Photography and Ethics in Evaluation

Abstract

In recent years evaluators have been using photography as one method for collecting data in qualitative evaluatron studies. The public nature of photographs have ethical implications for application in evaluation practice. Of primary ethical concern are the issues of honesty and accurate representation in the sampling plan, proposed use of the photographs, and selection and interpretation of the photographs for presentation. Additional considerations include costs and benefits for the evaluator, clients, participants, and society.

Expanding the Role of Digital Photographs in Evaluation Practice: Documenting, Sense-Making, and Imagining

“…The photographs were intended to be a means to foster respect and to build trust in order to share experiences, both of which are essential in responsive evaluation (Abma, 2006) and evaluation for social change (Greene, 2006). Although photographs are by no means the only tool or approach to effect such transformative relationships, this case example demonstrated that they may be a useful tool for doing so.…”

“…This section includes descriptions of three frameworks, or ways of thinking about the use of photographs in evaluation practice. The role and function of evaluation in society-mainly accountability (Christie & Alkin, 2013), learning (Rogers & Williams, 2006), and social change (Greene, 2006)-relate to the frameworks of documenting social change, facilitating sense-making, and inspiring and imagining social change, respectively. These frameworks shape what a photograph is and what it does in the context of an evaluation.…”

“…In addition to accountability and learning, another central aim is social change among evaluators. Such an aim is most evident in evaluation approaches that embrace social justice, equality, empowerment, and transformation, such as deliberative democratic evaluation and, more recently, culturally and contextually responsive evaluation (Greene, 2006). These evaluators reject a clear distinction between facts and values and the possibility of value neutrality.…”

“…The inability to represent long-term program outcomes adequately with photographs might have discouraged the practitioners from attending to program outcomes, as they favoured photographic evidence over other data sources in the evaluation. Ethical issues of privacy further complicated this issue, as the team avoided photographs with faces (Fang & Ellwein, 1990). Although people take photographs of each other and share them in a public manner on a daily basis, ethics in evaluation and legal guidelines in schools respect the privacy of individuals and the sharing of their identity through photographs in reports and publications.…”

“…Although the program developer took many photographs, and some coaches and school leaders took some too, the evaluation team had difficulty representing the project from multiple perspectives with photographs. The evaluation team became increasingly concerned that the photographs may be telling only one version of the program story, which is counterproductive in democratic approaches (Greene, 2006) and responsive evaluation (Abma, 2006).…”