Chapter 12: Confronting Color-Blind Education: Photovoice as Experiential Pedagogical Tool

Among visual methods, photovoice has emerged as a learning and research approach that engages critical consciousness, social engagement, and cultural transformation through critical reflection and advocacy (Latz, 2017). The method’s focus on individual and collective dialogue offers possibilities for engaging students in experiential learning for social justice. In this chapter, the author situates photovoice as an experiential learning process and presents how visual methods can allow for mindful processing of self and other, encouraging reflection that shifts from the internal to the external to the relational. Led by Milner’s (2007) concept of the seen, unseen, and unforeseen, the author integrates theory, practice, and reflection through photography and critical dialogue about race and Whiteness in education. Opening this chapter is a brief review of the White-racialized, color-blind education system in the United States. Next, the author describes the common challenge of educating White students about Whiteness and presents the possibility of visual methods to overcome these challenges. In the remainder of the text, a case study of a photovoice research project is presented alongside images and data. The chapter concludes with considerations for incorporating photovoice in the classroom.