Participatory diagramming in social work research: Utilizing visual timelines to interpret the complexities of the lived multiracial experience

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present an illustrative example of the analytic potential of image-based research in social work. Insight gained from a qualitative research study that used a novel form of participatory diagramming to examine the racial identity development of ten multiracial individuals is referenced and critiqued. Utilizing a critical visual methodological framework to analyze visual timelines, this article offers insight into the contextually rich and dynamic processes comprising the multiracial experience. This article concludes with an informative discussion of how visual methods support key social work values, including commitment to clients and understanding the person-in-environment, and how participatory diagramming in particular can enhance culturally sensitive and responsible research and practice with multiracial individuals.

Keywords

Multiracial identity participatory diagramming visual social research visual timelines

Image-based social research examines visual manifestations of human behavior and products of culture in order to generate scientific knowledge of intricate social phenomena that may be difficult to uncover through verbal exchanges alone (Bagnoli, 2009; Gauntlett, 2007). In social work, contemporary visual methodologies are utilized to deepen our ways of understanding the social world of the clients we serve (Stzo et al., 2005). For example, a recent study by Bentley (2010) used color drawings in conjunction with interviews of persons with severe mental illness to better understand the meaning and impact of taking psychiatric medications. Another study by Phillips and Bellinger (2011) examined how photographs of asylum seeking processes can encourage reflection and education of social work students and practitioners about issues of difference. Specifically, when ‘experienced’ by social workers, visual images attune us to the inherent differences that exist between ourselves and the persons we serve (Phillips and Bellinger, 2011: 91). It is through this reflective process that we become humanized to our client’s diverse experiences and perspectives, which can help us interface more equally and effectively with clients in practice (Phillips and Bellinger, 2011).

According to Pauwels’ (2010), Integrated Framework for Visual Social Research, there are two intrinsic forms of data utilized in visual social research: pre-existing visual images and artifacts produced without researcher effort (e.g. artwork, film, website content, cartoons, photographs), and respondent generated imagery. The latter focuses on highly contextualized visual materials produced by respondents within the confines of a research study. Respondent generated research techniques, consider study participants experts on the topic or subject at hand. Currently, the most frequently used data collection technique of respondent generated imagery is photography (Bagnoli, 2009; Crilly et al., 2006). One opportunistic, but less explored technique used in visual elicitation research is participatory diagramming. Diagrams are drawings, sketches or outlines demonstrating or explaining a social phenomenon. In social science research, participatory diagramming encourages respondents to deconstruct or reconstruct the meaning and structure of their lives, and to convey this meaning and structure to others (Kesby, 2000). According to Pain (2004), this particular approach is adaptable to any setting and efficient at including persons normally excluded from typical research study due to cultural, ability, and/or linguistic barriers. In addition, participatory diagramming is facilitative of the creative process of both the participant and the researcher, and flexible to the topic and confines of a research study (Crilly et al., 2006). Finally, similar to other mediums of visual elicitation research (i.e. photography), diagramming can encourage a holistic narration of self, which includes aspects of self that some may find difficult to put into words (Bagnoli, 2009).

Common forms of diagrammatic techniques used in research studies include: timelines, flowcharts, network maps, and matrixes. Data from participatory diagrams can include written and/or visual texts as decided by the participant and the researcher (Kesby, 2000; Pain and Francis, 2003; Umoquit et al., 2008). Participatory diagramming has been most frequently used with focus groups (see Kesby, 2000), children and adolescents (see Bagnoli, 2009), or in cross cultural research where there are assumptions of barriers to verbal or written communication (see Mayoux, 2003). In social work practice, diagrams are frequently used to assess client emotional needs and generate understanding of one’s environment and social support systems (i.e. eco-maps, social networks) to gain insights and indications for intervention (Hill, 2002). According to Martinez-Brawley and Zorita (1998), creative forms of artistic expression are considered an intrinsic part of engagement in social work practice. ‘In every encounter, client and social worker share in performing, narrating, composing and interpreting experiences, transforming them into complex creations’ (p. 205).

