Creative interactions with data: using visual and metaphorical devices in repeated focus groups

This article presents some of the emergent methods developed to fit a study of quality in inclusive research with people with learning disabilities. It addresses (i) the ways in which the methodology was a response to the need for constructive, transformative dialogue through useof repeated focus groups in a design interspersing dialogic and reflective spaces; and (ii) how stimulus materials for the focus groups involved imaginative and creative interactions with data. Particular innovations in the blending of narrative and thematic analyses and data generation and analysis processes are explored, specifically the creative use of metaphor as stimulus and the playful adaptation of I-poems from the Listening Guide approach as writing and performance. In reflecting on these methodological turns we also reflect on creativity as an interpretive lens. The paper is an invitation for further methodological dialogue and development

Practical considerations in doing research inclusively and doing it well: Lessons for inclusive researchers

This NCRM Methodological Review paper follows on from an earlier Review, Conducting qualitative research with people with communication, learning and other disabilities: Methodological challenges (Nind, 2008). That earlier review concluded that the practical, political and ethical challenges of inclusive research, together with the sensitivities of the process, were being embraced not just by the pioneers in the field but by researchers in different disciplines who would no longer be conducting research on people with learning and communication difficulties but with them. This paper builds from the conclusions of that earlier review, but is distinctive in that it is concerned only with doing research with, rather than on, people with learning disabilities and others. The focus is on the practicalities of such research - often known as participatory research – that is research that ‘involves those being researched in the decision-making and conduct of the research, including project planning, research design, data collection and analysis, and/or the distribution and application of research findings’ (Bourke, 2009, p.458). We also look at research done by people with learning disabilities, often labelled emancipatory research. The focus is on researching in ways that are respectful and inclusive of the community being researched, on problems they feel ownership of, in ways that support them and that involve collaboration and openness

Building an inclusive research community: the challenges and benefits

A report of some key messages from the study Quality & Capactiy in Inclusive Research with People with Learning Disabilities study for an audience of practitioners in the adult learning disability fiel

Enabling findings: Making research findings acessible by using literary structure [ethnographic fiction]

Taking into account the historical understanding that disabled people as individuals and organisations have been excluded from participation and from decision-making in matters that concerns them, issues of voice in research implies empowerment. However, this is not meant to be a gift from those who have power to the ones who do not have such a power, but “it is about people empowering themselves” (Barton, 2007, p.32), it is also about recognising that “it is the oppressed that better knows about oppression, it is in their experience of oppression that resides the knowledge about it” (Freire, 1970, p.27). In this paper I will outline the narrative research I am conducting involving participants with/without learning difficulties, the role of auto/biography and the use of ethnographic fiction as a means of giving voice to the voiceless

Book review. Researching life stories: method, theory and analyses in a biographical age

Book revie

Why I am doing this in this way: a reflective narrative

According to Clough (2002, p.8) “narrative is useful only to the extent that it opens up (to its audience) a deeper view of life in familiar contexts: it can make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar”, and this potential to deepen the view of life is one of the characteristics that makes narrative a unique means of making sense of lived life. In this vein, this paper consists of a reflective narrative account of my experience as a research student on the field of inclusive education focused on learning difficulties. The first part of the paper explores the significance of learning difficulties in my personal journey and in my research trajectory and its impact on my choices. In addition I explain the basis of the main question that trigged my curiosity in understanding the effects of inclusive education in the learners’ perceptions of themselves and the others, which was ‘how inclusion could benefit the non-disabled (so-called normal) peers’. In the second part of the paper I discuss how this concern still underpins my research aims and questions, and how it affects my methodological choice of life story and narrative inquiry with a focus in the language in use, particularly the use of metaphors

From teacher to lover: sex scandals in the classroom

Book revie

The exceptional experience of difference

My close relationship with my brother provided me with a strong sense of the struggles of (him) being disabled, in contrast with (me) being so-called "normal".I also present my views on the debate concerning the two major competing models of disability in contrast with my perception of the role of the notions of what being "normal" means, and how these notions affect disabled people. The paper consists of a narrative account in the form of an autobiographical and eye-witnessing analysis supported by some 'visuals' together with a brief discussion on the literature review I am currently carrying out. In this paper I present the development of my perceptions about learning difficulties throughout the course of my life, from my personal experiences as a child – as a sort of 'intuitive advocate' of my brother – to my experience as a research student. <br/

Quality and capacity in inclusive research with people with learning disabilities

Three focus groups, one involving researchers with learning disabilities who lead and conduct their own research, one of researchers with and without learning disabilities collaborating as co-researchers, and one of academic researchers with experience of gathering data from or with people with learning disabilities, will each meet for a series of encounters exploring core themes and sensitive tensions emerging from all the groups. Data from this process will inform a focus group meeting of policy makers and research commissioners and a final joint analysis of the knowledge shared and developed. The data collection made available therefore consists of: (1) Data collection folder containing focus groups summaries from every location and a (2) Data Records folder containing transcripts as well as reflexive field notes and memos. </span