Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance

ISSN: 0730-3084 (Print) 2168-3816 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujrd20

PE in Pictures: Using Photovoice to Promote

Middle School Students' Reflections on Physical
Activity during Free Time

Sheri M. Treadwell & Neva Taylor

To cite this article: Sheri M. Treadwell & Neva Taylor (2017) PE in Pictures: Using Photovoice
to Promote Middle School Students' Reflections on Physical Activity during Free Time, Journal of
Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 88:4, 26-33, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.2017.1280436

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07303084.2017.1280436

Published online: 27 Mar 2017.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 17

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujrd20

Download by: [University of South Carolina ] Date: 05 April 2017, At: 23:52
PE IN PICTURES:
Using Photovoice to
Promote Middle School
Students’ Reflections on
Physical Activity
during Free Time

Sheri M. Treadwell
Neva Taylor

Q
uality physical education is important for
helping children develop into active adults (Pangrazi,
2003). In order to do this, youth need to be provided
with appropriate opportunities for physical activity
(Pangrazi, Beighle, Vehige, & Vack, 2003). Although
SHAPE America’s National Standards for K–12 Physical Education address
this need for physical activity in Standard 3 (SHAPE America – Society
of Health and Physical Educators, 2014), it is not always delivered in an
explicit manner to students in a way that helps them make the connection
between being physically active in school and being active in the community
where they live. The purpose of this article is to provide a description of an
instructional unit that used an action-research methodology called Photo-
voice to help students in one physical education class make this connection,
as well as to advocate the changes that they believed would enhance their
levels of activity in the community.

Sheri M. Treadwell (streadwe@brockport.edu) is an assistant professor in the De-

partment of Kinesiology, Sport Studies, and Physical Education at The College at
Brockport, SUNY in Brockport, NY. Neva Taylor is a teacher at Eaton Middle School
in Eaton, CO.

