Applications of Photovoice-Based Entrepreneurial-Minded Pedagogical Interventions in the Engineering Classroom

: The recent emergence of generative AI technologies is beginning to shape workforce hiring practices. The shift towards skills-based hiring over degree-based hiring has sparked concerns over the ability of college graduates to be prepared for their career roles. One approach to equip students to work with technology and adapt to rapidly changing environments is the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. One way to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking is through the participatory action research methodology, photovoice. This study explores how photovoice promotes discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in university engineering classrooms. For this study, a literature review was conducted to identify, evaluate, and interpret available research. For the review, a five-step process was used. This process included defining a search criterion, constructing a Boolean logic search query, inserting the query into multiple academic search engines/databases, screening and selecting articles, and categorizing and mapping the literature. The review’s findings were organized based on the type of study, participants, duration of study and photovoice interventions used, study outcomes, and entrepreneurial mindset development. The results discussed in this paper offer insights, guidance, recommendations, and future directions for engineering education research.


Introduction
Technology is a key driver of economic growth and competition worldwide.However, workplace and educational technology is constantly changing, and higher education instructors are struggling to keep up.For example, the recent proliferation of integrating generative AI in classrooms has sparked a paradigm shift in teaching and learning [1][2][3][4][5].The rapid emergence of generative AI is beginning to reshape hiring plans, employee productivity, and job requirements, indicating a shift towards skills-based hiring over degree-based hiring.This technological shift has caused college graduates to question how prepared they are for today's workforce [6][7][8][9].With new technologies, educators and higher education institutions should consider providing more support and guidance to prepare students for such technological shifts.
One approach to better prepare students for working with technology and rapidly changing environments is the development of an entrepreneurial mindset.The entrepreneurial mindset is defined as the inclination to discover, evaluate, and exploit opportunities [10,11].Cultivating entrepreneurial thinking or traits is essential for all students, regardless of their disciplinary backgrounds or careers, and having an entrepreneurial mindset offers several benefits [12][13][14][15][16]. First, the entrepreneurial mindset can be leveraged to start a new business venture (e.g., recognizing the motivation to start a company).Second, the entrepreneurial mindset can be applied in a job role to solve problems, think critically, adapt to a fast-paced work environment, and be productive.Third, the entrepreneurial mindset can be leveraged to address global and societal challenges such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the National Academies of Engineering Grand Challenges.Fourth, the entrepreneurial mindset can be applied for self-improvement, such as cultivating habits, setting goals, and learning new skills.
One way to develop an entrepreneurial mindset is through the participatory action research methodology, photovoice.Photovoice, commonly associated with participatory action research (PAR), is a visual method that is used to understand how people perceive the world around them.According to Wang and Burris [17], photovoice is an innovative participatory tool that enables people to "identify, represent, and enhance their community" through the use of photos and narrative reflections.The photovoice process involves researchers actively engaging the participants of a study in the research and inquiry process to collect data, reflect, and gather new perspectives on making improvements [17][18][19][20].The photovoice research method has been used to promote student engagement in classrooms, encourage discussion, stimulate dialogue amongst the oppressed and privileged populations, and as a needs assessment, pedagogical, and evaluation tool [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].
Photovoice has been widely used as a research approach to problem solving through the use of photos/images and narrative reflections [30][31][32].As any research process involves purpose, the photovoice method also has three primary goals: (1) provide a creative way for individuals to reflect on existing problems and analyze their strengths and weaknesses, (2) engage individuals in critical dialogue and discussion, and (3) develop and execute an action plan to drive social change [17].Although photovoice has been used in engineering classrooms to examine student experiences (e.g., mental health challenges, first-year experiences, motivations, and barriers) [33][34][35][36][37][38][39], photovoice interventions to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking are limited and warrant further examination.
To explore how photovoice is being used to promote the entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering classrooms, the study aims to conduct a literature review to identify, evaluate, and interpret available research relevant to our research question [40][41][42][43].For the literature review, we used a five-step process to search, select, summarize, and organize existing research.The following research question was used to guide this study:

•
How has photovoice been used as a pedagogical intervention to promote discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in the engineering classroom?

