Incorporating Photovoice in the Marketing Curriculum to Increase Cultural Competence

Marketing managers need cross-cultural skills to navigate multicultural relationships within and between organizations (Kurpis & Hunter, 2017). Similarly, marketers must understand consumer behavior of various demographic, psychographic, and sociocultural groups (De Mooij & Hofstede, 2011). Accrediting bodies, such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), include commitment to diversity and inclusion in their accreditation standards and experience with diversity as a core competency in both general knowledge and skill areas (AACSB, 2018; MSCHE, 2018).

Experience with people of various backgrounds has been linked to many positive outcomes (Kilgo, Sheets, & Pascarella, 2015). For example, it stimulates innovation (Hewlett, Marshall, & Sherbin, 2013), prepares students for the diverse labor force (Jayakumar, 2008), increases intercultural competence (Salisbury, An, & Pascarella, 2013), and increases civic engagement (Bowman, 2011) and socially responsible leadership (Parker & Pascarella, 2013). Marketing educators may be able to create space in their classrooms for encouraging dialogue among diverse groups through engaging with qualitative methodologies in order to increase contact and cultural intelligence (Kurpis & Hunter, 2017).

Across the marketing curriculum, educators are increasingly focused on preparing students for the multicultural world. Sales educators note the value of cultural intelligence in sales role-plays and cross-cultural selling (Delpechitre & Baker, 2017). Retailing and service educators identified the importance of designing servicescapes that appeal to consumers of various backgrounds (Rosenbaum, Moraru, & Labrecque, 2013). Demographic shifts and economic imperatives suggest that more work needs to be done in this area. In a recent study examining the perceived impact of the marketing curriculum on graduates, marketing students report lower cultural and racial knowledge than other majors (Hartley, Routon, & Torres, 2018). In response to these concerns, Hartley et al. (2018) propose the need for experiential learning opportunities to better prepare students to collaborate with people from different backgrounds.

As Young and Murphy (2003) assert, “Designing a curriculum to ensure adequate skill development necessitates ample opportunity to practice and reinforce the skill in multiple settings” (p. 58). Incorporating photovoice offers marketing educators an opportunity to design projects that dovetail these skills, rather than treating them as discrete entities. As we will discuss, photovoice projects can interweave cultural competency through perspective taking and fostering deeper interactions with students from diverse backgrounds.

Photographs can uncover the unseen and the unspoken, shed light on undocumented social issues, raise awareness, and ignite action (Ozanne, Moscato, & Kunkel, 2013). The power of images is often used in marketing education particularly because many students are visual learners (Clarke, Flaherty, & Yankey, 2006). Furthermore, images provide a platform through which students can share thoughts and emotions challenging to express with words. As Gordon (2006) notes, “Words are poor tools . . . [They] are fuzzy and imprecise. It is difficult for people to articulate thoughts and feelings” (p. 22). When engaged with issues of inequity, photographs provide a visual window into another’s world and allow a more privileged viewer to take on the perspective of the photographer.

Photography involves power sharing (Ozanne et al., 2013). For example, issues of racial inequality may be difficult to express and to understand. Images help the photographer communicate. We often lack the vocabulary to discuss sensitive issues and inconspicuous practices. Images help the viewer understand the message. If we have not experienced inequity ourselves, we may be quick to deny statistics and stories. It is more difficult to deny concrete visual evidence. While a participant’s narrative may feel doubtful, a concrete photograph can serve to confirm the participant’s reality. The reverse is also possible, as when a more privileged photographer fails to notice injustice that is nevertheless captured in their photos.

Photography serves as an equalizer (Wang & Burris, 1997). Where traditional educational environments might place more value on the knowledge of the expert or the educator, photovoice recognizes the participants as the experts. Given that photography is a participatory medium, giving a voice to participants fosters an inclusive environment where everyone can engage and contribute. Scholars of management education note the value of photovoice methodology to diversity classes, where discussions of power, inequality, gender, and ethnicity may be at the forefront of the course (Chio & Fandt, 2007). Chio and Fandt (2007) further argue that using photovoice as a pedagogical tool increases classroom participation, engagement in the subject matter, and self-reflection (Cox & Beale, 1997; Goodman, 2001).

