prior qualifications. The analysis and discussion of the images evidenced the physical and symbolic spaces where the teachers’ values change, their action is improved, and their capacities and practices are developed. The study gave the teachers the opportunity to reflect on and dialogue about their practice. Along with this, the authors suggest that the potential of reflective photography might not lie in the technique itself, but in the opportunity it gives teachers to engage in critical dialogue with supervisors and researchers.

Case studies by Mathews and Crew (2016) have used photo-elicitation to help their students, all pre-service teachers, to first think critically about the communities around them, and then about those where they might potentially teach, thus strengthening their own concepts on a course in social study methodology. In one of the case studies, which consisted of an equity audit project, these teachers examined and represented the resources and inequity found in their practicum schools and their surrounding areas. This project used photovoice, combining photography with reflection, praxis, and community map**.

The teaching innovation project headed by Bautista (2017) has shown that photo-elicitation and audio-visual narration sessions held in schools with socio-culturally diverse students can help practicum students achieve effective inclusive and intercultural education.

Photo-elicitation has been used to evaluate the teacher training curriculum. For example, the study by Legge and Smith (2014) used visual ethnography, consisting of photography and layered narrative analysis, to critically analyse their experience of initial teacher training in bush camps, which were one of four outdoor education experiences for undergraduate physical education teachers. The authors found that photo-elicitation was an effective method for reflectively expressing pedagogy in outdoor education.

Finally, in a postgraduate degree course to train teachers working with deaf children in which teaching practices were carried out in two different settings, McCracken (2015) explored the use of photo-elicitation to develop skills in critical reflection. The session started by selecting photographs that would help these students think about their perspectives, and continued with a framing activity, which is an important extension of the image and is of considerable importance for future practice. There are more studies that, like some of the foregoing, present training post-graduate training programmes or include teaching practice for in-service teachers; these will be discussed in the corresponding chapter.

Observing the findings of the above review, it is interesting to highlight some important factors related to the use of photography in initial teacher training. First, the scant attention paid to the analysis of the relationship between practicum student and their school tutors, and the role of photography in these relationships. Second, no mention is made of the possibility of exchanging roles, and in this way making it possible for undergraduate students—the teachers of the future—to develop a role other than that of students taught, while practicum school tutors could relinquish their role as advisor and example of good practice in the classroom and allow themselves to be questioned, interrogated, etc. This, as argued in the preceding chapter, will contribute to their in-service education. Both absences justify the inclusion of this topic in this chapter, and the relevance to investigate which practicum-related elements and situations will help clarify the two aforementioned absences in study subjects. Specifically, we will discuss the role of photography in the regulatory and training frameworks of the practicum.

The Practicum and Its Regulatory Framework

The practicum is a crucial stage between the academic world and the job world—a period of training in which students work in their future professional settings: factories, companies, services, etc. It is an opportunity for students to learn outside the university, working with professionals in their sector in real work environments (Zabalza, 2003, p. 45), in which the transversal, generic and emotional competences essential to life must be acquired. In this sense, the adaptation of undergraduate degrees in pre-school and primary school teaching to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has highlighted the importance of the practicum and given this subject a greater role in university education (González-Garzón & Laorden, 2012; Sepúlveda et al., 2017).

Although the practicum, as an opportunity for real-world training, has always been considered important, both universities and practicum centres did not always ensure the implementation of adequate quality control mechanisms to guarantee successful completion of this subject. Following the implementation of the new EHEA academic model, in which teaching has become student-centred and teachers have taken a more guiding role, the education authorities have specified the competencies to be acquired and tasks to be performed by all agents participating in this subject. The aim is to offer quality work experience that will facilitate the insertion of future teachers in the job market.

In this chapter, we argue that this is made possible when the practicum combines initial pre-service teacher training with the in-service education of practicum centre tutors. This is because it is not enough for future teachers to simply apply the lessons learned in the university to the school classroom—they need to bring a spirit of inquiry to the real problems that arise in their setting. For this, the classroom tutor needs to be a reflective teacher (Schön, 1989), who constantly rethinks his or her own practice, who is in contact with other colleagues to share experiences, participate in projects and apply research results.