26  Volume 88  Number 4   April 2017

PE in Pictures
Nancy is a veteran physical educator with 28 years of teach-
ing experience who has devoted her career to promoting lifelong
physical activity to her middle school students. The curriculum-
planning team at her school developed a standards-based curricu-
lum that integrated literacy, numeracy and technology and that
promoted increased student engagement throughout the learning
process. Her “PE in Pictures” class was devoted to the use of digi-
tal photography and video to analyze student skill development.
In the past, some of the projects her students completed consisted
of personal trading cards developed during their sport education
units and skill-based photo scrapbooks that analyzed various
sport-related psychomotor skills. Needless to say, Nancy’s physi-
cal education curriculum was cutting-edge, but despite the use of
technology in her classes, she was unsure if her students were being
physically active outside of physical education. It was important
to Nancy that her students embrace physical activity as well as
advocate for more opportunities to be physically active in the ru-
ral community where they lived; however, she was unsure how to
deliver instruction that would help her accomplish her objectives.
Nancy became aware of Photovoice when she was approached
by a graduate student who was soliciting teachers for a study that
would use Photovoice to help understand middle school students’
perceptions of physical activity outside of school. Nancy decided
to participate in the study because she believed that through this
research, she would be able to uncover how her students spent
time in physical activity outside of school. One of Nancy’s middle
school classes was chosen to participate in the “PE in Pictures”
unit, and the rest of this article provides more information regard-
ing the delivery and outcomes of that unit.
JOPERD  27
What Is Photovoice?
Photovoice is a participatory-action research methodology that
was designed by Wang and Burris (1997) to shed light on various
global public-health issues based on the assumption that people
are the experts of their own lives. Participants use cameras to doc-
ument their lived experiences and to take a critical view of the
world around them in an effort to advocate for social change in
their own community at the grassroots level (Wang, Morrel-Samu-
els, Hutchinson, Bell, & Pestronk, 2004). Basically, Photovoice is
an empowerment tool because it gives a voice to those who typi-
cally do not have a say in shaping policy, and it emphasizes both
individual and community action (Wang, 1999).
Photovoice has begun to be used in educational research. It
is valuable because it is an engaging tool for both teachers and
students. Through the use of Photovoice, teachers can learn more
about their students’ lives outside of school, and students feel val-
ued because their voice can be heard by their teachers, classmates
and policy makers.
PE in Pictures: Unit Description
In order for Nancy to deliver her “PE in Pictures” unit using
Photovoice, she had to accomplish several steps. First, she checked
digital cameras out to her students for seven days, including one
weekend. She instructed students to take 25 photographs; how-
ever, the photographs had to meet three criteria: they had to show
(1) activities they participated in outside of school, (2) the people
or things that influenced their participation in those activities,
and (3) physical activities they would like to try. Second, at the
end of the seven days of taking pictures, the students went to the
computer lab and downloaded their pictures. Nancy asked them
to view each of their photos and select the single image that best
described each of the three criteria. Third, the students analyzed
each photo that they had chosen using Wang and Burris’s (1997)
SHOWeD technique to determine how the images could be used to
educate others. SHOWeD is an acronym for a series of questions
that students answer as they analyze their photos:
S = What do you see here?
H = What is really happening here?
O = How does this relate to our lives (or your life personally)?
W = Why does this situation, concern or strength exist?
e = How could this image educate the community (class)?
D = What can we do about it?
Fourth, Nancy instructed every student to write a narrative an-
swering the SHOWeD questions as they related to the three photo
criteria. Each question prompted the students to think about the
selected photo on a deeper level. This instructional process not
only engaged the students in the content of the unit but also en-
abled students to look critically at the world around them.
While one aspect of the Photovoice methodology is to gather
images through photography to look critically at a specific as-
pect of an individual’s life, it also calls for the individual to use
the photographs to advocate for change in a community. In fact,
Wang (1999) described the importance of using photos taken and
analyzed using the SHOWeD technique as a way to advocate to
community policymakers and politicians who are in a position
to change policy at the grassroots or community level. The ad-
vocacy aspect of the Photovoice methodology is relevant to the
“PE in Pictures” unit because at the conclusion of the unit stu-
28  Volume 88  Number 4   April 2017
dents presented their individual findings to the rest of the class.
As a result, they identified various shortcomings in community
resources that affected their opportunities to be physically active
outside of school.
Many of the students shared common deficiencies, such as the
lack of opportunities to play basketball during the long winter
months. The local community recreation center had built a gym-
nasium but never installed basketball hoops, leaving the space as
a multipurpose room instead of a fully functional gymnasium. To
compensate for this, students suggested that schools could host
open gym hours after school or in the evenings. A few students also
proposed that the district build a disc-golf course on the middle
school campus, so that families could participate in the game af-
ter school and on weekends, while the physical education teachers
could incorporate authentic disc-golf units into the curriculum.
In addition, students identified a lack of sidewalks in the com-
munity and suggested that the town build more sidewalks or na-
ture trails that connect neighborhoods and parks, so that children
would not have to share the road with the many large cattle trucks
and farm equipment that frequently drove through town. Nancy
wrote the suggestions on the whiteboard, which allowed the stu-
dents to see all of the ideas. After a brief discussion the students
identified the final recommendation for the student-designed needs
assessment.
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
Nancy learned a great deal about her students’ perceptions of
their physical activity levels outside of school. In fact, she was
surprised by their reflections regarding their physical activity lev-
els and choices outside of school. During the class presentations
Nancy asked the students what they learned from taking photos
of how they spent their time outside of school, and the answers
were surprising.
Prior to checking out the cameras, most of the students con-
sidered themselves to be physically active, but once they sat down
and looked at their photos, many of the students realized that,
despite their perception of being physically active, their pictures
told the opposite story. One boy named Tommy said, “I thought
I was pretty active, but all but one of my photos were of me ei-
ther playing video games or watching TV.” The one photo that
showed any physical activity was that of him playing with his dog
on the floor. He later confessed, “I guess I should do something
to become more physically active.” Conversely, a number of stu-
dents were very involved in club and travel sports and realized
that their heavily scheduled lives left little time for recreational
activity with their friends (see Figure  1). Lacie, a student who
was active in both club softball and basketball, reflected on play-
ing basketball with her sister at their father’s house by saying, “I
don’t get a lot of free time to do much of anything because I am
so busy with softball and basketball, so for fun my sister and I
lower the hoop on the basket to seven feet so we can dunk and
play around.”
All of the students agreed that the Photovoice project was a
valuable exercise because they had never been asked to reflect
on their physical activity levels before. Nancy was encouraged
that her students saw the disparity between their perceived level
of physical activity and the evidence of their actual activity hab-
its documented in the photo evidence, and hoped they would
make positive changes outside of school to become more physi-
cally active.
 Figure 1.
Lacie’s SHOWeD analysis