The use of imagery in pedagogy is well documented in marketing. Images are often used to illustrate course concepts. For example, Ng (2006) used photoessays to demonstrate service scripts in her lectures to an MBA class, while Swanson and Wald (2013) required students to create a collage about their perception of marketing before beginning a principles course. Other marketing educators have required students to engage in participatory photography, whereby the student generates the photographs. For example, Hartman and Braunstein (1998) required students to use photography to illustrate their own self-concept in consumer behavior; Das (2012) required MBA students to create participatory photo novels in a principles course; and Machin (2016) had students submit their answers to problems through “snapsignments” or photo submissions to illustrate course concepts. Recently, Kelly, Lee, Bowen Ray, and Kandaurova (2018) used a participatory technique in an integrated marketing communications course to help students develop a “shared visual vocabulary and unearth hidden assumptions” about other cultures (p. 69).

Ozanne et al. (2013) point out that while photography is a widely used tool, there is great potential to use photography as an advocacy tool. In related fields, such as public health, photographic methods have been used to influence policy (Kramer et al., 2010; Wang, Morrel-Samuels, Hutchison, Bell, & Pestronk, 2004). Building on the work of Kelly et al. (2018) and Ozanne et al. (2013), we next discuss how participatory and transformative photography can foster deeper conversations with and between students on issues that affect them.

Photovoice is a participatory and community-based approach that is often used to document issues and cultural practices that exist within a community (Wang & Burris, 1997). The method uses photography and community action elements to provide an inclusive approach to understanding a community with three goals: “(1) to enable people to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns, (2) to promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important issues through large and small group discussion of photographs, and, (3) to influence policymakers” (Wang & Burris, 1997, p. 370). Photovoice has been used as a tool to empower marginalized groups (Lopez, Eng, Randall-David, & Robinson, 2005) to penetrate experiences that occur below the surface (Streng et al., 2004). The method emphasizes a “‘bottom-up’ rather than ‘top-down’ approach” (Sethi, 2017, p. 334), recognizing the participants as the experts (Mark & Boulton, 2017).

We contend that photovoice can help students build cross-cultural skills. Culture has multiple definitions across disciplines (Baldwin, Faulkner, Hecht, & Lindsley, 2006), often adapting Hofstede’s (1980) geo-ethnic conceptualization of culture as a national-level construct. Banks (2010) characterizes culture through a group’s shared values, symbols, beliefs, and understandings. This definition acknowledges that culture is not synonymous with country of origin (Craig & Douglas, 2006; Yaprak, 2008). It suggests that culture is more dynamic, permeable, and full of intracultural variation. To assess cross-cultural skills, we employ the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS), which measures the ability to adapt to culturally diverse situations and interact with people from various backgrounds (Van Dyne, Ang, & Koh, 2015). While some researchers have used CQS to examine cross-national interactions, recent work argues for its applicability to contexts unbounded by geo-ethnic confines (Patel & Salih, 2018). Indeed, Earley and Ang (2003) conceptualized CQS as pertinent to interactions involving cultural and subcultural differences, such as race, ethnicity, and workplace diversity.

The inherent perspective-taking uniquely positions photovoice to align with an important outcome of business education: cultural competency (AACSB, 2018, Standard 9). Engaging in photovoice methodology goes beyond increasing exposure to diverse groups, something that could be accomplished with other methodologies. Through engaging in dialogue and reflection, photovoice develops positive relationships between dissimilar others through empathic responses to photos and narratives (Johansen & Le, 2014).

By design, photovoice focuses on amplifying the voices and concerns of marginalized groups, giving students valuable practical experience navigating cultural differences and potentially questioning their own assumptions when faced with the lived experiences of others. As Triandis (2006) notes, to become culturally intelligent, one must suspend judgment until multiple pieces of information can be evaluated and integrated with situational cues. Photovoice requires student-researchers to set aside initial judgments (through recognizing their positionality) to listen and observe as the participant explains their truth. Then, researchers must contextualize this truth when thematically engaging with the truth of other participants.

