2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pagePhotography Ethics in the Classroom
Savannah Dodd & Tara Pixley
Thursday, March 19 - 2:00PM to 3:30PM
Valdosta
Building on her Photo Frame talk, "Reframing ethics: A principles-based approach to photography ethics education," delivered at the 2024 edition of SPE in St. Louis, this workshop explores strategies for teaching photography ethics in the classroom.
Ethical debates can evoke strong emotions, making it difficult to facilitate constructive conversations. Unfortunately, polarisation has come to characterise a sizeable portion of photography ethics discourse - especially when it unfolds online. This polarised discourse risks having a detrimental effect on students. Anecdotally, I have been told by several lecturers that their photography students have become paralysed by a fear of getting it wrong. Rather than understanding ethics as a fluid process of growth, learning, and personal development, they see it as a binary in which one misstep can ruin their career in the industry – before it even launches.
We have a duty, as educators, to combat this binary thinking which paralyses students and polarises the industry. One way that we can do this by fostering better conversations about ethics in the classroom.
Drawing from nearly a decade of experience teaching photography ethics, Savannah Dodd will lead this session. The aims of this workshop will be:
- to discuss the importance of building dedicated time and space for ethics into photography courses,
- to develop strategies for fostering productive conversations about photography ethics in the classroom, and
- to understand how the Photography Ethics Centre's resources can be integrated into course curricula.
speaker
Savannah Dodd 26
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