Employing Critical Visual Methodologies in Development Education: An Auto-ethnographic Inquiry

Abstract

Through auto-ethnography, this paper explores the use of critical visual methodologies as a pedagogical approach in teaching and learning development studies based on the author's lived experiences and living encounters as a development educator for the last two decades of his academic career. Specifically, the study unpacks the adoption of this critical pedagogy in classroom instruction as well as in the degree’s community-based practicum program. Conventional and non-conventional visual literacy strategies were also covered and analyzed in the specific context of researching vulnerable groups and communities. The visual data that were explored by this qualitative inquiry encompassed visually oriented course tasks which include the production of photographs, audio-visual presentations, posters, editorial cartoons, and sociological cartoons, among others. In ensuring coherence and complementarity in critical visual methodologies in development education, there is a need to synergize critical constructs with creative pedagogies. Meanwhile, in guaranteeing relevance and rootedness, the socio-instructional imperative is to align these alternative constructs and pedagogies to the situatedness and struggles of communities.