Participatory
teacher training in practicum and professional development: contribution of
photo-elicitation and narration
Formación docente participativa en el Prácticum y desarrollo profesional:
contribución de la foto-elicitación y la narración
Universidad Complutense de Madrid. España.
Antonio
Bautista-García-Vera
Universidad Complutense de Madrid. España.
Received: 2025-09-05;
Revised: 2025-09-11; Accepted: 2025-12-16;
Published: 2026-09-01
How to cite this article:
Romera-Iruela,
M.J., & Bautista-García-Vera, A. (2026). Participatory teacher training in
practicum and professional development: contribution of photo-elicitation and narration
[Formación docente participativa en el Prácticum y desarrollo profesional:
contribución de la foto-elicitación y la narración]. Pixel-Bit, Revista de
Medios y Educación, 77, Art. 8. https://doi.org/10.12795/pixelbit.117865
ABSTRACT
Within the framework of the new approaches and
methodologies required in teacher training and in teachers’ personal and
professional development, our research explores this topic in a participatory manner
and will introduce an innovative visual narrative procedure, whose perspective
is relational and holistic: photo-elicitation in its didactic aspect. Its
design is a single case study, focusing on a Practicum agreed between the
school and the university, corresponding to the Degree in Primary Education
Teaching, with a specialization in Hearing and Language/Therapeutic Pedagogy.
The aim is to discover whether this procedure contributes to multidimensional
learning through the integration of the cognitive, affective,
motivational-axiological, and relational sources reflected in teaching
behaviour; to identify the interactions between the student and the school
tutor; and to ascertain participants’ perceptions regarding the contributions
entailed by the incorporation of this methodology. The results have shown that
both the discourse relating to the significant experiences of the future teacher
and the dialogues and reflections with her teachers-tutors encompassed feeling,
thinking, desiring, and acting, with due attention to contexts, alongside
knowing. The achievements in all learning and in the relationships established
imply a methodological contribution for two models of teacher education and
professional development.
RESUMEN
En el marco de los nuevos enfoques y metodologías demandados en la
formación del profesorado y en su desarrollo personal y profesional, nuestra investigación
explora esta temática de forma participativa y va a introducir un innovador
procedimiento narrativo visual, cuya perspectiva es relacional y holística: la
foto-elicitación en su vertiente didáctica. Su diseño es un estudio de caso
único, centrado en un Prácticum conveniado entre escuela y universidad,
correspondiente al Grado de Maestro en Educación Primaria, mención de Audición
y Lenguaje/Pedagogía Terapéutica. El objetivo es descubrir si dicho procedimiento
contribuye a un aprendizaje multidimensional con integración de las fuentes
cognitivas, afectivas, motivacionales-axiológicas y relacionales que presenta
el comportamiento docente; identificar las interacciones de la alumna y la
tutora escolar y conocer las percepciones de los participantes acerca de las
aportaciones que conlleva esta incorporación metodológica. Los resultados han
mostrado que tanto el discurso referente a las experiencias significativas de
la futura profesora, como los diálogos y las reflexiones con sus
profesores-tutores, abarcaron el sentir, el pensar, el desear y el actuar,
atendiendo a los contextos, junto con el conocer. Los logros en todos los
aprendizajes y las relaciones implican aportación metodológica para dos modelos
de formación y desarrollo profesional docente.
KEYWORDS· PALABRAS CLAVES
Teacher education; participatory development;
elementary education; teaching practice; photo-elicitation
Formación
de docentes; desarrollo profesional; enseñanza primaria; práctica pedagógica;
foto-elicitación
1.
Introduction
Achieving
quality in teacher education continues to be a challenge for education policies
and a priority line of international research (White & Timmermans, 2025;
Zhang, 2024). Among the elements that contribute to the attainment of the
aforementioned objective, Darling-Hammond (2020) has identified the beliefs and
practices shared between schoolteachers and university lecturers, as well as the
establishment of agreements between these two institutions. Nieva and Martínez
(2012) have highlighted addressing the human condition as a potentiality, and
Korthagen (2017) has provided evidence of the effectiveness of his 3.0
professional development model, in which the teacher as a person occupies the
central place. Improving teachers’ pedagogical knowledge is one of the key
characteristics of their effective professional development, as Zhang et al.
