The Rainbow Bike Experiences of School for Parents Whose Children Have Needs:  A Narrative Inquiry into Whose Knowledge Counts

Abstract

Having chosen narrative inquiry as my research methodology, I sat for hours in my first narrative inquiry class wondering how I was going to tell my story. I observed countless examples of rich narratives. They all spoke to me in different ways, but I still did not know how to begin. Finally, the metaphor of the rainbow bike crashed into my head, just as it crashed so long ago as a little girl. I decided to use the rainbow bike metaphor to conceptualize and tell my story of experience and as an entry into this narrative inquiry. As a child, my rainbow bike was a place of escape from pain and hurt. As a narrative inquirer in the field, I continued to ride my rainbow bike when I needed help to carry the heaviness of the stories my research participants shared and I needed to escape to places of safety and comfort to unpack those stories. As I engaged in analysis and interpretation of my field text, my rainbow bike carried me to places of discovery and joy. Now, as I conclude this narrative inquiry, I park my rainbow bike for some much needed rest. It was through writing my own narrative beginnings that I learned how to portray the lived experiences and stories of my research participants: three pairs of parent partners who have a child with needs, the term I use to step away from the language and labelling of ‘special needs’ that ‘others’ children and their families. Parents with children with needs often find themselves pushed to the margins at their children’s schools, seen to be lesser than other parents, seen to be less knowing. My purpose in inquiring into their lived experiences was to foreground the parent knowledge they hold, individually as parents and together as parent partners, that can be used alongside teachers’ knowledge to inform their children’s schooling experiences. Attentive to the three-dimensional space of this narrative inquiry, I captured participants’ stories as they unfolded over time, moving between earlier moments, present realities, and imagined future possibilities. I was drawn to their innermost thoughts and feelings as we engaged in conversations in the social space of our living rooms. Through the sharing of our stories, we journeyed to childhood homes, communities, and schools. This narrative inquiry has been a long and in-depth rainbow bike ride, backward and forward, inward and outward, visiting many places during the sharing of stories of our lives. As stories were lived and told, I understood more deeply how parent knowledge is held and used, either individually, exercised as a form of roving leadership within their partnership, or co- constructed to create new shared knowledge for both parents. It became clear that if parent knowledge is used alongside teacher knowledge, it is possible to dramatically transform the current hierarchy of schools, creating teaching and learning centres in which parents have a place and voice. It is my hope that the lived experiences of the parents in my inquiry have been educative for themselves and will be for other parents on a similar journey, for educators who will “walk alongside” the parents as their children with needs enter schools and school systems, and for schools and school systems in which some parents and families find themselves in the margins of the school landscape