Anna Robb Margaret Bruce Dr Ann Hodson BASPCAN 2015 University of Dundee

1. Visual Voice:
Inspiring Dialogue Between
Children and Adults
Anna Robb
Margaret Bruce
Dr Ann Hodson
BASPCAN 2015
University of Dundee

2. Introduction
The professional world is dominated by the written word,
reports, case notes, assessments, guidance and leaflets (to
name but a few examples).
Drawing on research by Robb, Bruce, and Hodson the workshop
will highlight the power of visual media as a means of creating
dialogue between adult and child, and between professional
agencies.

3. UniversityofDundee–Education,SocialWorkand
CommunityEducation
• Shared
understandings
• Professional
discussions
• Mirroring practice
• Taking the academic
perspective and
applying it to the real
world

4. Art, inclusionand voicesin the classroom

5. “… a trail of glitter…”
• Research (Bruce 2014)
• the views of children in formal child protection meetings
• Range of formats used by children to convey their views to
decision makers e.g. pictures and letters
• Power of the visual image created by children
• impact on the outcome of the meeting.

6. Describing pre-birth
assessment
Social worker used imagery to convey
possible post-birth scenarios
Multi-agency team tasked with finding
pictures to convey what they did

7. Permission to play
• Using materials other than written word can feel superficial
(Lomax, 2012; Pimlott-Wilson, 2012)
• Images can be powerful (Bruce 2014)
• Permission to play?
•
• Or ……permission to express something in a different way

8. Workshop
• Introductions
• Select a scenario or create your own from practice.
• Create an image/visual representation of this difficult message
or of your role…
• Think about:
• Choice of materials
• 2D or 3D visual representations
• Scale
• Use of colour

9. Reflection

10. References
• Pimlott-Wilson, H. (2012), ‘Visualising children’s participation
in research: Lego Duplo, rainbows and clouds and
moodboards’, International Journal for Social Research
Methodology, 15:2 pp135-148.
• Lomax, H. (2012), ‘Contested Voices? Methodological tensions
in creative visual research with children’. International Journal
of Social Research Methodology, 15:2, pp.105-117