Using Photo Elicitation Interviews to Explore Newly Arrived Pupils’ Social and Academic Experiences

Abstract

This article aims to shed light on the spatial experiences of newly arrived pupils in relation to both their social and academic life at school. Data is derived from an on-going municipal project and includes 90 photographic images taken by nine newly arrived pupils as a basis for auto-driven photo elicitation interview methodology. The study draws on analytical spatial concepts and is placed within a theoretical frame contributed by the geography scholar Doreen Massey and three propositions. The interviewed pupils express mainly positive experiences. The find ings also reveal the complexity of space in school. decision-makers the relation between space and interculturality) that are mutu-ally connected to time links between a space and contemporary discourses), constructed, non-fixed and non-neutral. Furthermore, the presented results supported Massey’s view of space as being interconnected with change and power, as the interviews chronicled migration of young students to another country, and thus, connected space to a broad geographical perspective.The experiences of the pupils were explored via a data collection process that heavily relied on the pupils’ photographs of places and spaces in their schools. Our findings demonstrate how the applied data collection process can be used to draw a rich picture of individual experiences, which, when considered together, constitute a constellation of collective experiences. It could be argued that the approach of asking for images of places where good things happened risks leaving out negative experiences. The research team also considered the implications of the applied approach and decided to include the ‘magic wand’ question to allow students in school improved. Several students brought up less positive other parts of the interviews.