Name of photographer: Lacie

Title of photo: Car traveling
Who inspires me: My family inspires me to push myself and always get a laugh even when things are tough.

S — “What is SEEN here?” (Describe what the eyes see in the photo)
Type your answer here: This is a picture of me driving in the car on the way home.
H — “What is really HAPPENING?” (The unseen “story” behind the image)
Type your answer here: I’m driving home from a long day of training and softball. I have a 3-hour practice and then I have
to wait for my sisters’ 3-hour practice. I have two sisters, so I’m at a softball field for about 9 hours!
O — “How does this relate to OUR lives?” (Or MY life personally)
Type your answer here: I have no life… softball and basketball are my life. That’s all I do.
W — “WHY are things this way?”
Type your answer here: Things are this way because my parents want the best opportunities for my sisters and me.
I love them so much for that! My parents want me to be able to play different sports, meet different people, and
see different places.
e — “How could this image EDUCATE people?”
Type your answer here: This could educate people to try and see or visit different places, meet new people, and explore
new ideas.
D — “What can I DO about it?” (What WILL I or WE do about it?)
Type your answer here: I can tell people about all the wonderful places I’ve been and encourage them to go too.

From Students to Advocates: Implications for
Physical Education
SHAPE America has encouraged physical educators to partici-
pate in advocacy initiatives, such as writing letters to legislators
and advocating at local school-board meetings, for years. The
message is not lost on teachers, but many may be reluctant to act
because they are not sure what the message should be, other than
that of professional self-preservation. In the case of the “PE in
Pictures” unit, the students became the advocates for their physi-
cal education program as well as for their own needs for physical
activity. As a result of the success of the “PE in Pictures” unit, a
few students from Nancy’s class were invited by the school dis-
trict superintendent to report their findings to the school board
at a meeting. Nancy selected five students to present the student-
designed needs assessment at the meeting. These student present-
ers took part in a planning meeting two weeks before the school-
board presentation.
The presenters discussed the needs assessment at the conclusion
of their class presentations and then discussed recommendations

JOPERD  29
they would make to the school board to enhance physical activity
opportunities in their community. Although the students recog-
nized that the school board could do little to change the situation
at the community center or construct sidewalks in the community,
they did believe that the school board could consider their ideas
regarding how to enhance opportunities for physical activity that
were less expensive.
The group decided to present their idea to construct a disc-golf
course that would benefit the physical education program as well as
provide an additional opportunity for the community to be physi-
cally active. In addition, the group proposed a week-long celebra-
tion of wellness that would be jointly sponsored by the community
and the school board. The exciting part of this event was that the
activities would be led entirely by students. During the celebration,
older (middle school or high school) students would act as mentors
to younger students by teaching various recreational games that
could be played anywhere. In addition, the participants suggested
enlisting the help of high school students to put on athletic clinics
for elementary students so they could experience a number of dif-
ferent sports. Since the students were aware of the school board’s
reluctance to co-sponsor any activity that might add to the budget
deficit, they suggested a committee be formed to solicit donations
from local businesses to help support the event.
Finally, the students discussed how they would deliver the pre-
sentation to the school board so that their message would be clear
and so that the presentation would effectively convey their points.
Each student volunteered to share one of his or her photos and the
accompanying SHOWeD reflections, while others volunteered to
present the needs assessment and proposal.
The presentation to the school board lasted 15 minutes and pro-
vided an accurate portrayal of the needs assessment designed by
the class, as well as their suggestions regarding how to enhance