Overview
For this paper, we followed a five-step process for the literature review [40][41][42][43] that included defining a search criterion, constructing a Boolean logic search query, inserting the query into multiple academic search engines/databases, screening and selecting articles, and categorizing and mapping the literature (Figure 1) .The following sections provide details on the search process, article screening and selection, and literature categorization and mapping for better structure and readability.

Literature Search Process
The first three steps of the literature review process (Figure 1) correspond to the search process.For Step 1, a general search criterion was defined based on the scope of this study.This included breaking down the research question into individual components such as population, intervention, discipline, and location.
For Step 2, a standard search query was constructed using Boolean ANDs and ORs with synonyms, abbreviations, and alternative terms.This search query was categorized based on discipline, intervention, population, and location for relevant results.For this study, the authors used the following constructed search query-intext:pedagogical intervention AND intitle:discipline AND intext:population AND intext:location.
For Step 3, the constructed search string was entered into various academic search engines such as Google Scholar, ASEE PEER, and university digital libraries.The University digital libraries include databases such as Scopus, EBSCO, ERIC, and Web of Science.For example, to find relevant literature on photovoice applications in engineering, the following search string was entered into Google Scholar-intext: ("photovoice" OR "photovoice reflections" OR "photovoice metacognitive reflections") AND intitle: ("engineering" OR "engineering technology" OR "engineering course" OR "engineering design" OR "engineering project") AND intext: ("undergraduate" OR "undergraduate students" OR "engineering students") AND intext: ("university").For ASEE PEER, we used the following search string: "photovoice" + "engineering" + "undergraduate" + "university."Similarly, for the University digital library, we used the following search string: "TI engineering AND TX photovoice AND TX undergraduate AND TX university".After executing all three steps, Table 1 showcases the search results from chosen databases.

Literature Screening and Selection
For Step 4, all 293 records that were identified during the search were screened in two phases.The first phase of screening included keyword and phrase matching (e.g., photovoice, engineering, undergraduate, and university), and the second was for duplicate study screening.After screening, the articles were assessed for eligibility based on abstract reading and full-text reading.To meet the eligibility criteria for the abstract, the following components were included: 1. Intervention: Photovoice was used as a research methodology and as a data collection instrument (e.g., abstract included keywords/phrases such as photovoice reflections, photovoice metacognitive reflections, and photovoice prompts); 2. Participants of the study: Undergraduate students (e.g., abstract included keywords/phrases such as undergraduate students, engineering students); 3. Major/discipline of the participants: Engineering (e.g., abstract included keywords/phrases such as engineering, engineering classroom, engineering technology, engineering design, and engineering project); 4. Location/setting of the study: University classrooms (e.g., abstract included keywords/phrases such as university, and research-intensive or research-focused university).
Articles that satisfied all four components of the criteria [intervention: photovoice, participants: undergraduate students, discipline: engineering, and location: university] were assessed for eligibility through full-text reading.During the eligibility screening phase, we found four articles with overlapping information.To address this, we included one of the three articles for the review, as it provides more details on how photovoice was used.
After careful examination, only 19 articles met the eligibility criteria, while the remaining 274 were excluded from the review.Figure 2 provides a detailed flowchart of the screening and selection process.

Literature Categorization and Mapping
For Step 5, all selected articles (n = 19) were categorized according to type of study, participants, intervention, and outcomes.After categorization, the literature was mapped based on the entrepreneurial mindset framework [11].For this paper, the authors defined each category of the entrepreneurial mindset framework as follows:

•
Opportunity Discovery-Literature for this category was chosen based on participant type and participant involvement in the study.For example, studies where the participants/population were only part of the data collection process (e.g., individual reflections, individual photovoice-based interviews) were included in this category.

•
Opportunity Evaluation-Literature for this category was chosen based on participant type and participant involvement in the study.For example, studies where the participants/population came together to learn more about each other's experiences (e.g., focus groups, small or large group discussions).

•
Opportunity Exploitation-Literature for this category was chosen based on participant type and participant involvement in the study.For example, studies where the participant/population established a list of action items for stakeholders to change/reform existing policies and practices (e.g., group-based ideation, sharing reflections with institutional stakeholders).
The literature categorization and mapping process involved reviewing full-text reports (n = 19).This process enabled the authors to review how photovoice-based pedagogical interventions are being used to promote discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in today's engineering classrooms.

