Visual Pathways: Using Visual Board for Supporting Youth Participation in Research

This paper aims to present a methodological reflection on the use of visual boards for supporting and facilitating youth participation in educational research. In recent years, visual methods have gained prominence in qualitative research (Freedman & Siegesmund, 2023), offering innovative ways to engage participants and explore complex phenomena. Within the wide panorama of strategies and tools based on visual languages, this paper will focus on collage making that can be considered as a specific research method of inquiry (Butler-Kisber, 2008). As a creative method, collage invites participants to engage intuitively with visual materials, facilitating the exploration of abstract or intangible concepts. This is particularly valuable in participatory research, where visual composition enables participants to actively think about the research process without requiring specialized skills or prior experience. Specifically, this paper will explore the use of a particular format for collage making based on the research application of the moodboards. Traditionally used to visually communicate ideas and concepts in design, moodboards provide a means of organizing and conveying abstract concepts through images, texts and materials (Munk et al., 2020). Their role in fostering creativity and enabling reflection makes them particularly suited to participatory approaches with young people, where they can support collaborative knowledge creation and reflection. Moodboards are commonly used in the early stages of a project to establish a visual and emotional framework, helping participants align on the vision and trajectory of the work (Velasquez-Posada, 2019). Although their use in research is less frequent, moodboards have proven effective as both a creative tool and an image elicitation method (Spawforth-Jones, 2021). In conclusion, the paper will present how moodboard have been used for supporting youth participation in a research process, describing methods and aims of their introduction, deeping into the ethical attention, and highlighting potential and limitations of their use in research (Biffi, 2019).