⚠️ Research in Progress: Doctoral Defence Forthcoming
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Appendix D · Informed Consent Framework
Informed Consent Form
What follows is the informed consent form used in this study. I am sharing the blank template here: the design of the document, its language, and its structural commitments, because consent architecture is itself a methodological choice, and open-access research includes making that architecture visible. Signed copies are held in confidence as required by both ethics protocols.
Consent in participatory visual research cannot be a single transaction. The approach taken here treats consent as an ongoing relationship structured across four moments: initial written consent, rolling pre-session confirmation, visual sovereignty provisions, and exit consent. Each is described within the document below and discussed further on the Ethics, Consent, and Care page.
INFORMED CONSENT FORM
Study Title: Through Our Eyes: Witnessing Belonging, Precarity, and Possibility in Higher Education
Principal Researcher: Amy Tucker, DSocSci Candidate, Royal Roads University
Ethics Approval: TRU Protocol H25-04204 · RRU Protocol H25-00572
Purpose of the Study
This study examines how international students at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) experience belonging, precarity, and the gap between institutional promises and lived reality. The research uses photovoice methodology: you will take photographs of your campus life over a two-week period, and then discuss what those photographs reveal in group and individual sessions. The researcher will contribute her own Scholarly Personal Narrative strand to the study alongside your photographs and interpretations.
What Participation Involves
| Activity | Time Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Photography Workshop | Approximately 2 hours | A facilitated session covering technical skills, ethical guidelines for photography in shared spaces, and the conceptual framing of the research question |
| Photography Period | 2 weeks (self-directed) | You photograph whatever feels relevant to the question of belonging and exclusion on your campus, using your own smartphone or any available camera |
| Group Photo Discussion (SHOWeD Session) | Approximately 2 hours | A facilitated group session in which participants discuss selected photographs using the SHOWeD analytical protocol |
| Individual Photo-Elicitation Interview | 60–90 minutes | A one-on-one conversation with the researcher about 5–7 photographs you select; semi-structured, participant-directed |
| Group Debrief | Approximately 90 minutes | A collective closing session to discuss the research experience and confirm which materials participants wish to include in the study |
Summary of Participation Activities and Time Commitment
Potential Risks
The topics of this study include experiences of exclusion, precarity, and institutional failure. Discussing these experiences may bring up difficult emotions. You are never required to share anything you are uncomfortable sharing. The researcher will follow a healing-centred engagement approach at the beginning of each session (Ginwright, 2018).
The researcher is a faculty member at TRU. This creates a potential power imbalance. The study has been designed with explicit structural protections to ensure that your academic standing, your grades, and your relationship with TRU are entirely separated from your participation or non-participation in this research.
Potential Benefits
Participants in photovoice studies frequently describe the process as personally meaningful. Your knowledge and analysis of your own institutional experience will be treated as scholarly contribution, as knowledge in its own right. The research findings will be made publicly available through an open-access website so that the communities this research concerns can access what is said about their conditions.
Confidentiality and Data Management
- You will be identified in the research by a researcher-assigned pseudonym. Your legal name will appear only on this consent form, which is stored separately from all research data.
- Audio recordings of interviews will be transcribed and then deleted after member checking is complete.
- Photographs will be stored securely and used only for the purposes described in this form.
- Data will be retained for five years following publication of the dissertation, in accordance with institutional requirements, and then securely destroyed.
Visual Sovereignty Provisions
You retain full ownership of the photographs you take. You may withdraw any image from the study at any time, including after data collection has concluded, and including after the dissertation has been submitted. Your decision to withdraw an image will be honoured without question and without consequence.
Rolling Consent
Your consent is ongoing. Before each research activity, you will be reminded of your right to withdraw and invited to confirm that you wish to continue. At the conclusion of the research, you will be invited to review which materials you are comfortable having included in the final dissertation. Your decision at each point supersedes any earlier decision.
Your Rights
- Participation is entirely voluntary
- You may withdraw at any time without penalty or consequence
- You may decline to answer any question or participate in any activity
- You may withdraw any photograph at any time
- You will receive a copy of this form for your records
- If you have concerns about the ethical conduct of this research, you may contact the Research Ethics Boards at TRU or RRU directly
Participant Confirmation
By signing below, I confirm that I have read and understood the information provided, that I have had the opportunity to ask questions, and that I agree to participate in this study under the conditions described above. I understand that my agreement is voluntary and that I may withdraw at any time.
Participant Name (print): ___________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________ Date: _______________
Researcher Signature: ___________________________________ Date: _______________
Design Rationale
Standard consent forms in social science research treat consent as a checkbox: sign here, proceed. In research with structurally vulnerable participants, that approach is ethically insufficient. A student whose immigration status requires continuous enrolment, who is being asked to discuss the gap between institutional promises and lived reality, with a researcher who is also a faculty member at that institution, needs a consent framework that takes the power gradient seriously.
The four-component consent architecture in this study draws on Tuhiwai Smith’s (2012) framing of research relationships as accountable to communities rather than to disciplines, and on Gubrium and Harper’s (2013) work on participatory visual ethics. Visual sovereignty as a principle draws on Indigenous research ethics traditions that insist on the subject’s right to control representations of their own life (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012). In a study where participants’ photographs are the primary data, treating ownership of those images as non-negotiable was the minimum ethical standard.
References
Ginwright, S. (2018). The future of healing: Shifting from trauma informed care to healing centred engagement. Occasional Paper. https://medium.com/@ginwright/the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-trauma-informed-care-to-healing-centered-engagement-634f557ce69c
Gubrium, A., & Harper, K. (2013). Participatory visual and digital methods. Left Coast Press.
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). Zed Books.