Emancipatory Visions: Using Visual Methods to Coconstruct Knowledge with Older Adults

Abstract

This paper calls for gerontologists to engage with visual methods in qualitative research as an innovative tool for community-engaged research that has potential to advance social justice in gerontology. Reflections about using visual methods from the intersectional standpoint of the authors, three younger women of color, are presented. In Working the Hyphen, Yeh shows how interpersonal dynamics are fundamental to visual methods and that attention to identity can provide new insights into aging while also reconstituting existing power dynamics that researchers must carefully consider. In Employing Elicitation Techniques with Experts, Reyes discusses how a colonial lens limits understandings of civic participation and erases contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) older adults, proposing that elicitation techniques offer opportunities for BIPOC older adults to contribute their expertise to the research process and dissemination of findings beyond an academic audience. In Pedagogy and Practicality, Versey describes promises and complexities of scaling visual methods on multiple levels — teaching future generations of researchers the philosophy and practice of photovoice; negotiating university and community relationships through a service-learning project; and navigating identity between herself, her students, and research participants. In sharing our self-narratives, we integrate reflexivity into the research process and challenge power dynamics in knowledge construction.

Whiteness hurts society: How whiteness shapes mental, physical, and social health outcomes

“…Futhermore, qualitative methods and mixed-methods show how attending to participant experiences and within-group heterogeneity can deconstruct assumptions about psychological phenomena, facilitate critical pedagogy, aid knowledge production, and complicate basic comparative research (Causadias et al, 2023;Cho et al, 2013;Cuádraz & Uttal, 1999;Reyes et al, 2022;Rosenthal, 2016). As Bediako and Griffith (2007) illustrate, ".…”

“…Futhermore, qualitative methods and mixed‐methods show how attending to participant experiences and within‐group heterogeneity can deconstruct assumptions about psychological phenomena, facilitate critical pedagogy, aid knowledge production, and complicate basic comparative research (Causadias et al., 2023; Cho et al., 2013; Cuádraz & Uttal, 1999; Reyes et al., 2022; Rosenthal, 2016). As Bediako and Griffith (2007) illustrate, “…assessing the health outcomes of racial minority groups by comparing them to a racial majority standard is valuable for identifying and monitoring health inequities, but may not be the most effective approach to identifying strategies that can be used to improve minority health outcomes” (p. 51).…”

Experiences of Civic Participation Among Older African American and Latinx Immigrant Adults in the Context of an Ageist and Racist Society

“…In addition, this method is appropriate for marginalized populations, who historically have been stripped of their agency and voice. A phenomenological approach gives participants the space to be active participants in the construction of their own narratives (Reyes et al, 2022;Wertz, 2005). Finally, phenomenology has been adopted by scholars seeking to study social, economic, and cultural interactions (Moustakas, 1994), topics that are salient to this study.…”

“…Throughout the study, I also employed the use of memoing to engage in reflexivity beginning with instrument development (Crowther et al, 2017). I discuss my positionality and reflections of conducting this research as a younger Latinx immigrant woman in another paper (Reyes et al, 2022).…”

Entwined Oppressions: Historicizing Anti-Asian Violence in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Era

“…Use a reflexive gerontological imagination and critical qualitative or participatory methods to illuminate the nuances of AAPI lived realities ( Estes et al, 1992 ; Reyes et al, 2022 ; Yeh, 2022 ).…”