Methodological Innovations, Ahead of Print.
This polyvocal article is an anecdotal narrative from the author researchers, supported by a photographic essay, presenting the methodological and contextual experience of image-making and contemplation undertaken in three early childhood education centres (ECEs) in Christchurch, Lyttleton and Timaru. The research was positioned through a key research question: How might we better understand engagement with local conditions for children’s access to water through the application of visual methods – in Aotearoa, New Zealand? The experience for the team was transformative, leading us to reflect upon our time in the centres, our collaborations and interactions with the children and teachers, and, primarily for the purpose of this article, how the act of image-making shaped our encounters while at the ECEs. A critical research method in the project involved photography of the lived experiences of the children in the centres, as lensed through representations of water by children in their daily lives. The shifting gaze of the photograph and the daily narrative afforded to the wai (water) transmitted is not simply about the physical properties of water but about the whakapapa (or origins) of wai as a life force that changes the flow of direction or activity. The researchers took a ‘walking with’ immersive approach to access the world of the children that simultaneously relied on the subjectivity of the photographers as an unfolding method in action. Central to the interests of this article is what we learned from the image-making experience. Lensing our research through visual methods transformed how we encountered our subjects. Invisible moments were rendered visible in the contemplative act of taking and then thinking about the photos. The photographic text, collected and reflected upon (by researchers spanning distinctly different practices), shaped a nascent transdisciplinary methodological approach to build into our future inquiries.