Figure 2.
Adam’s SHOWeD analysis

S — “What is SEEN here? (Describe what the eyes see in the photo)
What is seen in this photo is the trail that I walk on with my mom and my brother during the summer or on sunny days.
H — “What is really HAPPENING?” (The unseen “story” behind the image)
What you can’t see is that this trail goes on more than a mile and it curves a bunch of times.
O — “How does this relate to OUR lives?” (Or MY life personally)
This relates to other people’s lives because other people might go on a walk and talk to their parents, like I talk to my mom
when we walk here.
W — “WHY are things this way?”
The reason I walk with my mom is that a couple of summers ago me and my mom started to really spend a lot of time
together, so we started just walking right after dinner before it was dark. So now we like to walk and talk or just
joke around.
e — “How could this image EDUCATE people?”
This image can educate people by inspiring them to just go for a walk with your parents after dinner if you have nothing
else to do. And not just sit in your room doing nothing, being inactive.
D — “What can I DO about it?” (What WILL I or WE do about it?)
What I could do about this or will do about walking is to do it for more than 30 minutes to maybe an hour.

30  Volume 88  Number 4   April 2017

 Figure 3.
Student-designed needs assessment and proposed celebration of wellness and fitness

Student-Designed Needs Assessment

•  Install a disc-golf course that can be utilized by PE classes by both middle and high school students, as well as the community.
•  Repair the outdoor basketball courts at the middles school.
•  Hold open gym times after school or in the evenings so students and families can play basketball during the cold winter months.
•  Build the basketball court at the recreation center.
•  Create walking trails around town to give families a safe environment to walk and be healthy.
•  Install more basketball courts and baseball/softball fields at local parks.

Students Give Back: A Celebration of Wellness & Fitness!

•  Monday: 3-on-3 tourney for 1-6 graders (run by middle school students)
•  Tuesday: Walk or Ride Your Bike Day (to/from work or school)
•  Wednesday: Get Out and Play Day at the park
•  Thursday: Help Your Neighbor Day
•  Friday: Crazy Softball Night
•  Saturday: 5k Fun Run and community BBQ