Results
After reviewing the selected articles (n = 19), the literature was organized based on the type of study and purpose, participants, duration and photovoice interventions used, study outcomes, and entrepreneurial mindset development (Table 2).The table below includes summaries of the studies, current approaches (photovoice interventions), and how photovoice interventions promote entrepreneurial mindset development.Increased ability to elucidate personal experiences.

Discovery and Evaluation
Exploratory: Examine sophomore engineering student experiences and explore how such experiences relate to their identities as engineers [33].n = 4 (2 female and 2 male); undergraduate sophomore engineering students, ages 18-22.Two identified as Asian-American, one as Latino, and one as biracial.
Semester-long (4-5 months); data collected at three stagesbeginning, middle, and end of the semester.
Empowered students to illustrate and share realtime experiences.

Discovery and Evaluation
Exploratory: Examine and propose an approach for a virtual undergraduate research onboarding program to orient engineering students to the NSF REU [47].Three semi-structured interviews were conducted, of which only the third used Photovoice.Participants were asked a series of questions, and in addition to their verbal responses, they were asked to assign a photo associated with their answer.
Empowered female participants to share their experiences relevant to ESPTs.

Summary of Findings
The review's findings (Table 2) showcase how photovoice-based pedagogical interventions are being used in engineering classrooms to promote the entrepreneurial mindset (discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities).These findings include how photovoice is being integrated into the engineering curricula (intervention), the benefits photovoice offers (outcomes) in the engineering classroom, and the development of the entrepreneurial mindset.
First, after reviewing how photovoice is being integrated into the engineering curricula, it is evident that photovoice has been primarily used as a reflective learning strategy instead of an active learning practice.This finding is attributed to the fact that photovoice has only recently gained popularity in the engineering discipline, and due to its novelty in engineering education research, there are limited examples that offer guidance on its use in classrooms.Hence, it is not surprising to see educators using photovoice to examine or explore student learning experiences.
Second, after reviewing how photovoice-based pedagogical interventions are being used to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, it is evident that photovoice is primarily being used to promote opportunity discovery where participant involvement is limited to providing individual reflections.A total of 15 of the 19 studies mainly promoted the discovery of opportunities in the form of individual reflections.This finding can be attributed to the fact that photovoice has been used as a community-based participatory research tool in health and social sciences to examine issues impacting the population's well-being [60][61][62][63][64][65].Hence, it is not surprising to see educators using photovoice for discovery or exploratory purposes in their classrooms.
Third, out of the 19 studies, three [33,36,46] promoted the discovery and evaluation of opportunities where photovoice-based focus group techniques enabled participants to share their reflections with other participants in a small group setting.Furthermore, only one study [45] offered opportunities for the participants to share their reflections (evaluation) with their peers and with the institution's stakeholders for continuous improvement (exploitation).This finding provides evidence that photovoice can be used to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking and for continuous improvement.

Response to Research Question
In response to the research question, 'How has photovoice been used as a pedagogical intervention to promote discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in the engineering classroom?', the literature review's findings revealed that current photovoice interventions are primarily being used to promote opportunity discovery (n = 15) in comparison to opportunity evaluation (n = 3) and opportunity exploitation (n = 1).
For instance, out of the 19 studies reviewed in this paper, 15 focused on examining student learning experiences over the course of a semester or the project's duration.In such cases, the participants reflected on their learning experiences and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses.However, they had limited opportunities to seek feedback or share their experiences with peers.To effectively integrate photovoice into the curriculum and cultivate entrepreneurial thinking, educators should consider offering students opportunities to share and discuss their reflections with their peers (e.g., small group discussions).Such activities will allow them to engage in critical dialogue about persisting issues (e.g., course-related, project-related, challenges/barriers that prevent learning) and identify unexpected opportunities for growth and improvement.
Three [33,36,46] of the 19 studies reviewed in this paper focused on promoting discovery and evaluation of opportunities.In such cases, the participants had opportunities to reflect and share their reflections with peers and instructors through focus group discussions and interviews.However, the instructors/researchers guided these discussions and interviews to steer the conversations around a specific topic or area of interest.While this is a great step in evoking thoughts and ideas and promoting engagement and participation in the classroom, participants might refrain from discussing critical issues that impede their learning.Engineering educators should consider implementing best practices for fostering an open discussion, such as asking open-ended questions, providing guidance on giving constructive and positive feedback to peers (e.g., feedback sandwich technique), and creating a safe and inclusive space for participants to share opinions [66][67][68].
One [45] of the 19 studies reviewed in this paper focused on promoting discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in the engineering classroom.The study's participants had opportunities to reflect, share their reflections through small group discussions, identify opportunities for growth and improvement, and create a list of action items to share with the institution's stakeholders.This study provides a good example and showcases the benefits of photovoice when integrated into the engineering curriculum.