(2024) have pointed out. Similarly, Vezub (2021) has linked practical wisdom to
pedagogical judgement, which must be developed throughout the teaching career
in contexts of practice, starting from “the reflection, systematisation and
critique of one’s own and others’ experience” (p. 88). Continuing professional
development requires, as Escudero (2020) has stated, a broad and relational
outlook, underpinned by a philosophy that explores the meanings and
implications of quality in its entirety and through methodologies that make it
possible.
In the
trajectory of educational research (Ruiz et al., 2022; Saiz & Susinos,
2018; Schön, 2016), teaching practice and the Practicum constitute a privileged
arena for training and professional development, insofar as their focus is on
didactic and educational processes, seeking to improve understanding of them,
to find answers to the dilemmas or challenges posed, and to optimise
achievement through the increasing incorporation of values that are properly
educational, which, in turn, has an impact on the development of the
participants’ identities. Mauri et al. (2019) have shown that, in that module,
the creation of hybrid spaces, based on dialogue and reflection, enabled mutual
learning and closer collaboration between school and university, lending
greater coherence to the Practicum and potentially contributing to the creation
of communities of practice. The research and innovation projects carried out by
the team of the aforementioned authors have enabled the development and
piloting of a placements model for teacher education with a reflective
professional ethos and collaborative work between school and university (Mauri et al., 2022; Onrubia et al., 2024).
Individual
teacher reflection, oriented not solely towards action but towards meaning and
purpose, is essential for their holistic development, but collective reflection
is also essential. This, as Segal (2024) has stated, “has become a rigorous activity
in teacher education and the professional development of teachers” (p. 155).
Narrative methodologies linked to reflection, aimed at increasing teachers’
awareness of educational realities and endowing pedagogical practices with new
layers of meaning, occupy an increasingly significant and extensive place in
their professional development. Alongside the review carried out by De la Vega
and Veas (2021), we point, by way of example, to Chávez et al. (2025); Hizmeri-Fernández et al. (2025); Marín-Suelves
et al. (2021), Salinas-Barrios et al. (2023) and White and Timmermans (2025).
The
need for techniques for the analysis of teaching practice, the interrelation of
academic and practical content, and the development of attitudes has been
highlighted by Vezub (2021) and White and Timmermans
(2025). Likewise, the considerable interest in analysing the discursive
strategies that could promote and consolidate collaboration among all those involved
in the contexts in which such placements are carried out has been highlighted
(Mauri et al., 2019).
Our
research responds to this quest for high-quality teacher education that enables
personal and professional development by incorporating photo-elicitation into
the Practicum and assessing its educational potential both for those preparing
to become teachers and for those who already are and who practise their
profession in schools and universities.
1.1. Photo-elicitation in the educational field
The
origin of photo-elicitation lies in the field of anthropology, and Collier
(1957) is acknowledged as its pioneer. In his visual works, photography as a
technology of knowledge acquired new meanings, beyond a positivist inspection
of reality. Moreover, it was recognised as an artistic resource and subject to
narratives and interpretations (Prieto, 2021). By incorporating images into
interviews, the aim is to explore the perspectives of those who respond in
order to broaden the researcher’s understanding.
Over
the course of this methodology, various approaches have emerged. However, what
characterises it is “the status of the image in research”. This is understood
“as an element capable of challenging the supposed neutrality of science and
forging, precisely from it, its strength, making subjectivity, feelings and
emotions expressive points in the production of knowledge” (De Amorim &
Rodrigues, 2021, p. 4). To this we must add, as those authors point out, that
there is something between the photograph/image and the dialogue that underpins
a process of speaking and listening, and how this takes place as something
central to the research; and this is “the mark of a foundational relationship
that underpins the production of data itself … or, more precisely, something
that points to the idea that images, even with all their power, do not speak «for themselves»” (p. 5).
Photography,
following Barthes’ (1989) contribution, can support three levels of
information: the denotative, the connotative and the “punctum” (affective
sting). Bautista (2023) has regarded it as a symbolic lift in the education and
training of students and teachers, as it enables them to move “from act to
thought, from action to symbolisation, from what is close, intuitive, visible
and material, to what is more distant, tacit and abstract” (p. 36). Images,
Harper (2002) argues, evoke deeper elements of human consciousness than words
and, as part of photo-elicitation, not only make it possible to obtain more
information, but also information of a different kind, imbued with feelings and
memories.