Though social research using visual data is currently expanding in social work and other fields like anthropology and sociology, there remains a lack of explicit and transparent methodologies guiding this form of study (Guillemin and Drew, 2010; Pauwels, 2010). Therefore, social work researchers may be unfamiliar with participatory diagramming and other methods of visual social research, and the usefulness of examining complex social phenomenon through visual imagery. The purpose of this article is to present an illustrative example of the analytic potential of participatory diagramming in social work research. Insight gained from a qualitative research study that used visual timelines to examine the racial identity development of ten multiracial individuals is referenced and critiqued. I discuss how this approach supports key social work values of commitment to clients and understanding the person-in-environment, which can translate into culturally sensitive and responsible practice with multiracial individuals.

This article is organized into five sections: an overview of multiracial identity theory and research; a description of the participatory diagrammatic method utilized in this study (visual timelines); an interpretive analysis of the visual images across three critical sites (production, image, and audience); a discussion of the strengths and limitations of visual methodology in social work; and finally a section describing the applicability of visual timelines in practice with multiracial clients. I will begin with a brief overview of multiracial identity research and theory.

Multiracial identity: Theory and research

According to new released data from the 2010 US census, approximately 9 million persons identify with two or more racial groups. The number of persons identifying with two or more races on the US census has increased by 32 percent since 2000 (Humes et al., 2011), and some estimate that by the year 2050 one in four persons could identify with two or more races (Lee and Bean, 2004). The significant increase in persons claiming mixed racial heritage is in direct relation to increases in diversity and interracial partnerships within the US, and new federal reporting laws from the Office of Management and Budget allowing persons to check more than one race on the Census and other federal forms (Jones and Smith, 2001). Media coverage of celebrities claiming mixed race status (i.e. US President Barack Obama, professional golfer Tiger Woods) have also inspired a growing generation of young mixed race Americans to proudly claim a mixed identity.

Though conceptualizations of mixed race and multiracial identity are most notably linked to social constructions of ascribed race and race relations in the United States, similar dialogues of multiraciality exist in other countries where notable racial divisions subsist, specifically in Canada and the UK (e.g. Aspinall, 2000; Keddell, 2009; Tizard and Phoenix, 1995). Despite growth and social recognition of multiracial identity in the US and some European countries, there is growing evidence that persons of mixed heritage may be more susceptible to certain psychosocial risks including increased substance use, engagement in violent behaviors, and reduced self-esteem (Bolland et al., 2007; Brackett et al., 2006; Chavez and Sanchez, 2010; Choi et al., 2006; Jackson and LeCroy, 2009; Sanchez and Garcia, 2009; Udry et al., 2003). This emerging evidence heightens the need for social workers to understand multiracial identity development and, in particular, the social circumstances that may present challenges for this growing population (Fong et al., 1995; Hall, 2001; Jackson and Samuels, 2011).

Historically, social scientists have denigrated the identity of multiracial persons as psychologically damaged and confused (Rockquemore and Brunsma, 2002). Initial conceptualizations of multiracial identity, including the rule of hypo-descent (the ‘one-drop’ rule) and the tragic mulatto (Stonequist, 1937), were based on biological constructions of race, and the false belief in the existence of a racial hierarchal continuum where persons of White ethnic heritages were considered superior to those of dark skinned minority heritages (Brown, 2001; Wilson, 1987). Within this racialized system, persons from a mixed racial background were forced to choose and ascribe to a minority status; never to be considered nor gain the privileges and resources ascribed to White status (Kerwin et al., 1993). Fortunately social perceptions of persons of mixed racial heritage have shifted over the last 20 years due to an influx of multiracial advocates and scholars who use their own experiential lens to expand research on multiracial identity (see Rockquemore et al., 2009). Their efforts have contributed to the legitimization of an identity that, for the most part, has been ignored and/or denied in the US and many European countries.

