5.2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
5.2.1 THEME ONE: WORKING WITH THE CONTENT OF THE
This theme highlights how the participating educators engaged with the archive in terms of interpreting the photographs and the captions, and the potential to extend the existing coding.
5.2.1.1 Interpreting visual data
The participants believed that the learners could interpret the visual data in the digital archive and that this could deepen their understanding of HIV.
…The teacher will ask the learners about what they see in his picture, like if this boy look like a happy people or and thereafter, after presentation as a teacher I need to say, to make a conclusion about this picture, what I see, or I see a boy crying or this boy maybe he is crying because he is lonely, he is hungry, that‟s all……you can say different things about the picture…
…There are many answers, there are many ways you can interpret the picture…
The above points to the versatility of the digital archive as images increase awareness and stimulate further dialogue, even among people who did not create the images (Francis & Hemson, 2006). Reading and interpreting a photograph, either individually or in groups, is likely to provide the necessary space for participants to initiate and sustain a dialogue around issues which are not easily discussed like sexuality and HIV issues (Moletsane & Mitchell 2007). In exploring what the photograph means in terms of HIV-related stigma, the learners could possibly extend their own understanding.
5.2.1.2 Engaging with captions
The metadata of the archive includes captions in isiZulu or/and English (c.f. 3.3.2). The participants suggested making use of the captions (that is, what was said or written by the photographer about the photograph taken) for deepening the understanding of stigma in the rural school community. Captions like the one which appears in Figure 5.1 could be used for further dialogue to address the issue, as one educators said:
…Yes captions, I like that because it has something that can open, open up some discussions, let them say what do they.. Like the one the learner wrote that, “I took this picture because this girl is HIV positive and the friends are running away.” I can project it; let them read the captions make them critique it, that is, is that the way people who are HIV positive should be treated?
Figure 5.1: Ltph058 from the Learning Together digital archive
Similarly, when a caption tries to make more than one point, (See Figure 5.2) it opens up discussions, for example,
…here we are having a boy whose parents have died of HIV, the community is not supporting the boy, and HIV is there and it is killing people and we have to support the people.
…I think I can also use this as an exercise to know from them why our communities are doing this, ask them on what is written why this happens in communities. I would use this picture to hear why that, why their communities are treating these people like this…And how must the people treat people, and why people should provide care and support…
F i g u r e 5 . 2 :
Figure 5.2: Ltph048 from the Learning Together digital archive
It is interesting to note that the first two quotations refer to exploring the reason for the behaviour of the community, while the last moves towards a solution, towards exploring ways of addressing the issue. Mitchell and Weber (1999) argue that captions and inscriptions (data about what was said by the photographer of a photograph) are important aspects of the social uses of photography (c.f. 2.4). Factual information about photographs enhances the reliability of the records and is associated with academic integrity (Karlsson, 2007). In this study the captions, or an analysis of the photograph by the photographer, are viewed as elements of the visual data that can be used to trigger further dialogue.
5.2.1.3 Coding the data
Working through the archive stimulated the participants to offer suggestions about extending the digital archive in terms of coding. They suggested adding their own interpretations of what they see in the photographs.
…What if you do have got more information based on the picture, assuming that that there is a background of the picture which you… just highlighting… certain
information you need to amend or to put more…
…Because you also have you own explanation, you can explore more and you can say quite a lot of information with one picture…
…They [learners] can add or put their opinions…
This refers to the coding and recoding by the community of participants, adding to the richness of the analysis. Others went to the extent of suggesting that music and colour should be included in the digital archive. This idea is similar to the views of other researchers that digital archives can be made more interesting if the archives are made more graphic and comprehensible by incorporating diagrams, pictures, and videos available on the web, or by enabling educators to give lessons on-line (Education Technologies, 2008).
The digital archive should include knowledge generated across all stake holders and be made available to wider audiences to promote society‟s well-being. It could provide the community with easy-to-use, credible, interactive, relevant, private, and secure information that could theoretically be used to improve health in schools and ultimately in the entire community (Neuhauser & Kreps, 2003).
5.2.2 THEME TWO: USING THE ARCHIVE FOR LEARNING AND