At
its outset, the photo-elicitation process is made up of observation, which is
not external but relational and meaningful for a subject, whose photographic
record captures moments of the experience being investigated. In a second
phase, a semi-structured interview is conducted using the images that have been
taken, and the discourse of that subject is elicited (although it may be
carried out in a group format) in order to express their meaning and sense in
dialogue with all those participating in it. In some cases, the process
continues with a selection and ordering of images to achieve a deeper inquiry
through subsequent narratives (Romera Iruela, 2023).
Photo-elicitation
has begun to be introduced, as a teaching procedure, in the fields of education
and teacher training. Although this strand shares the essential aspects of
heuristics, it differs in its orientation towards achieving the objectives of
its field, which entails, as Bautista (2023) has stated, greater flexibility in
adapting it to individuals and their contexts.
The
aim in incorporating this procedure into initial and in-service teacher
education is to enable teachers to achieve greater understanding and better
knowledge and enactment of educational practice, through becoming aware of meaningful
experiences in their teaching and learning situations, the elicitation of
discourse, dialogue and reflection. Its application contributes to the
acquisition and development of pedagogical knowledge, the enactment of which
will entail an improvement in teachers’ personal and professional fulfilment,
and also in the personal fulfilment of those towards whom they direct their
professional practice (Romera Iruela, 2023).
Research
that has applied this strategy in the Practicum, in initial teacher education
or in continuing professional development, has provided evidence of its value
for understanding these teaching practices, uncovering the beliefs, theories or
values underpinning them, as well as the doubts or dilemmas that have arisen
(Bautista et al., 2025; Caielli et al, 2018; Ruto-Korir & Lubbe-De Beer,
2012; Savva & Erakleous, 2018; Sinclair & Thornton, 2018; Stockall
& Davis, 2011). Alongside this, having been made more visible are the
physical and symbolic spaces in which changes in teachers’ values occur, their
action is improved, and their capacities and practices are developed,
highlighting the value of the opportunity this provides for engagement in
critical dialogue among teachers, supervisors and researchers (Wolfenden &
Buckler, 2015).
Photo-elicitation
has fostered the establishment of a series of relationships between the students
and tutors in the Practicum, which have promoted their rapport, involvement and
shared responsibility, as well as mutual professional development (Bautista et
al., 2025). Moreover, its suitability for knowing, understanding and
visualising relationships among teaching staff has been demonstrated
(Amenabarro, 2023). It has enabled Practicum students to reflect on and
understand educational inclusion (Monforte-García & Edo-Agustín, 2024).
Given
the need to use methodologies that make it possible to enhance the quality of
teacher education and their holistic development, placing people at the centre –attending to the cognitive, affective,
motivational and axiological dimensions that influence their behaviour
(Korthagen, 2017)– in
connection with theory and practice, our research will incorporate
photo-elicitation, with its meaning-oriented
reflection, in the
Practicum, and will accommodate two
aspects that have not received attention: its application in the specialism of Therapeutic Pedagogy [PT] and, through participatory
implementation, the identification of its contribution to initial and
in-service teacher education in Early Childhood and Primary Education and at
the university.
1.2.
Objectives
1.
To
incorporate photo-elicitation into the specialised teaching practicum and
determine whether it enables multidimensional learning with personal and
professional development.
2.
To
identify the nature of the relationships established, as expressed in the
procedure’s visual narratives, between the student and the school-based
teacher-tutor.
3.
To ascertain the perceptions of the prospective
teacher and the Practicum teachers-tutors in the participating institutions
regarding the contribution resulting from the incorporation of
photo-elicitation.
2.
Methodology
2.1. Research design and unit of study
This
paper presents a single-case study (Schwandt & Gates, 2018) aimed at understanding,
grounded in meaningful experience, participatory initial and continuing
training for professional development; therefore, its perspective is
phenomenological and interpretative, and its scope consists of a teaching
Practicum carried out through school–university collaboration.