Over the last decade, there has been an emergence in multiracial specific identity research, which has led to newer conceptualizations of multiracial identity theory. For instance, unlike past theoretical perspectives that pathologized the mixed race experience, research has contributed new evidence that multiracial persons: (1) shift their racial identification over time and in different contexts (see Doyle and Kao, 2007; Harris and Sim, 2002; Herman, 2004; Jackson, 2012; Renn, 2003); (2) feel comfortable in multiple ethnic communities and social relationships with multiple ethnic groups (see Doyle and Kao, 2007; Guevarra, 2007; Miville et al., 2005; Roberts-Clarke et al., 2004; Shih et al., 2007); and (3) do not struggle psychologically with their identity (see Binning et al., 2009; Campbell and Eggerling-Boeck, 2006; Cooney and Radina, 2000; Phinney and Alipuria, 1996). This new evidence has contributed to the placement of multiracial identity theory within an ecological system (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and life-course framework (Elder, 1998). According to newer theories, multiracial identity, unlike monoracial identity (one race) is fluid and can change depending on community attitudes and racial socialization, family functioning, and historical events that occur throughout an individual’s lifetime. For example, Hall’s (2005) Biracial Identity Across the Lifespan theory and Root’s (2003) Ecological Framework of Racial Identity Development both accentuate the impact of social context, including historical events and local and regional perceptions of race and race relations, on the process of identity formation over the course of a multiracial person’s lifetime (Root, 2003).

Unfortunately extracting research evidence that expands and/or legitimizes newer, more complex conceptualizations of multiracial identity is challenging (see Jackson, 2010). For example, Rockquemore and colleagues (2009) note that although multiracial research is expanding and incorporating more sophisticated methodologies to examine identity, current quantitative and qualitative designs fail to capture the complexity of the multiracial experience, including how social context, interpersonal relationships, and major life transitions influence the identity experiences and development of multiracial people.

Visualizing multiracial identity

Adhering to the person-centered and creative processes of respondent-elicited research, I chose to utilize participatory diagramming in my dissertation research (2006–2007) examining the cultural identity of ten multiracial adults. Thematic analyses of verbal texts (interview transcriptions) were reported in two separate articles (Jackson, 2009; Jackson, 2012), but respondent generated research strategies, though mentioned in both, were not formally discussed nor analyzed. For purposes of replication, and in order to expand our fields understanding of applied visual social research, I provide a detailed account or audit trail of the visual timelines I incorporated in my research study.

The idea of visual timelines was forged from reading about the benefit of using a life stage outline to collect rich information from study participants while balancing time and resource constraints in narrative research (see Lieblich et al., 1998). I felt adding a creative diagramming component would not only help stimulate participant thought, but would also offer additional therapeutic benefits for participants in the study (see Guillemin, 2004). For instance, in therapeutic contexts, timelines can serve as a visual and affective approach to help clients reconstruct their past and reorganize their perceptions of self within the context of their environments (Suddaby and Landau, 1998). In addition, timelines are sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of clients since the approach allows the individual to construct a sense of self from their own stories of the past (Suddaby and Landau, 1998). I used participatory diagramming strictly in the data collection phase of this research study, which scholars have found to be an efficient method for collecting graphic forms of visual data (see Umoquit et al., 2008).

For this project, multiracial participants, age 21 and over, were asked to create a timeline of significant events impacting their identity development over time. The ten study participants were supplied with blank paper and colored markers, and offered minimal directives by myself, the interviewer, to create a visual representation of their multiracial identity over time. Most of the participants asked for further clarification about the structure and content of the timelines, at which time I reiterated the general directions and encouraged participants to create an image they feel reflects a timeline of their identity experiences. Some of the participants also expressed apprehension over their personal drawing or writing skills. I reassured participants that their grammatical and/or drawing skills were not the focus of the research study. Participants were left alone in a private university office to complete their visual narrative timelines, after which, they were asked to join me in an adjacent office to begin the formal tape-recorded portion of the interview. On average, participants spent between 20–25 minutes completing their timelines.

