Exploring the use of video as a method to promote doctoral students self-reflection on their research journey.
Carol Taylor, Sheffield Hallam University
Summary of the Aims of the Project
The overall aim of the project is to use digital video to facilitate doctoral students’ development of their research biographies and to promote students’ reflexivity on their doctoral journey. The project provides opportunities for students to reflect on their doctoral learning journeys through the identification of critical incidents and to use these to comment on the key events and the significant learning arising from their research journeys. The individual videonarratives that students produce can be used for personal and professional development. The practical element of the project aims to equip students with basic skills in the use of digital video and editing and software packages. In addition, the project provides the scope to analyse the use of DV as an innovative methodology for promoting students’ reflexivity and in enabling the researcher to participate in opportunities for self-development as a researcher and further reflection on my own research journey.
Rationale for the Project
The original impetus for the project came out of my longstanding interest in visual culture and my experience in teaching theoretical aspects of Film, Media and Cultural Studies. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating theoretical frameworks from visual research methodologies (Mirzoeff, 1999; Rose, 2001), social semiotics (Jewitt, 2006) and sociocultural learning theory (Bourdieu, 1997; Hodkinson, Biesta and James, 2007). The theorisation of technological convergence (Cartwright, 1998) and recent analyses which consider how the use of technology or new media is impacting upon educational processes and practices (Slevin, 2008) have also been pertinent in informing my conception of how doctoral students might make use of digital video.
The reflexive activities I participated in on my own doctoral research journey, which began in 2005 and is now nearing completion, led me to design a project which sought to bring these different strands together and which linked them to the acquisition of skills in the production of a personal videonarrative.
The reflexive aspect of the research is informed more broadly by theoretical accounts which consider the extent to which the production and reflexive presentation of the self is a condition of contemporary society (Giddens, 1991); the extent to which our self-productions as doctoral students are conditioned by disciplinary educational formations (Foucault, 1980); and the psychosocial investments we make in ‘giving an account of ourselves’ (Bulter, 2005). The use of digital video as a vehicle for doctoral students’ self-presentation provided an exciting opportunity to introduce students to a range of skills for visual self-presentation while, at the same time, providing a rich context in which to bring together these various theoretical streams.
The aspect of the project which focused on participants’ development of skills in using DV for self-presentation purposes, and in using the product of their skills ie the videonarrative, as a means of personal and professional development, was a significant motivation for the project. This aspect of the project is specifically connected to the policy context of doctoral education and the increasing emphasis on the integration of skills into doctoral studies. The project, thus, aims to create a space for doctoral students’ to develop a creative and/or critical engagement with the current policy focus on the doctorate as a training ground for professional researchers (Roberts, 2002; QAA, 2004), and links with more general analyses of the changing nature of HE (Barnett, 2000)
Development of the Project
During the course of the project I moved from the university in which I was undertaking my doctorate (University of Sussex) and in which the project was initially to be undertaken to a university in which I obtained a lecturing post (Sheffield Hallam University). This meant transferring the project with me and making certain changes. Originally, the aim was to invite DPhil students at Sussex University to participate. At Sheffield Hallam, I liaised with Dr Paul Garland, Head of the professional doctorate in education, to invite EdD students to participate. I also made contact with Dr Jerry Wellington, Head of Education research degrees at Sheffield University and, with his help, sent out information about the project to PhD and EdD students there. The result was that the project targeted, and included, a wider range of doctoral students than was originally intended. This turned out to be a feature which enhanced the project as students shared different stories and, in the process, clarified the specificity of their own narratives.
The shift in institutional location also meant delaying the start of the project. I also reorganised the project structure slightly to include a full one day Workshop (to combine the 3 separate hour and a half Workshops I had originally planned). Logistically, this seemed more appropriate given the different student cohort I was now working with and the demands on their time I felt I could make. The Workshop is followed by audio interviews with each participant.
Project Participants
The participants included 2 EdD students, 2 PhD students and 1 DPhil student (myself in role of researcher-as-participant).
The gender balance was 3 female (including me) and two male doctoral students. The youngest student was 34. All other students were aged between 45 and 55. Four students (including me) were UK students. One was an international student.
Activities undertaken thus far in the Project:
· Liaison with heads of doctoral research degree programmes at Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield University.
· My participation in training in the use of DV and editing as preparation for the Workshop.
· Extensive liaison with the IT department at Sheffield Hallam University about appropriate software that participants could use to incorporate their videonarrative into. This liaison has led to a small collection of materials on e-portfolios and digital CVs which can inform future projects with doctoral students or teaching sessions.
· Running the Workshop. The title of the Workshop was ‘Professional Development and Reflective Workshop for Doctoral Students: Your Research Journey’ and took place on Friday, 20th February 2009.
· The Workshop was structured as follows:
o Part One involved participants reflecting on their research journey via the identification of critical incidents;
o Part Two introduced participants to the basic skills needed for using digital video and provided them with some pointers to the aesthetics of working with DV eg framing, source of light. They then worked in pairs to interview each other on DV, with interviews being structured around the critical incident they had earlier identified;
o In Part Three of the workshop, participants were introduced to basic editing skills, and then began to edit their own videonarratives using moviemaker;
o In Part Four participants were introduced to digital CVs and the use of DV for professional development purposes. This produced reflexive discussions on the relations between the visual and textual aspects of self presentation and academic identity;
o In the plenary, students contributed ideas regarding guidelines for the use of video as a reflective tool with doctoral students.