The
choice of the school was deliberate; it was selected because it was the only
one which, among those assigned to a university lecturer, agreed to participate,
both on the part of the senior leadership team and the student who would
undertake her Practicum there. It is a public Early Years and Primary Education
centre [CEIP], belonging to the Community of Madrid network, which caters for
pupils with educational needs associated with cognitive and motor disabilities,
as well as others with developmental disorders. The teacher at the school who has taken part, as the university
student’s tutor, specialises in Therapeutic Pedagogy and works with pupils in
Years 4 to 6 of Primary Education. In the 2024-2025 academic year, the future
teacher completed at the same institution the curricular external placements
corresponding to the 4th year, in the Hearing and Language/Therapeutic Pedagogy
specialism, which were carried out in the Diversity Support Classroom. This
professional is a career civil servant in the teaching profession, with more
than 30 years’ service. Likewise, the university lecturer is a civil servant in
the body of full Professors, with a track record of more than 40 years in that
academic rank, and is affiliated with the area of Didactics and School
Organisation. In addition, he is the director of an established and evaluated
research group.
2.2. Instrument and procedure
In
accordance with the procedure that has been incorporated, information is
collected during the photo-elicitation sessions, following the two stages previously
described. This information is focused on relational observation through the
taking of photographs by the student on the Bachelor’s Degree in Primary
Education, and on the semi-structured interviews, in which she participated
together with the Practicum tutors from the school and the university as well
as with a researcher experienced in the methodology to be introduced and a
senior lecturer at that higher education institution, whose academic career in
that teaching cadre spans more than 30 years, and who assumed the role of
critical friend. In broad terms, this consisted of the joint conduct of the
research, its management, and the provision of a complementary avenue for
inquiry and reflection through the posing of certain questions. From the
teaching practicum, through the viewing of her images, the analysis and
evocation of discourse, dialogue and reflection, drawing on the participants’
perspectives, a formative process has emerged not only for the prospective
teacher but also for the teachers of that subject, incorporating experiential,
presentational, propositional and practical knowing (Heron & Reason, 1997).
The
procedure began with an initial meeting between this researcher and the
university tutor, on the basis of which the research and the training were
initially outlined and designed. This professional, who was responsible for the
Practicum, arranged an interview with the school, which, after an initial
meeting, had agreed to participate, in order to inform it about the project and
provide training on photo-elicitation. A similar approach was taken with the
student who would be undertaking her placement there. An informed consent form
was drawn up and, subsequently, it was made known to the student and the
school, agreeing that the school’s identity would remain anonymous, that her camera
would be used, that there would be no identification of individuals in the
images, that these would be used for research purposes and that it would have
no negative consequences. At the start of the Practicum, the student was asked
to take photographs during her teaching placement that captured significant
moments of her experience in the classroom or the school, and to send them to
the university tutor. Self-directed photo-elicitation, or reflective
photography, was applied; during the interview phase, the images were viewed in
the order decided by the student, and she was the first to speak to communicate
to the other participants about her motivations for taking the photographs.
This initial response corresponds to the requirement inherent to
photo-elicitation, which had been communicated to her during the training she
received. As this was a semi-structured and flexible interview, there were some
questions, required by the procedure, which the university tutor and the person
who acted as a critical friend put forward in response to one or more
photographs. Thus, with a view to exploring in greater depth the internal and
external aspects of the experience represented by the student, she was asked
questions such as: What was happening within you at the moment you decided to
take this image? Other questions were: Can you give this photograph a title that
reveals what it means to you? Does it express any doubts you had, a dilemma or
a challenge? Is it linked to knowledge acquired at the university? A large part
of the questions arise in the course of the student’s narration, for example:
to what extent are the [Lego] guides educational, or are they, rather, a
constraint that leads one to do what is indicated on the worksheets and not
build any other things? Certain questions were intentionally addressed to the school-based
tutor, such as: does this photograph contain any positive element for the
student's teaching and for your own teaching? Others arose from the dialogue
that took place, for example: how did you experience this reality that the
student captured in the image? Among the questions the researcher asked, from
an educational point of view, we indicate one: what does this photograph tell
you about being a PT professional? The visual narratives, as well as the arguments
and ideas expressed by the student and the school-based tutor, were accompanied
by dialogue and reflection. These photo-elicitation sessions were held every
three weeks, allowing for the flexibility required by the CEIP, being
audio-recorded and then transcribed. Throughout this process we have closely
followed the guidelines of Barthes (1989) and Golombek and Johnson (2017),
among others. At the end of those sessions, given the continuity that photo-elicitation
may have, the researcher asked the student and both teacher-tutors to produce a
narrative in which they expressed what the incorporation of the aforementioned
procedure had brought them.
