Found in the Hallways: The Photograph as Data/Art in Research

Wanda Hurren (Faculty of Education)

6 October 2005

This talk and photography exhibit was based on a three year study* that examined links between social spaces in public high schools and student identity negotiations. As one approach to data gathering in the study, high school students worked with digital cameras to gather various images of social spaces in their schools. The researcher, Dr. Wanda Hurren, shared some of her questions regarding making sense of photographic data within research. The focus of this planned talk/exhibit was to consider the multiple roles of photography within research, paying particular attention to a position put forward by the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago: photography as art/document/science/market. Stepping away from interpretive analysis, and a belief in the photograph as extra “proof” in the research endeavour, Dr. Hurren considered research possibilities when we acknowledge the blurred boundaries regarding photography’s multiple roles. One of the questions she asked was “Does it further the research intent to consider photographic data as art?”

Wanda Hurren is an Associate Professor in Curriculum Studies. Her recent book publications, Line Dancing: An Atlas of Geography Curriculum and Poetic Possibilities (2000), and Curriculum Intertext: Place/Language/Pedagogy (2003), both Peter Lang, New York, highlight her research interests: identity, place, and curriculum. She is currently teaching courses at the undergraduate level in social studies curriculum, and at the graduate level in curriculum theory.

*With funding from SSHRC, the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration, and generous support from the HRI.