Using Photovoice to Bring Career into a New Focus for First-Generation College Students

Abstract

This study examines how first-generation, low-income college students make meaning of their career development process during their first year of college. Photovoice was employed to collect visual data and accompanying narrative texts providing a rich data set created by students during their transition to college. Four findings emerged from this participatory action method where students captured important aspects of their career development process: (a) extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, (b) struggles, (c) agent of change, and (d) envisioning the future. This study deepens our understanding of how the intersection of students’ individual identities, contexts, and motivations can inform praxis and allow them translate their particular assets toward career meaning-making. Systems theory and photovoice together served as useful lenses from which to unpack these identities in this study.