In
the content analysis of the transcripts, taking into account their qualitative
nature and established guidelines (Mayring, 2020; Schreier, 2014), the dual
approach of the inductive development of categories, on the basis of coding,
and their deductive assignment was applied, using the Atlas.ti 25 software. In
this second strand, the reference frameworks for our analysis consisted of two
classifications present in previous studies. The motivations for taking images
were catalogued using the classification of the purposes of education
established and applied by Bautista et al. (2025), which contains two
categories: instructive and formative, maintaining the meaning conveyed. When
categorising, within the analysis, the levels of information that photographic
language can represent and that, therefore, may be embodied in the photographs,
we used the well-known classification of Barthes (1989), previously referred
to, which has three categories: denotative or material (referring to objects,
people and relationships that make up the image), connotative or semantic
(linked to the sense or meanings attributed to the pictorial components) and
“punctum”, or the affective sting that the photograph may convey. When studying
the relationships between the student and the tutor during the Practicum, those
identified in the work of Bautista (2023, 2025) and Romera Iruela et al. (2023)
have been taken into account.
The results were then
interpreted and the conclusions were drawn.
3.
Results
From
the perspective of the purpose of the situations recorded in the photographs,
28.6% of them had a formative nature, 35.7% an instructive one, and in the
remaining 35.7% both purposes were present. A partial sample of these results is
presented in the first two columns of Table 1.
Some
reasons why the student recorded the actions shown in the images are:
·
The
multiple benefits of introducing Lego without the child being aware that they
are learning, as this is highly motivating and enjoyable (photograph in row 1
of Table 1).
·
Impression
at the crying and frustration of a very self-demanding child (image from row
2).
·
Surprise
at a child’s individual, non-collaborative play (photograph in row 3).
·
Dilemma
regarding the adaptation of an official examination from the Community of
Madrid.
Table 1
Sample of photographs with some results
|
Photograph |
Purpose |
Levels of meaning |
Relationships |
Student recollections |
|||
|
|
|
Denotative |
Connotative |
Affective |
|
|
|
|
|
Both purposes. |
Pupil building with
Lego and the teacher. |
Build to learn. |
I love them. |
CA, CT, MA, MT, PT,
VT. |
He did not learn by
playing with Lego. |
|
|
|
Both purposes. |
Child leaning over,
looking at the notebook. |
Frustration at making mistakes. |
I was impressed by
the child's behaviour. Self-imposed
pressure. Frustration and
crying. He takes it badly
when he makes mistakes. The student's sadness. |
CA, CT. |
Extrinsic motivation: parents. |
|
|
|
Formative |
2 pupils playing
together and 1 alone. |
Self-direction
towards group play. |
Surprise: Oh, look! |
CT, CA, RO, PT, DP. |
No recollection. |
|
Note. CA = Confirmation from the other: student; CT = Confirmation from the other:
tutor; MA = Qualification from the student; MT = Qualification from the tutor;
PT = Request for confirmation or validation: from the tutor; VT = Assessment
from the tutor; RO = Reference to the other: from tutor to student; DP = Direct
questions: the tutor.
With regard to the
plurality of meanings present in the photographs, following Barthes (1989),
26.7% of these have supported a denotative and connotative level, and 73.3% add
the affective “punctum” to the two previous levels. In addition to the results
included in columns 3 to 5 of Table 1, we will show, below, those corresponding
to one additional image, with the student’s expressions in the form of a direct
quotation or a paraphrase:
Denotative:
Pupil looking at the whiteboard and the teacher explaining division.
Connotative:
“Various methodologies for explaining the same topic.” The prospective teacher stated:
“We were explaining inverse multiplications, that is, division. And the child,
who also has an intellectual disability, so it was as though we had to explain
it in many different ways for him to understand it.”