Evidence has shown the need for direct collaboration between the university and practicum centres to train highly qualified future teachers based on the acquisition of professional skills (Artime & Riaño, 2012; Cohen et al., 2013). Studies into university-school relationships show that collaboration benefits all those involved, not least classroom tutors in their in-service education and university lecturers who put into practice their experimental theories and draw real-world conclusions. One of these lines of research analyses relationship procedures based on the use of photographs to promote analysis, reflection and deliberation about school and classroom life among future teachers and their practicum tutors. This reflection and deliberation is aimed at mutual learning and permanent teacher development.

In this context, the study carried out by the authors of this chapter tool place in the classrooms of pre-school and primary schools in Madrid with a high percentage of immigrant students. We used photograph-based action-research loops involving undergraduate pre-school and primary school teachers undergoing their practicum training. The objective was to promote permanent inquiry, self-criticism and reflection on their own educational practice that would allow them to break away from their habitual practice. Following the methodology established, Practicum III students took photographs on their mobile phones of moments that caught their attention, either because they found the situations puzzling, or because they thought that some were inconsistent with other actions undertaken by the classroom teacher.

As mentioned in previous chapters, photo-elicitation is a procedure that, among other purposes, uses photographs to establish communication between the viewer, the photographer, and the researcher, producing an array of meanings (Banks, 2007). This leads to a dialogue or narration concerning the different interpretations that each viewer makes of the photograph. Sometimes, hidden beliefs are evoked and laid on the table. These help to understand the motivations behind the actors’ intent. This technique allows participants to see events from the perspective of the other person viewing the photograph, thus expanding the interpretations that are often due to different cultural factors.

Photo-elicitation turns its informants (practicum students, tutors and external observers from the university, in our case) into active participants who contextualize and fill the images with meaning. These are then analysed as part of the participants’ life stories, but also as a recurrence or isolated event in the investigation to assemble a panorama of significant events (Arias, 2011, p. 181).

The foregoing considerations and arguments reveal the formative dimension of the practicum. However, to conduct these studies during work experience in schools, we have to take into account the regulatory framework governing the practicum as well as the document establishing it as a subject in undergraduate pre-school and primary school teacher training. This is because conducting these studies during the practicum period required a number of administrative formalities. First, we had to contact the school principle and classroom tutors to explain the aim of the study and obtain their authorization and collaboration. We then held meetings with practicum students in these schools to outline the study and encourage them to participate, explaining that this type of research would enrich their professional practice.

We also had to take into consideration ethical-legal issues, which required us to obtain prior authorization from the school principle and the pupils’ parents to take photographs in the classroom. For this purpose, the research team prepared a document outlining the aims of the study involving the selected group of pupils, and each parent was asked for permission to take photographs that were considered of interest in during classes. Of course, the photographs would be used solely for research purposes. The study only began once all authorisations had been obtained.

The study protocol also had to take into account the school’s rules regarding the use of spaces and school time. For example, the practicum students had to take photographs outside of class time and present them to their corresponding tutors in the photo-elicitation sessions in order to try to understand and resolve the issues that prompted each photograph. Later, out of teaching hours, the pupils, their tutors and the research team held periodic meetings to engage in narrations and deep reflections on the choice of the moment, the motivations behind each photograph, and the meaning, emotion, situation, etc. that they intended capture and represent. Using questions, answers, and more questions, the theories and beliefs of future teachers, classroom tutors, and university lecturers were laid on the table. The dialogues were at times knowledge builders that led the classroom tutors to rethink their practice. These sessions were recorded on mobile phones to be later transcribed and encoded for study.

This regulatory framework is important insofar as it can either help or hinder the use of photography to enable pupils and tutors achieve the goals of the practicum. Because of this, we need to dwell on some regulatory aspects, especially on the competences that students must achieve. For example, we outline here competencies included in Practicum III in order to see the extent to which they can be achieved using photo-elicitation.

