Researching personal images and multiple voices: The methodological questions of ethics and power

The article describes the use of personal photographs in a teaching case and in a research project. The teaching case was based on memory work and photographs; its aim was to make students aware of the socially constructed and everyday practises that shape our knowledge of the world and affect meanings associated with gender. In this case, the memory work also suggested for the participants the ways to affect our own future and operate in society. The research case concentrated on autobiographical photographs as well as the ways such images enable to narrate, present and recall the self. In the article, we ask: what are the methodological and practical possibilities and challenges introduced by the use of personal photographs in teaching and study cases? What ethical and power-related questions do private and personal data raise? By analysing the aforementioned cases, we will illustrate the methodological criteria and dilemmas for using images in teaching and research cases.