The method’s inclusion of photographs makes the accompanying narrative data more concrete and makes perspective-taking more feasible. While narratives cultivated from in-depth interviewing and focus groups can be persuasive, it is even more difficult to deny the physical evidence of a photograph documenting inequity. In ethnography, the researcher is observing through their own eyes. As a visual methodology, photovoice allows the novice marketing professional to observe a context through the eyes of the participant. Composing a photograph involves a subjective decision, but the lens captures more than what the photographer intends and offers contextual data that can confirm, extend, or even contradict a participant’s narrative. The “voice” provides further nuance as the photograph can stimulate an emotional arousal beyond the photo description that cannot be conveyed with words (Rania et al., 2015). The student-researcher thus hears, sees, and feels evidence. Photovoice is a particularly good fit for practice drawing insights and helping students build interpretive skills as the repetitive cues (from the visual, the textual, and the emotional), provide opportunities for triangulation and can reinforce a conclusion.

Photovoice also provides unique practical experience with integrating potentially conflicting sources of information. In the era of rapid information exchange, students need to critically evaluate and integrate multiple sources of information (Walker & Moran, 2019). Marketing managers must “draw on multiple sources of (often) imperfect evidence; go beyond the ‘literal’ consumer survey evidence; make various creative interventions to provide fresh insights and new perspective; and also weave customer knowledge together” (Smith, 2006, p. 5). Photovoice allows the student-researcher to work in the area between the concreteness of the photograph and the narrative. Thus, the student-researcher must not only listen and view multiple sources of information but also read between the lines of what is immediately evident. Qualitative methods rely on inherently unreliable narrators. Even cooperative participants may lack self-awareness or metacognition when answering research questions, may misremember an event or experience, or may feel uncomfortable disclosing sensitive or upsetting details. Photovoice offers a perspective beyond the textual as critical context for analysis. Visual analysis of photographs allows valuable opportunities to reach fresh insights that the participants themselves may not see. The process prompts students to not only integrate and cross-reference visual and textual data in their analysis but also place their insights within a broader institutional context.

The primary goal was to use photovoice methodology as an innovative pedagogical tool to improve student’s workplace readiness through increasing exposure to diverse others, perspective-taking, and integrating multiple sources of information, in this case, in a marketing research course (Table 1) . One useful starting place for marketing educators considering photovoice is the existing learning outcomes (LOs) for a course. Accordingly, we structured the assignment using the following LOs consistent with traditional client-based projects used in marketing research (Bove & Davies, 2009):

A secondary goal was to increase meaningful interactions among students to build cultural intelligence and to empower students to take ownership of their education (as observers and participant-experts) and their educational environment (through advocacy). This outcome goes beyond improving culture on campus to also support workplace readiness.

The following sections describe the photovoice project. Specifically, we aim to explore (1) how students respond to the method and topic and (2) the impact on marketing-specific and employment-relevant skills (i.e., cultural competency).

Based on the opening vignette, the faculty development institute served as a project client. The university is an intriguing client in that it has a vested interest in gaining a better understanding of the students it serves and students have a vested interest in having a positive collegiate experience. This allowed students to feel connected to the project context and facilitated easier access to target participants. At the beginning of the semester, the professor explained students’ role as participants as well as student-researchers. We use the term participant to refer to students outside the class who were recruited to engage with photovoice or the survey. We use the term student to refer to students inside the class who served as both student-researchers and who engaged in photovoice themselves.

The first research question asked whether engaging with photovoice methodology can enhance learning. Anonymous teaching and project evaluations, scaled on a 5-point Likert-type scale, indicate that students increased their knowledge of the subject (M = 4.9/5), the project helped students learn more about course content (4.5/5), and helped students learn about the community (4.4/5). Students’ perceived learning was marginally greater in photovoice sections than in other sections taught by the same professor, t(189) = 1.81, p = .07 (M = 4.86, SD = 0.36) (M = 4.48; SD = 0.94). The effect size (d = 0.53) was found to be consistent with Cohen’s (1988) convention for a medium effect (d = 0.50).