Affective:
“I was struck by the child’s behaviour.” The student specified:
We had to use many different methodologies so that he
could manage to solve it [the calculation] and, in the end, you could tell that
he was grasping it, but it was also a lot of practice and the boy would say, “Oh!
This is too much, I’m getting tired, it’s a lot of work.” I get tired of
thinking … and he conveyed it to us [to the tutor and the student].
In
the prospective teacher’s experiential-comprehensive learning, there was a
significant link between the connotative and affective dimensions, with the
expression of emotions and values, including empathy, as indicated by the
previous quotation.
Several
of the student's photographic narratives included her memories. In addition to the
topics relating to these set out in column 7 of Table 1, she recalled her later
use of technology, as well as the enjoyment and fun of a game she shared with
her grandfather and siblings during her childhood.
The
content, both in the student’s discourse and in the participants’ dialogues and
reflections during the photo-elicitation sessions, encompassed feeling,
thinking, desiring and acting, taking contexts into account, as evidenced by
the following quotations:
·
Feeling: Affective-social
dimension:
Furthermore, lately he has also been
happy, because a new child has joined the school, so, well, it is as if now we
also take him out with a classmate, so … they talk while they are here … and it
is quite amusing, because the two of them did not know each other, but … they
are getting to know each other better.
·
Thinking:
Well, I [student] was thinking,
because it was like, that was when I really had a kind of reflection; I said,
“Oh!” and the Community of Madrid itself does not give you an adapted exam … for
the children. … Then I thought, well, but if they have to, perhaps, think about
each child, it is also very difficult to think about what each child needs
because, in the end, you do not know them. … What would be better, more
logical, for me, would be for teachers to have access to the exam some time
beforehand so that the child could start at that very moment.
· To desire: “for the children,
everything they see around the school is a stimulus, … things that, perhaps,
stay with them and are values that they will later remember”.
The university tutor,
in addition to prompting the discourse, encouraged reflection through questions
addressed to the student and her tutor. Some
further examples of these were:
·
“How
do you see the importance of a therapeutic pedagogue in a school?”
·
“For
you [tutor], was it new or surprising that, out of all the possibilities and
situations you are experiencing this term, she took that photograph and noticed
this type of task, or not?”
In response to some of
the contributions made by the three participants, the university lecturer
provided certain perspectives or arguments, including Umberto Eco’s view that
things acquire reality when they are named, Bachelard’s Poetics of Space, and the
link between redressing educational inequalities in the school and adopting a
social justice approach. The school-based teacher-tutor also shared her knowledge
and expertise, among which we would highlight, by way of example, play-based
learning or respect for pupils’ pace.
In the analysis of the
interactions between the student and her tutor, we took as our starting point,
as indicated, those identified in previous research and their connotations,
while remaining open to others through an inductive approach. Across the set of
photo-elicitation sessions, we have identified various relationships, which are
presented below, together with their frequency of occurrence and a quotation as
a sample of evidence.
·
Confirmation:
they occurred on 72 occasions:
-
43
refer to interventions by the student confirming what the tutor had said.
-
29
corresponded to the tutor in relation to what the student had expressed.
·
Tutor:
“[the children] were born with technology. All of this appeals to them”.
·
Student:
“Yes, because you would see these children and they
would say: Wow! A robot, they said, like: Wow! And this?”
·
Qualification:
they occurred in 9 situations:
-
7
were carried out by the teacher-tutor.
-
2
were carried out by the prospective teacher.
·
Tutor:
“no, remember [student’s name] that the teacher [of that class] had already
covered it [multiplication]”.
·
Complicity:
this happened on 7 occasions:
-
5
instances were expressed by the teacher-tutor.
-
2
were expressed by the student.
·
Tutor:
“we are always together”. Student: “between the two of us and the children, we
carried out the whole process”.
·
In
terms of evaluation: these instances occurred on 7 occasions:
-
2
from the student to her teacher.
-
5
from the tutor addressed to the student.
·
Tutor:
“The children love to come and be with [student’s name].”
·
Regarding
requests for confirmation or validation: they occurred on four occasions:
-
All
four were from the tutor.
·
“I’m
telling you, we go into the classroom, don’t we, [name of the student]? And
they go in and out of the book; well, they work wonders.”
·
Questions:
they were formulated on 3 occasions:
-
2
were expressed by the student.
