Exploring the use of photo-elicitation as an alternative lens for evaluating young people's views and experiences with widening participation

This article explores the potential of an arts-based, participatory method called photo-elicitation (PE) as a tool for evaluating widening participation (WP) initiatives with young people. Though past studies have highlighted the potential of PE for evaluating WP interventions to date, it has rarely been used for such purposes and there is limited guidance available on how to employ this approach, which can prevent others in the field from using it. This paper provides such guidance, presenting an example project to illustrate how a PE approach was used to evaluate a pre-16 WP programme. Specifically, the example project involved using an 'auto-driven' PE method, whereby school pupils took photographs of their views/experiences before and after taking part in the WP programme, which were then explored via semi-structured interviews. The article discusses practical and ethical challenges that may arise when using PE, but also the deep and meaningful insights that may be gained by enabling young people to articulate themselves in different ways. As methods are sought to evaluate WP activities in the post-pandemic world, arts-based methods, such as PE, could allow for a more nuanced understanding of young people's views, which can be achieved whil e supporting students remotely.