Notably, students’ perceived learning was higher working with an on-campus client using photovoice than using a similar on campus client with in-depth interviewing, t(39) = 2.08, p = .05 (M = 4.86_PV, SD_PV = 0.36; M_IDI = 4.30; SD_IDI = 1.17; d = 0.65), but not higher than service-learning sections taught by the same professor across semesters, t(80) = 0.91, p = .37 (M _SL = 4.70; SD_SL = 0.74; M_PV = 4.86, SD_PV = 0.36), or a service-learning section taught in the same semester, t(22) = 0.14, p = .89 (M_SL = 4.82; SD_SL = 0.40) (M_PV = 4.85, SD_PV = 0.55). These findings indicate that photovoice is a powerful pedagogical tool that can go beyond in-depth interviewing and motivate student learning, similar to outcomes achieved with service learning.

Direct assessments of learning (Bacon, 2016; Elbeck & Bacon, 2015) included average peer evaluations (performed by team members) and final project grades (assessed by the instructor). While students worked in teams, each student was evaluated individually by the instructor and by their project teammates. Peer ratings included four items scaled from one (poor) to five (outstanding) to assess each student’s attendance at group meetings, quality of contributions, level of cooperation, and overall performance on the project.

Instructor and peer measures of student performance on the project were highly correlated (r = .78, p = .00, n = 31), indicating high interrater reliability by multiple raters (Elbeck & Bacon, 2015). Project grades were also strongly correlated with exam grades for both Exam 1 (r = .59, p = .00, n = 31) and Exam 2 (r = .65, p = .00, n = 31). Student performance on the first exam, assessing problem definition and qualitative interpretive skills, was significantly higher in the photovoice sections than in sections engaging with in-depth interviewing, t(60) = 2.66, p = .01 (M_PV = 48/60; SD_PV = 10) (M_IDI = 40/60; SD_IDI = 13). There were no significant differences on the second exam, assessing quantitative interpretive skills.

The second research question asked whether photovoice methodology increases cross-cultural skills. To assess cultural competency, students responded to Van Dyne, Ang, and Kohs’ (2008) CQS using a two-group pretest–posttest experimental design at the beginning and end of the semester. The CQS consists of four subscales: Motivational (self-efficacy in and desire to use cultural knowledge to achieve a response), Cognitive (factual cultural knowledge), Metacognitive (conscious cultural awareness and actively revising approaches to people of different cultures) and Behavioral (adapting approaches to people from different backgrounds) cultural intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003).

The comparison section engaged in a service-learning project where students conducted in-depth interviews (not photovoice) with individuals experiencing deep poverty or homelessness taught by the same professor in the same semester. Given that both sections increased exposure to diverse others, one might expect cross-cultural outcomes to be similar. Motivational CQ significantly increased at the end of the semester for both the service-learning course, t(11) = 3.96, p = .00 (M_pre = 3.92, SD = 0.81; M_post = 5.65, SD = 1.58), and the photovoice course, t(12) = 5.21, p = .00 (M_pre = 4.35, SD = 0.95; M_post = 5.94, SD = 0.69). The effect size (d_SL = 1.14; d_PV = 1.44) was consistent with Cohen’s (1988) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80). Cognitions decreased, t(12) = 5.48, p = .00 (M_pre = 5.40, SD_pre = 0.55, M_post = 4.13, SD_post = 0.98), while metacognitions increased, t(12) = 3.28, p = .01, with a large effect size (d_cognitions = 1.52; d_{metacognitions} = 0.91) in the photovoice course, but not in the service-learning course, t(11) = 1.10, p = .30; t(11) = 1.43, p = .18. The behavioral dimension was nonsignificant in both courses. Together, these findings demonstrate that engaging with the documentation and dialogue inherent in photovoice allowed students to see that perhaps they are not as culturally aware as they previously thought. The fact that motivations increased in both sections is a signal of student interest in wanting to learn more about diverse others and improve their own abilities to engage with diverse others. The increase of metacognitions in the photovoice section is significant as it is a signal of deeper information processing and awareness that their own background influences the lens through which they view intercultural interactions and their own behavior (Triandis, 2006).