· Each participant (including me) produced a videonarrative which they had begun to edit. Participants were provided with memory sticks to take their videonarrative away with them for further development.
· Participants contributed ideas to the Workshop Plenary which aimed to draw together advice on working with DV as a first draft of guidelines for researchers using DV with doctoral students.
· After obtaining ethical consent, the DV footage was collected by the researcher for later use in the audio interviews as a tool for promoting reflection. Permission was sought for its use in research outcomes from the project eg journal article or conference paper.
· Two audio interviews have been carried out. These interviews used the participant’s videonarrative and the raw video footage to prompt further reflexivity. The DV footage was used in combination with a semi-structured interview schedule which sought to explore in-depth each participant’s doctoral research journey. Two audio interviews remain to be done. I have also written a personal reflection on my own videonarrative.
Summary of Emergent Findings
1. Use of critical incidents in narrative accounts
The critical incidents discussion was enhanced by participants sharing their experiences. The discussion was enriched by the diversity of programmes participants were involved in (all 3 types of doctorate were represented); by the range of experiences reported on; and by the kinds of reflexive analysis students engaged in ie an analysis which sought to link the life history of the participant with the motivation for taking on doctoral study. In this way, participants created a space for the development and encouragement of collaborative and holistic accounts of the place of the doctorate in their lives, and were thoroughly aware that what they were engaging in was a reflexive process of narrativisation (Polkinghorne, 1988).
2. Use of technology
It is important that technology needs to be made as accessible, as usable and as portable as possible. Lightweight, handheld digital video cameras were used, tripods were provided and used, but beyond this the focus was on using DV for the purposes of producing the videonarrative, thus privileging the process and the product not the technology. No knowledge of the use of visual technologies was assumed and the emphasis on ‘use’ was important in making the Workshop a success and making participants feel at ease, comfortable and confident in their use of the technology. It was important to provide information on the aesthetics of filming video footage in order that participants produced something they could use and which looked competent as a piece of film, but this was kept to what was necessary. The editing of the video footage into a videonarrative was done with Moviemaker for the same reasons ie ease of use and compatibility with technology available on home PCs.
3. Ownership of the videonarrative
Ownership of the videonarrative must reside with the participant. This was of primary importance in creating the conditions for an open and reflexive dialogue both initially in the critical incidents discussion and then throughout the day. The ethical framework of the project included permissions on the use of footage for a conference and/or research papers and included anonymity, confidentiality and the safe storage of materials. However, the feeling of participant ownership had to go beyond this for two reasons. First, so that participants could literally take their videonarrative away with them on memory stick. And second, to provide a sense of ownership and control of ‘their image’ in a cultural milieu in which it seems that the circulation of images is thoroughly mediatized, apparently limitless and unregulated. Participants sensitivity to the use of images was aired at various point during the day and particularly in Part Four and the plenary of the Workshop, where the visual, disembodied and, yet, curiously, embodied representations produced by DV were reflected upon.
4. Digital video as a representational medium
The representational aspects of videonarratives were also discussed at length in the two follow-up audio interviews so far conducted with participants. These interviews used the video footage and the videonarratives as a source for video-stimulated reflective dialogue (VSRD) (Challon, 2007; Moyles et al., 2003), to discuss in detail issues relating to:
· the aesthetic and technical choices of self presentation on video;
· the role of narrative in the production of the self on video;
· how the doctoral journey combines the emotional/affective with the intellectual and how these inform self-presentation;
· the status of doctoral student vis-à-vis the academy and the student’s desire for an academic career
· the relation between the public and the private in the production of one’s digital identity
amongst other concerns. These early findings convince me that digital video can be used insightfully and critically used as a tool for promoting reflexivity with doctoral students.
5. Doctoral students and creative agency
Digital video is a significant tool in enabling doctoral students to make creative choices about self-presentation. The production of a videonarrative was spoken of in the Workshop plenary and in audio interviews as enhancing their sense of agency and the extent to which they can see themselves as active participants contributing to the culture of academia, and as knowledge producers in their own right, rather than simply as ‘students’. Particpants saw their videonarrative as bringing together a number of roles and providing a ‘stop’ point, which they characterised as a privileged vantage point in the flow of their doctoral journey. In addition, in both interviews so far, participants explicitly identified the visual provenance of their videonarrative and the ways in which their choices of self-presentation were informed by a particular visual aesthetic. That participants had so consciously assumed the role of ‘director’ was surprising and demonstrated the extent to which agency and reflexivity were involved in the formal, visual staging of the videonarrative as much as in its content.
The substantive findings I have identified here are the first findings of the project, and are necessarily impressionistic at the moment. The data from the Workshop and from the interviews (once they have all been carried out) will furnish me with a much greater range of insights which will be fully supported by empirical data, and considered in relation to a fuller theoretical framework. The methodological findings also need to be considered and relate to use of video as a research method and the implications of being a participant in the research project myself.
To date, I have obtained a range of articles and research reports on using video with teachers and students for skills development and to enhance reflection. However, despite focused searching, I have not yet obtained any articles on using DV with doctoral students. The project will thus contribute new insights and provide an original perspective on reflexivity, using digital video and constructing narrative accounts of doctoral learning.
Next Steps on the Project
· Complete the final two audio interviews
· Transcribe DV data and interviews
· Data analysis
· Complete the literature review
Intended Outcomes for the Project
· Student videonarratives