Polyamorous Families – Parenting Practice, Stigma and Social Regulation

As a response to the greater visibility of alternative relationship and family forms, polyamory (i.e. the practice of consensual multi-partner relationships) has recently moved to the centre of public media attention. Questions of polyamory have emerged as a major concern within law, social policy, family sociology, gender and sexuality studies. Yet certain core issues have remained underexplored. This includes the distinctive nature of polyamorous intimacy, the structure of poly household formations and the dynamics of care work within poly families. In particular, poly parenting has been subject to tabooisation and scandalisation. Governing bodies, the judiciary and educational institutions have remained largely ignorant of polyamorous relationships. Research documents the exclusions of poly families (and individuals) from access to legal provisions and protections and their common discrimination in the courts, namely in custody cases. It further highlights the discrimination of polyidentified adolescents in school and college settings and the predicament that poly families face when interacting with public institutions (including schools and kindergardens). Insights into parenting practices and the organisation of childcare is vital for understanding the transformative potential of polyamorous ways of relating. It is also important for challenging the common demonisation and stigmatisation of polyamory within conservative family politics that perceives polyamory exclusively from a harm perspective. This paper will review and critically analyse existing research on poly parenting focussing on three dimensions: (a) parenting practices, (b) social and legal discrimination, and (c) parental response to stigmatisation. The paper argues for a stronger incorporation of queer perspectives within the guiding frameworks of research into parenting in consensually non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships to highlight the transformative potential of the ‘queer bonds’ that sustain many of these practices

Learning through creating stories: developing student teachers understanding of the experiences of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms

This paper explores the roles of story in the training of teachers in the field of special education. It describes and evaluates a project that promoted the learning of student teachers both through hearing stories and writing stories themselves. The students combined their existing knowledge of schools and children with newly researched knowledge of an identified special need to create a story about the experiences of a pupil with special needs. The quality of work produced in this course, and the expressed changes in attitude suggest that story not only engages and motivates but also has the power to produce a deep level of understanding and a clear link with practice, with consequent potential for professional development and social action

Who watches the watchmen? A critical perspective on the theorization of trans people and clinicians

This paper, made from an explicitly academic-practitioner stance, aims to highlight some of the problematic ways in which academic writing on trans people, and on the clinicians working in trans healthcare, has been presented in recent years. We argue that much work theorizes trans people and clinicians whilst failing to recognise the full and complex humanity of the people concerned. Also, such work frequently universalises a small number of accounts as if they were representative of ‘the trans person’ or ‘the medical/psy profession' as a whole. We call upon future writers and researchers to pay more attention to the multiplicity and diversity of accounts, and to consider the potential damage of perpetuating certain accounts as fixed or universal

'Deaf people don't dance' : challenging student teachers' perspectives of pupils and inclusion

The original article can be found at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com Copyright John Wiley & Sons DOI: 10.1002/dei.191 [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]Successful inclusion for deaf pupils relies to a considerable extent on their mainstream teachers. This paper explores how student teachers can be educated to fulfil this role. A project involving students on a range of pathways to qualified teacher status used a narrative approach to motivate participants to engage with ideas in the field of inclusion. It sought to show how perspectives of ability, special educational needs and deafness are constructed and to help students identify and, if necessary, change their own perspectives in these areas. Outcomes suggest that this approach can lead to student teachers becoming advocates for inclusion and can enable them to identify effective ways of working with individual pupils.Peer reviewe

Inclusion : what deaf pupils think

Book available at: http://www.rnid.org.uk/shop/publications/education/inclusion_what_deaf_pupils_think.htm [Full text of this item is not available in the UHRA]Read direct quotes from pupils on their experiences of inclusive education and the good, bad and innovative practices that influence its success

Inclusion - What deaf pupils think : an RNID/DfES project undertaken by the University of Hertfordshire, November 2001-July 2002

Original article can be found at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/dei.128 Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA.Peer reviewe