Specifically, Practicum III of Pre-School Education includes the following transversal competences, among others:

  • CT4 Know interaction and communication processes and apply them in different social and educational contexts.

  • CT8 Know and address school situations in multicultural contexts.

  • CT9 Display social skills in order to understand families and make yourself understood by them.

  • CT16 Promote democratic civic education, and the practice of critical social thought.

  • CMP2 Know about interaction and communication processes in the classroom, and have a command of the necessary social skills and abilities to encourage a climate that facilitates learning and coexistence.

  • CMP4 Relate theory and practice with the reality of the classroom and pre-school educational centre.

  • CMP5 Participate in teaching activities and acquire know-how, acting and reflecting from practice.

And for the Practicum III of Primary Education:

  • CT4 Know interaction and communication processes and apply them in different social and educational contexts.

  • CT5 Promote and collaborate in social actions, particularly those with an impact on civic education.

  • CT6 Value the importance of leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and innovation in professional performance.

  • CT8 Know and approach school situations in multicultural contexts.

  • CT9 Show social skills in order to understand families and be understood by them.

  • CT16 Promote democratic education for all and the practice of critical social thinking.

  • CMP2 Know about interaction and communication processes in the classroom, and have a command of the necessary social skills and abilities to encourage a climate that facilitates learning and coexistence.

  • CMP4 Relate theory and practice with the reality of the classroom and the school.

  • CMP7 Regulate the interaction and communication processes in groups of pupils aged 6–12 years.

Based on the foregoing and on our arguments presented so far, we believe that photo-elicitation is a technique that can:

  • teach communication strategies, because this medium allows the practicum student to value and acquire communicative, narrative and expressive skills by using photography as a tool for transmitting subjectivities.

  • create a climate that encourages communication and manifestation of beliefs that promote learning. This is because the different observations made of the photographs shown in the classroom by the researcher open channels of communication between the members of the classroom, who can then express their opinions and thoughts of the images displayed. Their feelings emerge from the memories evoked by the photographs. This establishes emotional education channels based on empathy, on mutual understanding, on knowing how to listen and address other people’s problems, leading to a better coexistence.

  • facilitate understanding between families from different cultural backgrounds by understanding different points of view and creating a climate of coexistence in the classroom and the neighbourhood. Good relations with immigrant families is essential and will prevent the creation of ghettos in the neighbourhood surrounding the school. Families provide photographs of their members and of the customs of their respective countries of origin. They interpret what is seen in the image and thus explain actions that others have not hitherto understood.

  • provide information to promote critical thinking, since the analysis of the photograph by one or more members can lead to discussion, to decide what is best, to see what is wrong, to correct mistakes. Critical thinking, reasoning and decision-making are developed through the presentation of an image that has been chosen or taken.

  • create a climate of cultural enrichment, because the description of cultural aspects in the photographs provided by the author or the contributor allow all participants the share their experience. Learning from other cultures is a mutually enriching experience.

  • promote innovation in professional performance, because photographs create situations that can be analysed in depth. It also encourages critical appraisal of the photographic image.

  • align theories with social reality, because photographs allow us to see social reality, understand problems and different actions. In short, photo-elicitation provides a space for practicum students and school tutors to bring together the theory and practice of education.

  • reveal participants’ personal experience through their reflections and narrations, making them co-researchers.

The results of our study, some of which are presented at the end of this chapter, have shown that the practicum students have undertaken interventions that have facilitated the acquisition of several competences: professional, educational, disciplinary, intercultural and linguistic, in the observation, implementation and evaluation phases. The practicum, therefore, is necessary for the acquisition of competencies that prepare future teachers for their professional practice. Photo-elicitation situations can encourage pre-service teachers to acquire these competences. It can also be used in pre-school or primary school classrooms with a high proportion of immigrants, and gives both university lecturers and in-service teachers to chance to further their professional development, thereby encouraging undergraduates to do the same. Although practicum guidelines and reports in most universities do not include the use of photography, the legal framework governing schools is flexible enough to accept this medium, thereby allowing teachers to acquire the skills to use photography as an educational tool.