Interpreting the multiracial experience

To interpret the visual data, I utilized Rose’s (2001) critical visual methodology framework as modified by Guillemin (2004) to analyze the visual timelines. In this section, I examine three critical sites of the visual images, the production site (i.e. the context of the research project influencing the creation of the narrative timeline by study participants), the image site (i.e. examining the image itself and how the significant experiences of participants are arranged in the timelines and what those arrangements represent), and the site of the audience (i.e. the position and relationship of the researcher/social worker to the experiences in the visual timelines). Concurrently, I thematically analyzed visual timelines for themes associated with recent theoretical conceptualizations of multiracial identity development, specifically the impact of interpersonal relationships, environmental context, and the influence of important life-transitions on the identity development of multiracial persons.

The production site

According to Rose (2001), the circumstances of the production of a visual image can contribute to our understanding and interpretation of that image. Before starting the face-to-face interviews, I explained how participant timelines would be used as visual prompts to guide the interview discussion. At this juncture some of the participants expressed apprehension about the appropriateness of the content of their timelines. For example, one participant, who self-selected the name Annie, commented ‘You know, it’s all over the place, does it have to be in order?’ I reiterated that there was no specific format required for the timelines and thanked participants for sharing their experiences on paper. During the interview, I asked participants to elaborate on how they constructed and organized their timelines. I then asked participants to self-select a central experience on the timeline that stands out as most relevant to their identity development. This process warranted participants’ additional control of the interview process and offered important insight into those experiences participants found most influential to their identity construction.

Researcher: What inspired you as far as what you put down and where?

Annie: (Laughing) Uh, that’s just pretty much all that came to my mind. I just wrote down whatever thoughts kind of came to mind.

Researcher: Anything on here that jumps out at you as something that was, like, really impactful that you wanna talk about first? Anything on here that as you thought about it, it was like, ‘Wo’, that really did have a lot to do with my identity development?

Annie: Mmmm. I think, I think my mother had, like, a lot to do with it.

Researcher: (Looking at the timeline) Oh, I see here, ok.

Annie: So, yeah. So, like, she’s somewhat obsessed about I guess, how people, like perceive things … I think I actually wrote that down somewhere that one comment my mother made was like, and I don’t know why, but like the only reason people were interested [in my art] was ‘cause they thought I was White.

Researcher: Interesting. Only people that, the only reason people like your art was because they thought you were White. Explain.

Annie: So, ‘cause I’m light-skinned, so that’s what she, she made that comment, so that’s probably part of that lovely phase she went through about me. It’s takin’ her a while to get out of that … On the flip side of that, she’s, like, been very supportive in saying you can, you can pretty much be, like, you’re multiracial or multiethnic, so, I mean, there’s a flip side to all of that.

Researcher: Looking at your timeline, is there any particular place, any particular event or time in your life that really jumps out or stands out to you that you wanna kinda mention first? Anything that was like, really, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this was really huge’.

Lee: Um, well middle school really. The entire period of middle school. I think middle school is just a hard time for a lot of kids because there’s a lot of hormone changes and you’re trying to figure out what group of friends do I fit into and all that kind of stuff, but that was the first time in my life that I really started to notice that I’m different from the other kids and when I look back on my timeline, I can see before middle school when I was in early childhood, daycare through second grade, I was living a lot closer to New York City, and so the community in that area was really, really mixed racially so I never really noticed. I think also just because I was young, I never really noticed that I was similar or different from any of the other kids. Then when we moved to a rich, White suburb that’s when I started to realize that I looked different from the other kids and that other kids realized that I looked different from them and that changed how they interacted with me.

Where and how participants began their verbal stories of experience offered critical information to their interpretations of identity. Specifically, interpersonal relationships with parental caregivers and peers in grade-school settings were central starting points in interview discussions with participants. These experiences were often negative, leaving participants feeling confused about their mixed identities. For Annie, her caregiver and biological Aunt played a central role in her identity construction, which often led to feelings of ambivalence toward both her mother and her mixed race identity (see Figure 1). For other participants, school was the site for memorable encounters with discrimination and prejudice, which markedly shaped their conceptualizations of race and identity. For example, Lee credits the experiences in middle school, particularly in schools where she was one of the only persons of Asian heritage, as most critical to her identity formation (see Figure 2). Embedded within these particular environments and interpersonal exchanges were themes of racial discrimination and prejudice directed at one’s appearance and presentation of race (i.e. phenotype).