The photovoice project encouraged students to learn more about fellow students. These conversations also stimulated further learning about other cultures and perspectives because they facilitated conversations between students of diverse backgrounds. For example, some students were surprised to learn that diversity can mean different things to different people. The project allowed students to consider new perspectives as evidenced by the following quote:

I feel like [photovoice] opened my eyes to some things. Everyone really has their own story and sees things in their own way. I feel like for most black people when we think “diversity” our mind automatically shifts to racial diversity. But for the white women that I’ve spoken to about this topic, their minds seem to go directly to gender. (Anton)

This perspective-taking inspired students to continue conversations outside class. As one student indicated, “When the interview was over I felt interested in finding out what other people’s opinions are on this topic.” Similarly, one team reported that they wound up having deep philosophical dives into questions about diversity and equity on campus and more broadly. Those conversations allowed them to bring a more critical lens to their data, both in terms of asking interesting questions of their dataset and making specific recommendations based on evidence-based critiques.

Initial hesitations about the project melted once they gained a better understanding of their fellow students after the project, as Emily shared,

I feel proud to be working on a project like this. It really gives us students an opportunity to learn more about the people around us. We not only know more about the people in our own group but we know more about how other [university students] feel about these complex questions.

Notably, students found the project to be valuable beyond the scope of the course. Students were particularly enthusiastic about the advocacy component of photovoice and that the work they did may help others. Emily continues,

The issue impacts all students at [the University]. Thus, this makes the process of helping the client beneficial to us as we are affected by it and are able to help make a positive change at [the University].

In contrast to other classes that may focus on marketing products and services, one student specified that the “project was interesting and taught me a great deal about marketing research and diversity. Instead of simply marketing a product to the general population, this project required us to learn about diversity and our community.” This anonymous student comment shows the value of the photovoice project over traditional client projects in that students have the opportunity to work on issues that are close to them, that affect them, and that have lasting impact on their community.

Marketing educators interested in undertaking a photovoice project should be prepared for initial student hesitation toward the project topic and methodology. Students initially expressed concerns about the sensitivity of the subject matter and participant recruitment. One possibility to reduce concern with recruitment may be to partner with another class or student organizations on campus. Educators in courses such as consumer behavior, services marketing, new product development, marketing strategy, or international marketing may consider adapting portions of the photovoice project to illuminate cultural similarities and differences in consumption practices. The photovoice project could also stand on its own and be explored in more depth as a project in a qualitative marketing research course.

Executing aspects of the photovoice project is ideal for small class sizes, preferably of 45 students or less, and requires additional time commitments from faculty as well as a willingness to discuss sensitive topics with students. In the first iteration of the project, photovoice was used as an exploratory precursor for survey design and analysis for the client-based project. It was admittedly ambitious for an undergraduate marketing research course. In the second iteration, shifting assignments earlier, having the client visit during the second week of class, and giving students opportunities to practice applying the content dramatically improved the pace of the course and the quality of student projects. We cannot currently say with confidence that incorporating photovoice improves learning and CQ more than other forms of qualitative methodology; an ideal comparison point for future research would be an experimental design with the same client and professor, within the same semester, with and without photovoice.

Challenges from the faculty perspective included concerns about discussing sensitive topics with students and receiving potentially negative teaching evaluations. Teaching evaluations, however, were not statistically different from another section taught in the same semester by the same faculty. In future iterations, introducing the project topic early may be important so that students can be prepared for what they will encounter. Citing university census data on changing demographics may also be a useful frame for the project. During this introduction, it is essential to underscore the importance of the topic to the university and to students as they transition to the workforce.

Though photovoice can be used to tackle a variety of topics, through the very nature of this methodology, we engage with social justice, diversity, and inclusion. Photovoice is an inclusive methodology, highlighting minority voices while other methodologies can favor the majority. Photovoice outcomes, including the documentation of experiences, critical dialogue, and brainstorming ways to advocate for change, reinforce some of the gaps in the existing curriculum, specifically, increasing interaction with diverse others and building cross-cultural skills through perspective-taking. The reflection, interpretation, and visual representation inherent in photovoice methodology helps students better understand and meet the needs of diverse viewpoints. Photovoice impels a deliberate dialogue between textual and visual datasets that sharpens students’ interpretive faculties in ways that bolster workplace readiness and offer opportunities for deepened cultural competency.