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Hello, my name is Julie Gosselin.
I am a professor at the School of Psychology, Director of the
Stepfamily Research Laboratory,
and a clinical psychologist and CRECS Senior Researcher.
Today, I am going to discuss a preliminary project using Photo Voice
methodology, conducted in our lab over the past year in collaboration
with single mothers
living in disadvantaged circumstances in the Outaouais.
My objective today is to talk to you about
the Photo Voice technique
and what it involves,
our decision to use Photo Voice in this particular study,
and the results obtained from the study
with this group of mothers.
First, Photo Voice methodology
has existed for some time now.
Use of this methodology in research is becoming increasingly widespread.
It was developed by *** and Burris, and first used
in a study published in 1997, conducted
with a group of Chinese mothers.
The study's objective was to be able
to use photos as research data.
It is thus a methodology used with populations
that might less readily participate in
traditional research employing either
semi-structured interviews
or paper-and-pencil questionnaires.
Thus, we can see that by using Photo Voice, it is possible
to allow populations who have been marginalized
due to their level of education
or all sorts of other criteria,
to take part in research in so far as they are able to use a camera.
We decided to use the Photo Voice
method for our research project
precisely because we were excited by the idea
of being able to give a voice to our participants.
In our research, we determined that few studies have examined
single parenthood from the perspective of single mothers,
and that research tends to focus more on risk-related mechanisms,
than on resilience in these families.
Thus, our objective was also to be able to permit our participants
not only to be co-architects
of the perspective that would be adopted in studying their situation,
but also to be co-architects of the knowledge we would
be able to gather through this project.
A particular group of mothers took part in this project.
It was a group of mothers participating in a program known
as "Vers la réussite" (Towards Success)
sponsored by the Association des familles monoparentales et recomposées
de l'Outaouais, (Outaouais Association of Single-Parent and Step Families), our
community research partner.
It is a 12-week program aimed at increasing
the mothers' level of social inclusion.
empowerment, and parenting skills,
and helping them enter the workforce.
Not only do the mothers in the program
live in disadvantaged circumstances,
but many of them have a history of drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence,
and run-ins with child protective services.
So, we met with the "Vers la Réussite" participants,
and proposed our project to them
with the following objectives: to gain a better understanding
of the issues they face, to give a voice to their views on their situation,
to identify factors linked to the resilience of those mothers, and also
perhaps to be able to evaluate their needs with respect to
social solidarity.
Six mothers decided to take part in the Photo Voice project,
In the following weeks, we received the cameras,
provided them with training on how to take photos,
and sent them out into their communities to take pictures of
what best
represented their situation.
After taking the photos, they met with our researchers
and our research team, and together they filled out forms
to provide a narrative for the photos, explaining a little
about why they took
those photos, what they
wanted to represent,
and why that was important for them.
The data were then transcribed
with NVivo 10 software and analyzed using an
interpretive phenomenological approach.
So, what were the results of the study?
Three main themes emerged
from the overall set of photos taken by our participants.
First, there was what we called the wheel-of-fortune theme.
In other words, the mothers recognized that they were
coping with considerable adversity, that there were many risk factors
in their environment and situation,
but at the same time,
it was important for them to note the resilience, their personal resilience,
a resilience that is also dependent on the support they receive,
and so they recognize that they are living on the edge
of a cliff, and it seems to them that
they have very little freedom,
but at the same time, they recognize it is possible to cope;
and so the wheel of fortune
refers to that duality.
The second important theme concerns identity:
most of the mothers talked about the fact that they noticed
that their identity is now built around their ability to pick themselves up.
They are women who have experienced enormous adversity in their
lives and partly by treating themselves with more compassion,
but also by recognizing
the power tied to learning to pick oneself up. This informs their
identity in a way, which becomes less
that of a victim, and more that of
someone resilient, and able to survive.
We could also see that identity was an integral part
of the desire to be a positive role model for their children,
to try also to show their children that success is not having
no challenges to face but rather coping with challenges.
This is a very important message for them.
Finally, the third theme we identified was the notion
that there is a wall separating them from the rest of society,
that the mothers recognized that they felt excluded from the rest
of society, but at the same time, closely scrutinized by it.
They are excluded because of their financial difficulties,
prejudices about
them, and also their living conditions,
including the neighbourhoods in which they must live,
but at the same time, they have the sense that they are excluded
by their community
as much as by the rest of society,
whether it be in terms of their children's schools,
community organizations or
or social institutions, while at the same time, they have the
impression they are being scrutinized by them as well;
also because they are often dependent
on society, dependent among other things
on programs to help them meet their family's needs.
So, we can see that really
what they have shown us through these results
is that it is an experience of duality on numerous levels.
These results are interesting because they can help us
ask different questions in the future: for example,
we know that this group of women was a special group.
It was a group who
had chosen to take part in a program to develop their
skills, a program that is difficult to complete because it is a
12-week-long, full-time program.
So, we can see that it is truly a group of mothers
who are already highly resilient.
This raises the question of whether the same results would be obtained
with groups of mothers who
would not take part in this sort of program,
and also of how the obtained results might
help further the development of effective programs to assist
such mothers with the situations
they face, as well as in becoming better integrated into the community.
Furthermore, how can these results instruct us as to how to reach
those mothers who may not take part in this sort of program,
yet could benefit from programs
like "Vers la réussite"?
It has been a pleasure being
with you today. Thank you.