‘It was kinda like D.I.Y closure’. Using Photovoice to capture the experiences of final year social work students graduating amidst the pandemic

This article examines a recent research project that explored the lived experiences of 5 final year social work students in Scotland who graduated during the coronavirus pandemic. The project used Photovoice as the primary data collection method, followed by a 3 hour long online focus group where the participants and the researcher worked collaboratively to identify themes for further analysis. The findings demonstrated that while the data collected by participants through the photographs and captions were highly personal to each participant, there were recurring themes that connected all of them which were identified broadly as; (dis)connection, closure and identity – all of which were discussed in great detail in a virtual focus group after the data was collected. This article focusses predominantly on the Photovoice method adopted for the study and how this was an effective method for participatory research. This article also focusses on how the pandemic affected the transitionary period between the participants’ identity shift from students to professionals. This study followed the principles of Participatory Action Research which meant that participants and the researcher worked together to cultivate and analyse the data collected and the findings that are discussed here reflect this collaborative process. As this report is being written, numerous new studies, reports and predictions as to the pandemics impact on our collective mental health emerge daily and so it is hoped that this project will serve as a small time stamp as to how the pandemic impacted this small group of students in Scotland and will honour their stories, creating a lasting space for them to be heard among the ever-increasing bombardment of news.