The image site

The organization and assignment of identity experiences within the timelines contributes additional meaning to how multiracial identity development is represented and understood by each participant. Examining the composition of the images, the use and symbolism of color emerges as central to interpreting the overall meaning of the visual timelines. Most participants took advantage of the variety of colored markers offered and strategically utilized these colors in their timelines. Color served as an organizational tool, distinguishing certain life events from others, and also represented moments of racial (dis)identification over the course of one’s lifetime. During interviews, I asked participants to elaborate on the construction and composition on their timelines, including their use of color and symbols. According to Guillemin (2004), eliciting from the participant the reasons for choice of color and spatial organization of the images is a critical component to understanding the meaning of the image itself.

Researcher: Now, I noticed you have green and red boxes. What do those symbolize?

Jack: Uh, red obviously is like radical. Like, you know, but nowadays represents Republican stuff and I got the idea for green because green is sort of like, you know, with the Green Party and everything

Researcher: The Green Party like the naturalists kind of?

Jack: Yeah and watermelon.

Researcher: Watermelon? That came to your mind?

Jack: Yeah. Well, I got an idea from the article, like, describing people who are green, green on the outside and red on the inside. So, and the green if anyone knows, like, the history of Socialism, um, it’s sort of like mine have changed to green.

Hannah: Like, after 9-1-1, I mean, stuff changed. That’s why this goes down, and it gets darker. It’s like stuff just changed, like, it built up slowly and then it just goes downhill.

Researcher: And tell me, like, because that’s such a prominent thing. You even, like, have a squiggly line around it, like, 9-1-1 and then you write your rainbow starts to go down.

Hannah: Yeah, well, I used to say when I was little, my favorite color was rainbow. That’s why I chose it, like, you know, it’s not so much that I’m two different colors or nothing. It’s more.

Asking participants to explain their choice and use of color during interviews, revealed how some participants used color in a symbolic way. For instance, through the strategic use of two primary colors (red and green), Jack’s timeline makes visual the complex phenomenon of flexing and shifting one’s philosophical positions and racial identity status over time (see Figure 3). By examining verbal interview texts we discover the concealed symbolism Jack assigns to these two particular colors and the hidden complexity of his own multiracial identity, which encompasses spiritual and political beliefs. Examining the symbolism of color also offers insight into the participant’s emotional state of being. For example, Hannah shares how she strategically uses color in her timeline to represent positive and negative experiences before and after the historic events of 9/11. Examining Hannah’s ‘rainbow’ further we see that her use and positioning of colors (ascending versus descending) serves as a visual metaphor for her internal sense of well-being over time (see Figure 4). Specifically, ascending her rainbow she uses brighter colors (i.e. red, orange, purple) to signify positive feelings of pride and accomplishment, while the descending colors on the right side are labeled with negative experiences that instilled feelings of fear, loss, and anger following the events of 9/11.

By examining the composition and content of participant timelines we become observers to the hidden complexities of the multiracial experience. For example, through Jack’s purposeful use of a red and green color key we witness the complexities of a changing self, which can vary from shifting how one thinks about race, to changing how one identifies racially. In addition, further examining the content we learn how identity shifts or changes over time are contextualized by major sociopolitical events, changing attitudes and social circumstances. For example, as observers we experience the emotional change in Hannah following the events of 9/11 that cause her to question her identity and loyalties to both her American and Muslim cultures.

The audience site

My position as viewer of the visual timelines is an important, yet often ignored component in the interpretation of visual images (Guillemin and Drew, 2010). By physically removing myself during the construction of the visual images, I reduced my direct influence over the production of the timelines. However, my positionality to the subject topic as a mixed race individual and my professional identity as a social worker played an important role in my interpretation of the visual narrative texts.

