A New Look at an Old Research Method: Photo‐Elicitation

The old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words , has special meaning in the world of research with international students as research participants. The incorporation of photos taken by the research participants to generate thoughts and ease communication is invaluable and can often result in rich, highly detailed interviews that provide insights and information that were not otherwise found through the other interview methods. The qualitative research method of using photos is called photo‐elicitation. Once commonly used in field studies, photo‐elicitation had fallen into disfavor with qualitative researchers. Now, despite a renewed interest in using photographs in interviews, it is far from common. This is unfortunate because photo‐elicitation has particular value in a case study research that involves international students. What follows is a glimpse into photo‐elicitation used for research purposes.