Photovoice
For our study, we employed Photovoice to help us learn more about each individual. We felt that through Photovoice, the photos taken by participants could reveal underlying personal issues that would provide us with a deeper understanding of their lives. We also hoped that through this Community Based Participant Research (CBPR) technique, participants would be more willing to open up and take part in research because it is a project that they can claim ownership of.

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Prior to the Photovoice project, we conducted an intimate, focus group session to better understand the common issues agreed upon and faced by the shelter residents, the dynamics between the residents, as well as to build rapport with them through listening. The focus group data allowed us to formulate the sub-topics that we wanted our participants to address through the course of photo-taking.

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To kickstart the primary data collection, we conducted a Photovoice workshop with 6 selected participants from the T-project to guide them on the sub-topics for photo-taking and on some simple photo-taking techniques. We then gave out disposable cameras to each participant, who were required to take up to 39 photos within two weeks time. We believed that two weeks was an appropriate temporal period for the participants to complete the task and for us to collect primary data for interviews with each participant individually. Throughout the following two weeks, we periodically visited the participants at the T-project shelter to check up on the progress and used this time to develop more personal and trustful relationships.

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Interviews

After the participants handed in the cameras and the photographs were processed, we conducted a total of five interviews. Four participants were residents of T-project shelter, and one was the manager of the shelter. Their various family backgrounds and social situations allowed us to better understand their personal needs and concerns, as well as highlight the common issues faced at T-project and in the broader transgender community. All of our participants were recruited through snowballing process, as one of our group members previously did a project with T-project and had personal connections with the founder and manager of the shelter.

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For the interviews, we worked in pairs instead of as a whole group to interview the participants. This was because we did not want to overwhelm and pressure our participants in answering the questions. We believe that an intimate trustful setting would allow the participants to feel more comfortable to open up about their personal thoughts. Instead of a focus group, we interviewed the participants individually, because we were aware that some participants are more introverted and shy to speak up, whereas others were more outspoken and had a tendency to dominate the conversation and over-power the group dynamics.

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In the interview, we asked the participants to talk about the photos that they took. The interview questions were loosely adapted from Wang’s framework, mentioned in Photovoice Research in Education and Beyond: A Practical Guide from Theory to Exhibition by Amanda O. Latz. Each interview took between 40 minutes to an hour. After we finished conducting and transcribing the interviews, we underlined the common themes discussed and desired solutions. These solutions also incorporated the feedback, suggestions and input from all five interviewees.

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Online Blog

To document the process and update on the weekly progress of the project, we created an online blog that is accessible to all - including the participants. The blog also served as the visual outlet for us to exhibit the personal photos taken by the participants.

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Online blogging was a good way for us to disclose the process of the project in the most informal manner to establish transparency and foster trust with our participants. The use of simple English also made it easier for the participants to digest the content, cross-check the facts and input feedback on what content they want to include and exclude on the blog.

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The public can also read the stories and interviews with the participants and have a look at the exhibited photos to understand more about the transgender community in Singapore. We hope that this blog can gain more viewership and reach policy-makers who can actualize the solutions proposed by the project participants.

 

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Video

Another mode of documentation and communication to the general public about the transgender community is through video. At the end of this project, we intend to put together a 6 minute video to encapsulate our journey with the T-project participants. The video will compile snippets from the participants’ everyday life at the shelter and extractions from the interviews.

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This video will be uploaded on our blog for general viewership alongside the photo exhibition to effectively inform the publics of the existen struggles faced by the transgender community in Singapore. We also hope that the video can be used by T-project committee for their own upcoming projects to promote the shelter’s  cause and reach wider audience.  

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