Miles: And then going to these ‘Jack and Jill of America’ meetings, you know, I was supposed to go to church every Sunday, and I’m like, kiss up and be quiet and refined and a good Christian Black girl. It was just really crazy, and I’m like, ‘I’m not into this at all’.

Researcher: It didn’t fit.

R: Mmm, mmm. And I was, like, real angry all the time, like, wear my black eyeliner and my dirt clothes, (Laughing.) skateboarding, and playing rock music, and my mother would be like, ‘Turn off that hate music’. ‘You’re not playing that in my house.’ I’d turn it up louder. It was just really confusing.

As a mixed race individual, I generally found myself drawn to experiences that closely represented my own. For instance, I felt a personal connection to the confusion and anger so emphatically labeled in Miles’ timeline (see Figure 5). The experienced pressure to fit in with peers versus the urge to differentiate oneself from others was an internal battle I too struggled with as a teenager and young adult. Similar to the social work observers in Phillips and Bellinger’s study (2011), drawing personal connections to the visual images challenged me to take a deeper look at my own life and to the numerous differences between my ‘mixed’ experience and that of the participants. By engaging in this reflective process, I became more aware of myself as a multiracial person, and the vast diversity within the multiracial experience.

I acknowledge that as a social worker whose research is centered on understanding culture to enhance our practice with diverse clients (NASW Code of Ethics, 1999), my interpretation and experience of the visual timelines will be quite different from those who are less familiar with the influential role of culture on human behavior. In addition, I bring to my interpretation my personal experiences as a multiracial individual and my professional understanding of multiracial identity development, which may inhibit my ability to understand the participant’s own construction of their identities. For instance, I am naturally inclined to see the interaction of different social and environmental systems on a multiracial individual’s identity development. For example, when observing Miles’ timeline, I notice how certain negative identity experiences were constructed within homogeneous school and social settings where she and other participants alike were one of the only persons of color. Yet in conversation with Miles, her stories of experience are less centered around influential environmental circumstances, and more around how she navigated internalized feelings of confusion related to her identity (‘kiss up and be quiet and refined and a good Christian Black girl’ versus ‘… wear my black eyeliner and my dirt clothes, skateboarding, and playing rock music’) (Figure 5). Therefore, as an insider, I must be conscious of and reliant on the meaning participants attach to their visual timelines, instead of my own interpretations as a multiracial person and social work researcher.

Discussion

My experience using participatory diagramming to examine multiracial identity development provides certain avenues of consideration for researchers seeking to incorporate visual methods in their studies. First, visual methodologies may offer a more comprehensive picture of a particular social phenomenon by attending to the feelings and experiences of the participants, which may not be accessible in verbal exchanges alone (Guillemin and Drew, 2010). For instance, the use of visual narrative timelines in this study provided visual imagery of the hidden complexities of multiracial identity development, including the fluidity and shifting of identity, and the impact of interpersonal relationships and environmental context on one’s sense of self. Unlike reading texts of the multiracial experience, we experience this complex phenomenon visually through the compilation of colors, symbols, and unscripted text on participant timelines. Second, the images produced in this study demonstrate how this approach can facilitate a creative, self-expressive process that can help stimulate respondent memory (Bagnoli, 2009). The visual timelines utilized in this study prompted participants to recall and discuss personal experiences related to their mixed identity occurring throughout their lifetimes. Though a formal evaluation of this technique was not conducted, several of the participants commented, before the onset of the interview, how fun it was to create a timeline. In addition, during formal interviews the visual timelines prompted participants to recall additional experiences that originally were not presented on their timelines. Third, as mentioned by other scholars (see Kesby, 2000 and Umoquit et al., 2008) I believe visual methodologies can create a participant-centered and empowering platform. By utilizing respondent elicited diagrams to guide the formal interview, multiracial participants had more control over the interview process and the content shared. This may have created a more trusting atmosphere that enhanced participant sharing (see Guillemin and Drew, 2010).

