Issue Date: 11/14/05
Pictures provide insight into family life
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Sociology professor Terry Humphrey learns from her students as much as she teaches them.
Students in Humphrey's Marriage/Family/Intimacy class, listed as SOC 105, are required to take home a disposable camera and photograph their family for one week. At the end of the week, each student is interviewed about what each photo says about his or her family life. She uses pictures that students take of their own families to gain insight into America's home life.
"I wanted to...develop assignments for students where they could use their own lives as examples of things that we talk about in class," Humphrey said.
During fall 2004, Humphrey took a sabbatical to do research on families for her marriage and family course and developed the project.
At the end of the semester, she conducted the project for the first time in a colleague's social psychology class.
Humphrey took 20 disposable cameras into two classrooms and asked if anyone would be willing to take pictures of their family and things that represent aspects of their family and then have an interview discussing why. She presented the project as extra credit and told the students they had one week to take all the pictures. Humphrey said she was surprised at how many students wanted to participate and impressed at how willing they were to get deep into their personal lives.
Humphrey then developed two copies of each student's film and held an interview with the student. She gave one copy of each picture to the student and asked them what they meant or represented. At the end of the interview, Humphrey asked the student to pick out just one picture that best represents their entire family, which she said was extremely difficult for a lot of people to do.
Humphrey said she took careful notes and tape recorded each interview in order to provide accurate quotations for every picture.
"This represents my family before the divorce" was in quotations above one picture that a student had taken of a house. Another picture depicts a closed door and reads, "Door to my parents room. My dad was in there, and that's usually what it is when my dad's home. He just kind of shuts the door and plays on the computer. So there's my dad."
Students in Humphrey's Marriage/Family/Intimacy class, listed as SOC 105, are required to take home a disposable camera and photograph their family for one week. At the end of the week, each student is interviewed about what each photo says about his or her family life. She uses pictures that students take of their own families to gain insight into America's home life.
"I wanted to...develop assignments for students where they could use their own lives as examples of things that we talk about in class," Humphrey said.
During fall 2004, Humphrey took a sabbatical to do research on families for her marriage and family course and developed the project.
At the end of the semester, she conducted the project for the first time in a colleague's social psychology class.
Humphrey took 20 disposable cameras into two classrooms and asked if anyone would be willing to take pictures of their family and things that represent aspects of their family and then have an interview discussing why. She presented the project as extra credit and told the students they had one week to take all the pictures. Humphrey said she was surprised at how many students wanted to participate and impressed at how willing they were to get deep into their personal lives.
Humphrey then developed two copies of each student's film and held an interview with the student. She gave one copy of each picture to the student and asked them what they meant or represented. At the end of the interview, Humphrey asked the student to pick out just one picture that best represents their entire family, which she said was extremely difficult for a lot of people to do.
Humphrey said she took careful notes and tape recorded each interview in order to provide accurate quotations for every picture.
"This represents my family before the divorce" was in quotations above one picture that a student had taken of a house. Another picture depicts a closed door and reads, "Door to my parents room. My dad was in there, and that's usually what it is when my dad's home. He just kind of shuts the door and plays on the computer. So there's my dad."