But, how can photography, in the form of photo-elicitation sessions, benefit the teaching staff of participating schools?

Photo-Elicitation-Mediated Reciprocal Training Between School Tutors and Practicum Students

In the final part of this chapter on the contributions of photo-elicitation situations to the practicum, we will analyse reciprocal training, or shared personal and professional development between in-service teachers and practicum students in the school, institutional, training and legal contexts described above. Our review of the literature has shown that most authors agree that it is beneficial to create situations in which all those involved in the practicum can work together; specifically, school teachers, university lecturers and practicum students and, sometimes, external observers (Bautista, 2009; Toledo Fierro & Mauri, 2018; Zabalza, 2011, among others). In addition to forums, many studies point to the need to provide, for this purpose, the foregoing agents with photographic and communication media through which ideas can be pooled, such as practicum diaries, portfolios, recordings, etc. (Cebrián, 2011; Meek & Buckley, 2011; Sierra et al., 2017; Soto et al., 2010; among others).

In all these studies, teaching and learning are educational components in which those involved have clearly defined functions, specifically, teachers and lecturers teach; school children and practicum students learn. We will challenge this idea, and argue for the functional ambivalence of both roles, in other words, we suggest that students and teachers can play each other’s role in certain situations of reciprocal knowledge and help.

The feasibility of this reciprocal training and development has been shown in a teaching innovation project carried out by the authors of this chapter. One of the aims of the project has been to investigate the level of reciprocal involvement and complicity between two practicum students and their respective practicum tutors during photo-elicitation situations. For the purposes of the study, the 4th year undergraduate pre-school teachers from the Complutense University of Madrid were given cameras to enable them to take photographs of particular scenarios involving pupils or teachers in the classroom and the school that they found unusual or unexpected. Every two weeks, the practicum students, school tutors and two university lecturers acting as external observers attended photo-elicitation sessions to analyse and discuss the photographs. Audio recordings were made of the sessions and later transcribed.

What changes were observed in the photo-elicitation sessions held during the 3-month practicum period? The data collected showed that the process that triggered the change of roles and functions of the school tutors and practicum students has been called progressive complicity and mutual support between teachers and university students. This classroom complicity refers to the relationship between the protagonists when engaging in tasks with a common goal. Mutual support refers to actions where each one is present. Both, complicity and mutual support have been observed in the following six indicators found in photo-elicitation processes.

  1. (a)

    Referring to the other.

  2. (b)

    Confirming what was said or done by the other.

  3. (c)

    Contributing to the other’s previous intervention.

  4. (d)

    Giving the same answers simultaneously.

  5. (e)

    Asking each other questions.

  6. (f)

    Correcting the other.

The first of the indicators is observed in the transcribed text when one of the teachers or students mentions the other to add credence to what they are going to say or to justify a particular decision or classroom activity. For example, student A1 referred to her tutor T1 thus:

A1: if in the end it’s as T1 says, you find yourself repeating 25 times a day the issue of the answer of what I do with the marker that’s dry

A1: I liked T1’s solution of putting our hands between our knees and reading with our eyes. (Session held on 30 March 2017)

Or this tutor in the presence of student A1:

Tutor 1 (T1): A1 and I were talking about this, and asking ourselves how can we show this in a photo? (Session held on 25 May 2017).

Regarding the second indicator, we have identified Confirming what was said or done by the other in the content of the transcribed sessions when both intervene consecutively and one ratifies what was previously stated by the other. The following are some examples of confirmations between classroom 2 tutor (T2) and her practicum student (A2):

T2: (The boy comes) from Pakistan and doesn’t understand Spanish.

A2: Not a word … (Session held on 15 March 2018).

A2: anyone can get hooked (reading a story)

T2: yes, it’s easy to get hooked on stories. (Session held on 25 March 2018)

With regard to the third indicator of the level of complicity and support between tutor and student, called “contribution”, it differs from the previous ones in that one of them intervenes to contribute some idea, information or argument that helps to understand the content analysed or the activity described. For example:

T2: D is a very immature boy.