Researchers interested in employing visual timelines in research should bear in mind several limitations associated with participatory diagramming and visual social research in general. First, as Bagnoli (2009) points out, the forward facing trajectory of timelines may prove problematic for some participants who view their life experiences in a non-linear fashion. To avoid this complication, researchers should encourage participants to construct their own meaning of time and placement of life-events. Second, researchers considering using participatory diagramming should recognize that some participants may be apprehensive to draw or create a diagram for research study purposes. For instance, in an evaluative study of participatory diagramming, Umoquit and colleagues (2008) found that some participants expressed concern about thinking on the spot and feeling that they were being tested. Keeping in mind that visual methods may have their own unique forms of interviewer reactivity (see Harrison, 2002), participants should be reassured that their drawing or diagrammatic skills are not the focus of analysis in the study, and that there is no right or wrong way to create a diagram, or in this case a timeline.

There are also limitations associated with visual social research in general that should be mentioned. Despite the expansion of visual methods in social science research, limited attention is being paid to the development of more rigorous methodology associated with the collection, production, and analysis of visual media (Pauwels, 2010). For instance, a static framework for evaluating visual images is lacking, and there is limited agreement on how to communicate the important aspects and insights of visual imagery (Pauwels, 2010). In this study, I found it imperative to rely on existing frameworks of visual interpretation and analysis (see Banks, 2001; Rose, 2001; Guillemin, 2004) to critically examine not only the image itself, but the production of the image and my position as observer of the respondent-generated images. In addition, researchers lacking a grounded theoretical framework may encounter complications deciphering the meaning of visual imagery; therefore researchers should have a solid theoretical foundation guiding their visual research methodology (Pauwels, 2010). For instance, in this study I relied on existing theoretical frameworks of multiracial identity development, ecological systems, and life-course perspectives to guide the selection of the visual method and subsequent analysis of the visual timelines.

Implications for practice

The application of participatory diagramming in this study offers important implications for client-centered practice with multiracial clients. Referencing the article by Suddaby and Landau (1998), ‘Positive and Negative Timelines: A technique for Re-Storying,’ I describe the potential benefits of incorporating visual timelines in therapeutic contexts with multiracial clients. First, timelines can be utilized to empower multiracial clients to give voice, in a creative way, to their identity experiences; experiences that are often ignored or discredited in society due to traditional beliefs about race and racial classification (i.e. the one-drop rule). As a receptive observer, a social worker gains access to relevant information that is central to understanding a multiracial client’s unique cultural worldview, or the ways individuals perceive their relationships to their social environment (Sue, 1981). In addition, the process of observing one’s timeline can serve a restorative and affirming function for multiracial clients, particularly those who may have had negative experiences in the past (Suddaby and Landau, 1998). For instance, a social worker can use visual timelines as a cognitive tool to help situate negative past experiences within a broader social context of racism and oppression. Removing pathologizing elements from discriminatory encounters that occurred in a multiracial client’s past can encourage reframing and externalizing problems associated with their identity to systemic problems of racism and prejudice. Finally, social workers can use visual timelines to focus multiracial clients on positive identity experiences, which encourage them to ascribe new, more positive meaning to their identity (Suddaby and Landau, 1998).

In conclusion, social work researchers utilize image-based research to deepen our ways of understanding the social world of our clients. As evidenced in this study, participatory diagramming can offer unique pathways of knowing and understanding the complexities of human development. By experiencing visually the life experiences of the study participants, we become humanized and receptive to their unique cultural worldview as multiracial individuals. This reflective process can further our ability to effectively partner with and empower multiracial clients in practice. It is my hope that providing a detailed account of my application of a visual methodology will prompt professional curiosity that leads to future contributions by social work researchers in the burgeoning field of visual social research.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

This research project was supported in part by the Mark Diamond Research Fund (MDRF). The MDRF offers grants to graduate students for research expenses related to their thesis or dissertation. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2008 annual program meeting of the Council on Social Work Education in Philadelphia, PA. The author is deeply grateful to the multiracial men and women who participated in this study.

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