Campus Green Spaces Matter: Engaging Students With Place Through Course-Based Photovoice

Course-based photovoice brings together high-impact educational practices and can serve as a mechanism to engage students with their surrounding environment through photography, narrative, and critical dialogue. This article (a) considers how photovoice may serve as a pedagogical tool for fostering student engagement with place; and (b) explores students’ perspectives on campus green spaces and how engaging with these spaces through photovoice may have implications for sense of belonging. Through photovoice, 26 undergraduates were invited to capture photos of campus green spaces and voice preferences, concerns, and potential improvements, culminating in a photo exhibition. Findings suggest that photovoice is a promising tool to allow multiple narratives about place to emerge. For example, student photo-narratives suggest that, in addition to more traditional spaces, informal, in-between green spaces hold meaning. Project outcomes include a change in student perspective (e.g., actively noticing campus nature) and feelings of empowerment (e.g., having a platform and audience). Overall, findings suggest course-based photovoice has the potential to encourage critical noticing, interpretation, and relation to place. The article concludes by critically reviewing limitations of course-based photovoice, providing recommendations for pedagogical practice, and considering how visual approaches may enrich place-based pedagogy.