A2: Yes, it’s not about doing it well, it’s about being able to take hold of the pencil, and well, in the photo you can see that he can’t. (Session held on 15 March 2018).

T2: (Looking at a photograph of a child taking the roll call..) those that haven’t come, we put them in the little house, and then count them.

A2: You can see a big house that’s the school, then there are the photos of all the children, and then there’s another smaller house that represents their house, so when roll is called, those who have not come to school go to the house and, when we finish, they’re counted. (Session held on 26 April 2018)

Simultaneity, the fourth indicator, expresses the complicity between the student and the tutor when they simultaneously give the same answer to a comment made by an external observer. For example:

OE2: (Looking at the photograph of a group of children in the corner of the house)… there’s no rule that says I have to play here with these toys, and I can’t get up unless I’ve picked them up.

T2 and A2: Right, right. (Session held on 15 March 2018)

The fifth indicator of the reciprocal help and understanding between both protagonists refers to the questions they are asked. For example:

A2: (Looking at a photograph of the assembly during roll call)… there was one thing that caught my attention, that I didn’t understand at the beginning of the practicum, and I asked T2 why the children counted, for example 3,… (Session held on 24 May 2018).

Finally, the sixth indicator of complicity occurs when the student or the tutor corrects the other by putting forward an argument or providing evidence. For example:

A2: (Talking about a child) was not.

T2: He was in the corner, yes… (Session held on 24 May 2018)

Apart from the particular way each students refers to their respective tutors or the frequency of their interventions, the analysis of the transcription shows evidence of a change in the relationship between student and tutor. A trend comparison shows that the same changes occur in both cases or classrooms, and suggests that a relationship of complicity and mutual support has been built up during the photo-elicitation processes. Specifically, more than twice as many reciprocal references occur in the last photo-elicitation session compared to the first. The number of confirmations is reduced by more than half, while contributions more than double. The number of simultaneous responses remains the same. Finally, while there was only one instance where the tutor corrected her practicum student, the number of questions students asked their tutors increased progressively during the last month of the practicum.

The complicity between both pairs of tutors and students was established and gradually built up during successive photo-elicitation sessions. The decrease in confirming responses, which led to an increase in contributing responses, is an indicator of the good understanding and mutual assistance between tutors and students, because they were mostly responsible for this change in response. Specifically, one decreased from 42 to 7 confirming statements, and the other from 12 to 5. In turn, both increased their contributing responses from 4 to 12. The confidence gained from the training received in the climate of complicity created in the photo-elicitation sessions helped them understand that their role was to contribute ideas to the discourse created in these sessions instead of merely confirming what their respective tutors had said.

This relationship of complicity gradually eroded the borderline between the teaching and learning roles that each had assumed at the start of the practicum, because the smooth flow of questions and answers between the tutor and the student showed their proximity. In the last four weeks, the climate of understanding, complicity and mutual help gave way to questioning the reasons for some of the actions or decisions taken, which obliged them to specify their motivations and, sometimes, made them aware of the beliefs or theories that underlie them. With respect to the types of photo-elicitation situation described in the previous chapter, in this teaching innovation study, the sessions with a descriptive-informative function were requested by external observers, students and university lecturers involved in the practicum. The questions that emerged during the sessions involved teaching situations that led to learning. The function was performed by both tutors and students, insofar as they described and analysed the content of the photographs at the same time, and over the course of the three-month practicum questions emerged about the content of some of the photographs taken by undergraduate pre-school teachers. The tutors themselves stated at some point that these questions raised doubts in their minds about why they did things in a certain way out of habit, and this prompted them to learn or reflect on their practice.

Finally, it is important to mention that this process was interspersed by exchange situations involving the content of some photographs of situations considered natural or typical of communities of practice (Wenger, 2001; Raposo & Zabalza, 2011), because the educational and legal contexts provided promote these mutual teaching and learning processes between teachers and students.