Compare and Contrast to Literature
To corroborate the findings of this study, previous review papers related to photovoice, and the entrepreneurial mindset were explored.In line with photovoice literature categorization, previous review studies [24,69] categorized the findings based on title, purpose, participant description, duration, research methods, and outcomes.While the discussions in these studies were centered around applications of photovoice for research and pedagogy, they did not offer guidance and recommendations for education practitioners to consider.Other reviews explored how photovoice is used as a research method to promote participant and community change.While these reviews identified gaps in the literature, offered insights, and organized findings based on the scope of the study, no suggestions for improving existing interventions were discussed [63].Other review papers on photovoice [70,71] discussed gaps and provided recommendations for improvement in terms of application and ethical considerations but did not offer guidance on classroom application.Furthermore, in line with the results discussed in our study, similar review studies [72][73][74][75] provided recommendations, guidance, and suggestions for improvements in existing photovoice interventions.
Similar to the structure of our study, a previous review paper [76] discussed the state of entrepreneurial programs in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields (STEM), identified gaps, and provided recommendations for practitioners and researchers to consider.Previous literature reviews [77][78][79] were explored for the entrepreneurial mindset.These reviews were conducted to identify classroom practices for promoting the entrepreneurial mindset.Like our study, these review studies followed a standard review protocol for the literature screening and selection process.While these reviews showcased classroom practices for promoting the entrepreneurial mindset and highlighted gaps, no guidance on improvement was provided.

Conclusions
Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset is crucial to better prepare college graduates for working with technology and in fast-paced environments.An innovative pedagogical approach to developing the entrepreneurial mindset is through the participatory action research method, photovoice.In response to the research question, 'How has photovoice been used as a pedagogical intervention to promote discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in the engineering classroom?',a literature review was conducted to identify, evaluate, and interpret available research relevant to our research question.The review's findings were organized (Table 2) and discussed to highlight gaps and insights and provide guidance and recommendations for improvement.Based on the review's findings, current photovoice interventions are primarily being used to promote opportunity discovery compared to opportunity evaluation and exploitation.Considering the interventions reviewed in this study, there is room for improvement, especially in how photovoice is integrated into classroom learning and its potential for continuous improvement.

Contributions
This study provides some noteworthy contributions.First, the five-step process, results, and discussion enable engineering education researchers to identify and synthesize all existing research based on the chosen population, pedagogical intervention, comparison, and context (e.g., photovoice application to promote entrepreneurial mindset).Second, the results and discussion enable researchers to thoroughly review and analyze the literature across various settings and empirical methods.Third, the literature review results provide evidence that supports photovoice-based intervention and ensures its robustness and generalizability, such as replication and applicability across a wide range of settings.Furthermore, our review offers insights, guidance, and recommendations for best practices for engineering education stakeholders to consider.

Limitations and Future Research
Although the study offers great insights, there are a few limitations to consider.First, the narrow scope of the search process yielded low results.Future research should consider changing the criteria for the literature selection process, which will provide a broader range of options to examine.Second, the study includes literature pertaining to undergraduate engineering education.Future research should consider exploring photovoice applications within various engineering fields (e.g., civil, electrical, computer science, and many more) and across other educational levels (e.g., graduate).Additionally, future research should continue investigating participatory action research methodologies and visual research methods used in qualitative research, such as photovoice and its potential applications in engineering education research.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Flowchart for literature review process.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Flowchart for screening and selection process.