Lived Experiences and Visual Storytelling in Rural Korean Students

This study aims to explore the lived experiences of rural students in Korea in words and visual images using Photovoice. Three sessions were conducted over one month in 2014 with six elementary students. Data was collected by student photovoice in their life. Spiral data analysis was used for analyzing the data. The following results were obtained. First, conducting an expression activity class using photo voice involves a process of practicing, reflecting, and observing class, and learned knowledge that comes into one's life through the completion and organization of photovoice. Exploration through questions led students to make creative expressions through movement. Photovoice, which was made as the class was organized, made students “review” those photos that were not seen in the context. As a result, the expression activity design of the narrative curriculum allowed movement-oriented expression activities to promote intellectual growth and enable students to make diverse and creative self-expressions. Second, students learned this through practice and the experience of using photo voice. As they sought knowledge in everyday life on their own by talking with other people and discussing the developed photos, they began to derive meaning from them. Photovoice proved to be an activity through which one can realize an expression activity through the quest for knowledge in daily life. Thus, the narrative curriculum's expression activity established a link between the knowledge learned in school and students' lives.