physical activity opportunities in their community. Three students
presented their SHOWeD analyses (see Figures 1 and 2), and two
students presented the needs assessment (see Figure 3). Afterwards,
the members of the school board thanked the participants for their
passion and thoughtfulness on the subject.
After the school board presentation, Nancy took the group out
for pizza to celebrate and debrief with the students about their
presentation. All five of the students were genuinely surprised that
the school board was willing to listen to them, as if their message
was important. Through this process students found themselves
energized and empowered to continue to look for ways to advo-
cate for change.
This experience influenced the students beyond the physical
education classroom. For example, Lacie stated that participating
in the whole experience of planning and presenting at the school-
board meeting confirmed her desire to pursue a student govern-
ment position the following year. In addition, two other students
commented that if they were given an opportunity to bring con-
cerns to those in power in the future, they would not feel so in-
timidated to speak up because they could draw from the feelings of
empowerment they experienced that night.
The group’s comments during the debriefing discussion illus-
trated the power of Photovoice to transform students into advo-
cates. Wang (1999) indicated that Photovoice, while traditionally
viewed as a research methodology, was really a tool that can en-
able those who typically are not given a voice — the marginalized
and the ordinary citizens of society — to become powerful advo-
cates for change. They had never considered going to a school-
board meeting before, but now they genuinely felt as though they
could make a difference in their community.
Steps for the Successful Use of Photovoice in
Physical Education
Nancy’s experience with Photovoice does not have to be unique.
In the beginning she intended to use Photovoice only as a reflec-
tive practice for her students, so they could think about what they
could learn from their photos and possibly influence others to be
more physically active. However, when the opportunity arose to
make the school-board presentation, Nancy saw an opportunity
for students to advocate to improve their school and commu-
nity. This type of action-research can be implemented fairly easily
within the curriculum. With the emphasis on integrating Common
Core State Standards and technology, Photovoice can be a natural
fit. The student analysis of each photo can provide the opportu-
nity to infuse writing into the curriculum, while the use of digital
photography and computer skills affords students an opportunity
to interact with technology in a meaningful way. In addition, the
student presentations of their SHOWeD narratives and the design
of the needs assessment provide opportunities to integrate speak-
ing and listening skills into the classes (National Governors Asso-
ciation Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School
Officers, 2010).
Step 1: Select a Topic. The first step in implementing a Pho-
tovoice project is to select a topic that the PE teacher wants to
explore. The topic should revolve around an issue that affects the
class, the school community, or society. It is also important for the
PE teacher to help the students understand that change may or may
not happen as a result of the project, but, more importantly, even if
change does not happen, the students can realize that their voices
deserve to be heard. For example, as a way to help students under-
stand healthy body composition and how one’s mood or activities
may affect dietary decisions, the teacher may assign students to
take photographs of the various types of food they consume for
seven days, including one weekend. In addition, the teacher may
instruct students to take photos of the activities they participate in
when the food is consumed. For example, the student may take a
picture of himself or herself eating a bowl of popcorn or a candy
bar while watching a movie. By assigning secondary criteria, the
students may become more aware of how activities or certain
events can influence the dietary choices they make. It is imperative
that students understand that they should not alter anything about

JOPERD  31
 Table 1.
Suggested Topics for In-class Photovoice Projects
Topic Suggested Photo Prompt
Understanding food choices •  Take photos of everything you eat/drink for a seven-day period of time, including one
weekend
•  Take photos of the circumstances under which you consume those foods/drinks
Motivation and barriers to •  Take photos of the things or people that motivate you to be physically active
physical activity •  Take photos of the things or people that keep you from being physically active
Influences for physical activity •  Take photos of the people or things that influence you to participate in physical activity
Understanding sedentary •  Take photos of activities that you participate in that are sedentary in nature
behavior
Community resources for •  Take photos of the places in your community where you participate in physical activity
physical activity
Personal and social •  Take photos of what it means to you to be personally responsible
responsibility •  Take photos of what it means to you to be socially responsible
Safety •  Take photos of how you use safety in your physical activity
Making healthy decisions •  Take photos of situations in which you make healthy decisions for your life

