Towards a pedagogy that promotes the values of craftsmanship in a photography practice programme.

Abstract

In this research, I explore influencers that could clarify the idea of a photography practice pedagogy. This need is identified because pedagogic ambiguity exists in the creative practice fields in Higher Education. The process towards clarification of photography practice pedagogy includes an enquiry of related constructs such as vocational Higher Education, a conceptual understanding of photography, an investigation into practice as a craft and knowledge conception and a pedagogic approach that suits photography as a creative vocational practice. The primary research elicits insights from photography practitioners. Factors influencing a photography practice pedagogy are identified throughout the research process from related literature and participants in the primary research. The interpretive research approach, through a reflexive methodology, positions me as the primary research instrument. The research elicits influencers from photography students, teachers, and professionals through a semi-structured interview strategy. Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software was used to manage the interview data, identify codes, and generate themes for analysis. The data analysis produced three themes. Two themes, the nature of the medium of photography, and the nature of photography knowledge informed a third theme that describes the photographer persona's nature. A reflexive process guided the analysis of the themes towards conclusions and findings. The findings propose a practice pedagogy with practice as the object of the pedagogy. Practice is located as the authority and invites all the influencers identified throughout the research to support this authority.