Seeing Our City, Students, and School: Using Photography to Engage Diverse Youth with Our English Classes

In this article a team of English teachers and teacher educators reflect on both their involvement with the photovoice project Through Students' Eyes (TSE) and on the photographic and written data of their students' perspectives on school. After working with hundreds of youth involved with TSE for most of the past decade, they consider why they have been involved with the project, what it has meant for them as English teachers, the nature of their university/school collaborations, how the project has mattered to their students, and how it might matter to other English educators. The authors describe how they have gained knowledge of their students, maintained a professional humility, and recognized the importance of asking youth and themselves about the value of school. (Contains 5 figures.)