how they live their lives for that week, as the photos should tell
the “real story,” not one that is merely socially acceptable among
their peers. Because honesty is of utmost importance for accuracy,
teachers should be careful to foster a positive and judgment-free
learning environment, especially when the students present their
photos to the class. For ideas on jumpstarting a Photovoice proj-
ect, refer to Table 1.
Step 2: Take the Photos.  Many, if not most, middle school and
high school students have a cell phone that has camera capabilities.
Students can use their phones to document their lives if the school
does not have enough cameras to check out to students. If students
do not have a cell phone with a camera, but their family owns a
digital camera, then they may be able to use their personal camera.
Schools that have digital cameras or tablets may be able to check
them out to students if they do not have any other access to tech-
nology. Moreover, students should be taught social responsibility
as it relates to digital photography prior to starting the seven-day
photo shoot. For instance, students need to know that it is not
appropriate to photograph other people without written permis-
sion, otherwise they would be invading that individual’s privacy.
Additionally, all photos should be taken outside of the school day
so as to not disrupt the learning environment. The students should
review their photos each night and delete any that do not meet the
criteria to ensure they stay within the 25-photo limit. Taking more
photos will make the analysis session more time consuming, since
the students have to sift through more photos to get to the one to
three photos that best represent the assigned criteria.
Step 3: Select and Analyze the Photos.  The next step in the Pho-
tovoice process is to select the photos that best reflect the criteria
outlined by the teacher. This step works best when the computer
lab can be scheduled so students can download their pictures to
the computer and evaluate each picture against the appropriate
criteria. For teachers who are cautious about giving up too much
time to work on cognitive tasks such as this, it may be permissible
for the students to complete this step as an assignment outside of
class. In Nancy’s class, technology was embedded into the curricu-
lum — as the course title “PE in Pictures” indicated — so it was
reasonable that certain days would be spent in the computer lab to
allow the students enough time to complete various projects.
Once the students have selected their photos, they should begin
telling the story of the image by using the SHOWeD technique
(Wang & Burris, 1997). Teachers may need to put a minimum
sentence requirement on each question to ensure that students
use proper care and thoughtfulness when answering each ques-
tion. Teachers should also encourage the students to think about
the photo on a deeper level, with each answered question. For
example, in Figure  1, Lacie’s photo addressed criterion two of
the project, “the people or things that influence participation in
activities.” Her reflection started out with a brief explanation of
what was seen in the photo. The photo depicted the passenger-
side mirror to illustrate how much time she spent in the car travel-
ing home from softball practice. Lacie went on to explain in her
narrative that her parents influenced and inspired her participa-
tion in physical activity because they wanted her to play different
sports. She wrote that she loved her parents for giving her and her
sisters the opportunities to participate in all of the activities they
do. She also confessed that she “has no life” because of all of the
sports and traveling she does, but she finished her narrative by
encouraging others to try new things so they can travel and meet
new people.
It is important to note that the SHOWeD analysis is not the
only method used to analyze photos for Photovoice assignments,
though it was among the first. In a recent advocacy project in
Canada (Amos, Read, Cobb, & Pabani, 2012), action researchers
explored food insecurity in the province of Nova Scotia and used
Photovoice to understand how those affected by income-related
food insecurity could be served better by the agencies set up to
assist them (e.g., women’s centers, food banks, community-based
organizations). The participants in the Nova Scotia photo project
used the acronym PHOTO for self-analysis. Just as in SHOWeD,
each letter of the acronym in PHOTO prompts the participant to
analyze the image on a deeper level:

32  Volume 88  Number 4   April 2017

 P = Describe your photo
H = What is happening in your photo?
O = Why did you take a picture of this?
T = What does this picture tell us about your life?
O = How can this picture provide opportunities for others to
improve life?
Regardless of the analysis procedure used, it is important for the
teacher to instruct the students to be as detailed in their written
descriptions as possible so more can be learned from the images.
This step relies on reflection, and students should be prepared to
really give thought to how the images can enlighten and educate
others about their life.
Step 4: Create a Needs Assessment.  Since a major goal of Pho-
tovoice is to advocate for change within the community, the next
step in the project should be to facilitate a class discussion so stu-
dents have an opportunity to share their selected photos and analy-
ses as a key first step in creating a needs assessment. The needs
assessment should include a list of the shortcomings in the com-
munity and possible solutions.
Nancy elected to have her students present each of their three
selected photos to the class. Prior to the presentations, Nancy set
the tone to ensure an emotionally safe learning environment so stu-
dents felt that they could share their photos without being judged
by their peers. This is a critical point, and it should be continually
emphasized throughout the unit. The students displayed their pho-
tos on the projector screen and explained each of the SHOWeD
analyses to their classmates. As the presentations progressed,
Nancy listed common activities, locations and influences that stu-
dents shared on the whiteboard at the front of the room. Many of
the students’ photos were of them and their friends playing bas-
ketball, so “basketball” was written under activities, and the word
“friends” was listed under influences. At the conclusion of the pre-
sentations, students were asked to list what they perceived to be
shortcomings either in school, their neighborhood or the greater
community with regard to physical activity. This was when stu-
dents reported issues with the community recreation center and
possible solutions to enable them to play basketball more often.
This level of discourse aligns with speaking and listening Common
Core State Standards, and teachers can promote critical thinking
by asking students to think about the needs of their community
and what can be done to improve quality of life.
Step 5: Advocate for Change.  The final step in this process is to
advocate for change. This could be at the class or school level, or
as in Nancy’s students’ case, at the district level. Motivated teach-
ers may also feel compelled to advocate at the state or national
level by presenting at state or national conferences, or before state
legislators.
The purest form of advocacy in traditional Photovoice projects
occurs in the form of photo exhibits (Wang, 1999). Teachers can
simply put their students’ photos on display around the school or
host an exhibit in the evening and invite parents, teachers, admin-
istrators and local officials to attend. These exhibitions can also
coincide with planned activities such as fall or winter concerts,
parent conferences, athletic events, and so on. For example, the
teacher can select a number of pictures from each class to be
printed as 8  ×  10 or 11  ×  13 sized images and mount or frame
them to provide a more polished exhibition of the final product
for public viewing. Taking the time to mount or frame the photos
adds a level of authenticity to the overall presentation. The prints
should also include quotes from the SHOWeD analyses so those
viewing the photos can understand the meaning behind the images.
The final framed pictures and quotes could then be displayed in
conjunction with any school-sponsored activity, such as choir con-
certs or conference nights. The students, whose work is on display,
should be in attendance so they can answer questions about their
photos and talk about what they have learned from the experience.
Conclusion
Photovoice can be an effective tool for physical educators to use
to help their students reflect on certain behaviors and understand
various issues in their lives related to physical activity and living a
healthy life. Teachers can get a glimpse into the lives of their stu-
dents outside of school and have a better understanding of what
they perceive to be important when it comes to living a healthy
and physically active lifestyle. It also provides an outlet to address
several Common Core State Standards while also meeting learning
outcomes for the physical education class.
Technology does not need to be a barrier to implementing a
classroom-based Photovoice project, as more and more students
have cell phones equipped with cameras. As a result, schools no
longer have to worry that the majority of students do not have
access to technology and can more easily accommodate those few
students who may not have a means to access a digital camera.
Finally, Photovoice can be a powerful advocacy tool for teach-
ers to promote their students’ learning, as well as their programs.
In order to accomplish this, physical educators will need to find
creative ways to advocate for quality physical education at vari-
ous levels, at school and in the community. Nancy’s project was
not intended to be an advocacy project when it started, but as a
result of the assignment, an ordinary group of seventh-grade boys
and girls found their voices by looking through the eye of a cam-
era lens. Perhaps the greatest lesson learned from this experience
was that students’ voices matter. What the students had to say was
important, and it had the potential to make a change, if only they
were given the opportunity to speak up.
References
Amos, S., Read, K., Cobb, M., & Pabani, N. (2012). Facilitating a Photo-
voice project: What you need to know! Nova Scotia Participatory Food
Costing Project, Canada.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of
Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for
English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and
technical subjects. Washington, DC: Author.
Pangrazi, R. P. (2003). Physical education K–12: All for one and one for
all. Quest, 55, 105–117.
Pangrazi, R. P., Beighle, A., Vehige, T., & Vack, C. (2003). Impact of pro-
moting lifestyle activity for youth (PLAY) on children’s physical activity.
Journal of School Health, 73, 317–321.
Society of Health and Physical Educators. (2014). National standards and
grade-level outcomes for K–12 physical education. Champaign, IL: Hu-
man Kinetics.
Wang, C. C. (1999). Photovoice: A participatory action research strategy
applied to women’s health. Journal of Women’s Health, 8, 185–192.
Wang, C. C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology,
and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behav-
ior, 24, 369–387.
Wang, C. C., Morrel-Samuels, S., Hutchison, P. M., Bell, L., & Pestronk,
R. M. (2004). Flint Photovoice: Community building among youths,
adults, and policymakers. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 911–
913. J
JOPERD  33