-
1
was stated by the teacher.
·
Student:
“Because this one was in Nursery, you told me, didn’t you?
·
With
reference to the other: this was established on one occasion:
-
From
the student to the teacher.
·
“I
mentioned it to [name of the tutor] at the time; I said: “Oh, look! He’s moved away.”
·
Contribution:
it was observed in one situation:
-
From
the tutor to the student.
·
“At
quarter past and quarter to [the times], we work on the four things.”
·
Support
for the student: it occurred once:
-
From the tutor.
·
“I
am going to take the plunge with [student’s name]. “I relied on [student’s
name] there.”
The main aspects of the
contributions of photo elicitation perceived by the student and her two
teacher-tutors are presented below in Figures 1, 2 and 3.
Figure
1
Potential
of photo-elicitation for the student teacher
Source: own elaboration.
We illustrate this
learning with the following account referring to the photograph in row 3 of
Table 1:
When the student saw the boy, she was struck by how
alone he was; he wanted to play alone. … She believed that this pupil was very
sociable. Later, when she compared her surprise, her tutor told her that that
child is sometimes like that; he moves away because he needs some time to
himself. This experience, and a greater understanding of the child, led the
student to qualify and reconsider her belief, noting that the pupil had some difficulty
relating to his classmates, … notwithstanding the fact that in the classroom
they get on well with one another.
Figure
2
Potential
of photo-elicitation for the teacher-tutor at the educational centre
Source: own elaboration.
In relation to the
image in row 2 of Table 1, the following summary by the school-based Practicum
tutor is illustrative:
We discussed it with his class teacher; I said: this
child needs to be spoken to by his mother, because I don't understand parents who
say: well, let them learn, … the content is important. … Evidently, for me this
content … is not essential, correct? … I am not going to set about … getting
them to learn the verse and the rhyming couplet, but, well, as the class
teacher says, they have to work on them, … but there are things that, for a
Special Educational Needs teacher, I think, are not fundamental. … What is, in
Special Education, the transition to adult life, something that enables them to
stand up for themselves in life.
Figure
3
Potential of photo-elicitation for the university
tutor
Source: own elaboration.
One
of the university lecturer’s perceptions is expressed in this excerpt:
I will begin each project by pointing out the urgency
of incorporating into these educational habitats a language that sheds light
on, uncovers and represents obscure situations and practices that are not
understood and that resonate with the pupils and their community environment.
Yes, a language that also makes it possible to analyse and reflect on what has
been discovered, so as to be able to bring about change and give greater
clarity and value to relationships in those schools, paying attention to
contextual factors.
4. Discussion and conclusions
The
photographic representation of the significant experiences that the prospective
teacher has lived through during the Practicum, and her subsequent narratives
in the photo-elicitation sessions, were the starting point for her experiential
learning, which incorporated not only the instructional dimension, relating to
instrumental skills and knowledge of the curriculum, but also the formative
dimension, establishing a correspondence between the affective, cognitive,
social and axiological dimensions of education and those of the children with
whom she has undertaken her placement, this being possible by attending to the
inner dimension of those experiences and to that of the pupils; that is, to feeling,
thinking, desiring and acting, alongside knowing. This is corroborated by the
high number of images that have conveyed information at the connotative and
affective levels, in addition to the denotative level. The processes of
attention and perception at the outset of photo-elicitation are fundamental to
the construction of meaning and to understanding the qualities of educational
reality. The inclusion of the inner gaze is essential for self-knowledge. The potential
of photo-elicitation to capture and incorporate the emotions and feelings that
arise in situations experienced during the placements, and to promote the
development of this facet, has been highlighted in several studies, including
Bautista et al. (2025), Cotán et al. (2022), Haggstrom (2024) and Rayón et al.
(2021). Our results demonstrate multidimensional development in this
prospective teacher and suggest that this procedure is useful for the
professional development model 3.0 (Korthagen, 2017). Hidalgo Standen (2021)
found that the application of photo-elicitation enabled teachers to explore
meanings and build a shared understanding of the educational phenomenon.
