Photo stories – effectiveness through collaborative image creation

Abstract

Climate change education needs to focus on values and attitudes rather than knowledge if it is to be effective. A number of studies from around the world indicate that behavioural change does not come directly through an increase in the knowledge domain but mainly through factors that touch upon emotions, attitudes and values. In the EduChange project, a novel and simple approach to achieve changes in attitudes and to instill a sense of ownership in the contextual environment was the development of photo stories, specifically within a sustainable development framework. Photo stories allowed students with little or no experience in photographic techniques to take pictures in situ and then to collate them as a group and produce a presentation that could have an impact on their intended audience. The future student teachers from the four participating countries were instructed in the production and use of photo stories and they started to create their own. The study also utilized a number of fieldwork sessions in which the participants had to create a thematic photo story that focused on climate change awareness-raising within the particular context studied. The students then presented their results through interactive sessions which were also evaluated by their peers. This chapter gives an overview of how the photo stories were carried out and how they can be incorporated into teaching and learning about climate change. It also highlights effective methodologies used within the different thematic photo stories. Overall, photo stories were found to be very effective in increasing the knowledge, awareness and attitudes of the students towards climate change. The collaborative photo story was seen as being highly effective in nurturing the skills required by future teachers and their students in doing climate change education. The study identifies the photo story methodology as an effective means of developing teachers and students who are not only knowledgeable and aware of climate change, but who are also able to positively influence the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of students towards the environment in general and climate change in particular.