Diane's Response to Ewald

Ewald, W. (2001). Introduction. In I wanna take me a picture (pp. 7-15). Boston: Beacon.
I Wanna Take Me a Picture

Summary:

This book introduction briefly describes some of the important teaching experiences the author has had over a 30 year period which have led to the development of her method of teaching photography and writing. Ewald begins by describing her first teaching experience and then briefly discusses the evolution of a program she developed for the Durham Public Schools called Literacy through Photography. Over the years Literacy through Photography has had various permutations that include student teachers and most recently art and classroom teachers from Durham Public schools.

Personal Refection:

The formative teaching experience Ewald had in 1970 when she was 18 in an Indian Reservation in Labrador was beautifully written and the most salient. She was able to express her sense of discovery as a teacher and the profound expression of the children she was teaching. The ethnographic details were so strong in this section that the reader is able to hear the voices of the children as well as the researcher’s reflexivity The teacher as co-learner and honoring the voices of the community are two themes that run through this section.

Ewald’s description of the experience of taking photos with the fourteen-year-old boy named Merton Ward at the cemetery was amazing! It is simple yet profound and has a reverence for the “other” and for the evolving understanding of teacher/researcher.

“Now, when I look at the pictures we took, my photograph reminds me of the magic I associated with that neat little graveyard…….Merton’s photograph makes me think of the young men I knew who died violent deaths during the summers I was there, how once Merton had to guide me toward a coffin, and how frightened I was to look into the young man’s face. “ (11)

Throughout this section, the reader learns about struggles at the Indian Reservation and the larger context for the struggles through young people’s photographs and writing. Ewald’s understanding as a young teacher as well as her present day understanding informs the interpretation. The two voices of the researcher really makes her writing and interpretation rich. I find this inspiring, as I attempt to capture the immediacy of my past teaching experiences with my present day understanding.

This book introduction also briefly touches on two other salient ideas for me. I am interested in how the practices of community artists or community- based work can be adapted to more conventional classrooms. What she decided to include in her pre-service classes is also of interest.

I have one criticism with the article. Although I understand why she wrote the beginning commentary about the current role of visual literacy in public schools, and the account of her son’s pre-school experience, it seems gratuitous and does not get to the heart of the matter. She comes back to the point later as she discusses censorship and the lack of teachers’ understanding of meaningful student work; but the point is not made as strongly as it could have been with a better introduction. My theory is that the moments with her son are as profound to her personally as her first teaching experience, but for the reader they are not close to equal in weight. I am way more interested in the descriptions of her teaching experiences. This is not to say the conformity taught in our public school art programs or the visual hegemony young children are exposed to in classrooms are not profound subjects that belong in the introduction. In my opinion, her closeness to the subject clouded her ability to analyze her work. As a parent, I could easily fall into the same trap, and appreciate that I was able to see it so clearly in this article.