Likewise, Monforte-García and Edo-Agustín (2024) have stated that meaning-making
processes are the hallmark of photo-elicitation. The effects we have obtained
corroborate this, with the narratives generated in those participatory
situations indicating the greater significance that has been called for and
that teacher education requires, which may be provided through that broad and
relational perspective characteristic of photo-elicitation (Arregui-Valdivieso
et al., 2024; Escudero, 2020).
This
experiential knowledge of the student has been shared and discussed with the
other participants in the photo-elicitation sessions, making room for the
intersubjectivity relating to lived experiences, personal know-how and
knowledge, and their interrelationship, and has been fostered through questioning
and individual and collaborative reflection. This process has created a space
for mutual learning and personal and professional development for those
involved. Several previous studies have highlighted the virtue of
photo-elicitation in making teachers’ tacit knowledge explicit, as well as
their theories or values (Caielli et al, 2018; Ruto-Korir et al., 2012;
Sinclair & Thornton, 2018; Stockall & Davis, 2011). Alongside the
tradition of reflective practice and the practicum with that same character,
collective reflection, as Segal (2024) points out, is a rigorous activity in
teacher education and professional development. Several studies have introduced
photo-elicitation in the teaching field and have highlighted its contribution
as a technique that enhances this skill, both individually and collectively
(Cotán et al., 2022; Kelly, 2025; Ullauri-Ullauri & Mauri-Majós, 2022; Weng
& Troyan, 2023). This procedure also contributes to combining the
acquisition of knowledge and experiences, a challenge identified by White and Timmermans (2025), and it is a
means to optimise pedagogical knowledge (Vezub, 2021; Zhang et al., 2024).
In
relation to the quality of training programmes for education professionals
(Darling-Hammond, 2020), the findings of this research support the factors
relating to the interrelationship of knowledge, beliefs and practices, and the
partnerships between the school and the university in the Practicum. Likewise,
they confirm the findings regarding mutual learning and closer collaboration
between those institutions through the creation of hybrid spaces in which, in
the present study, photo-elicitation has demonstrated its potential, and therefore
it may constitute a methodological contribution to the model of Mauri et al.
(2022). The identification of the relationships between the student and the
teacher-tutor enabled by the aforementioned procedure confirm and extend
previous findings (Amenabarro, 2023; Bautista et al., 2025; Romera Iruela et
al., 2023).
The
perceptions of the future teacher and the supervising tutors regarding what
photo-elicitation has contributed to them corroborate the results, reflecting
great educational richness.
We
conclude our research by revisiting its objectives and affirming their
attainment through the derivation and articulation of the following
conclusions:
1.
The incorporation of participatory photo-elicitation
into the practicum has enhanced the quality of training and the personal and
professional development of its participants by enabling the creation of a
space for mutual learning, within a climate of respect and cooperation, in
which experiential meanings, based on the photographs, and linguistic-cultural
meanings have been shared, discussed and reflected upon, with a view to
improving practices in the school and at the university.
2.
Photo-elicitation, with its relational approach and
duality of visual and verbal languages, has fostered narrative situations that
have entailed integrative learning across the cognitive, affective, social and
motivational-axiological dimensions of the educational actions of the PT
placements. Attention to the internal side of experiences has led to an
increase in the participants’ self-knowledge and has endowed pedagogical action
with depth.
3.
This procedure has enhanced collaboration among the
co-participating agents in the Practicum through the establishment of
horizontal relationships. The main interactions between the student and her
tutor at the school were characterised by confirmation, nuance, complicity and
appraisal. The links fostered by the university tutor enabled this methodology
to be incorporated into the teacher education curriculum, enhancing its
significance and meaning.
4.
The perceptions of both the student and the teachers
have highlighted a wealth of developed skills and formative effects produced
through photo-elicitation, which reaffirms their personal and professional
development.
Authors’
contributions
Conceptualisation, Author1 and
Author2, data curation, Author1 and Author2, formal analysis, Author1,
Author2, investigation, Author1, Author2, methodology, Author1, Author2,
project administration, Author1, Author2 , resources, Author1 and Author2,
software, Author1 and Author2, supervision, Author1, Author2, validation,
Author1, Author2, visualisation, Author1, Author2, writing-original draft
preparation, Author1, Author2, writing-review and editing, Author1, Author2.
Conflict of
interest
There is no financial,
personal, or other conflict of interest that could have influenced the results
of the study.
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