Research and pupil voice

"There are many reasons for involving children and young people in the process of research (Kirby, Lanyon, Kronin, & Sinclairl,2003). We may for example believe that the research will be better or more meaningful,and have greater validity in revealing children’s views and experiences. Additionally we may believe in the importance of democratic participation, and that children should contribute to the decision-making process in the development of aspects of their lives that particularly concern them. We may also as educators recognize that contributing to the research process provides an important vehicle for personal development. There is therefore a growing body of interest in developing research that might be described as participatory,whether this involves ensuring that the voices of all children are included, extends to the active engagement of children in the research process, or (as in emancipatory research traditions) involves children explicitly leading the research process.

Time for justice: safeguarding the rights of disabled children

This article reviews two core strategies for safeguarding the rights of disabled children and examines the extent to which these processes advance justice for children in accessing an inclusive and equitable education. It evaluates the adequacy of the legal system in the face of increased evidence of exclusionary practices of schools, and the low uptake of the disability tribunal as a vehicle for redressing discriminatory practices. It reviews the work undertaken with schools to develop procedures and processes to support them in identifying disabled pupils in order to monitor the impact of their policies and practices. Although there were some limitations to this work it provided a platform from which to ensure that schools engaged with their responsibilities and understood more about the ways in which a child’s impairment impacted on their participation in school-life. Instead we are dependent on the work of voluntary associations to safeguard children’s rights

Methodological Issues in Collecting Children's View Part 2: Using Nominal Group Technique to Explore Children's Views of the Difficulties Encountered in School

AbstractThis paper examines the processes involved in using Nominal Group Technique, to collect the views of boys with and without disability, on their experiences in school. This methodology has the potential to provide individual as well as group data but little attention has been paid to the validity and reliability of the technique. Data are explored to examine how pupil views are transformed from the individual to the collective. Contrasts are drawn with questionnaire data to consider the ways in which the format and organization of the activity impact on the responses and responsiveness of the pupils

Inclusive design and schools

This chapter explores the drivers of inclusive design; the social model of disability that informed principles and values underlying inclusive design; and the legal framework that has shaped a compliance culture of policy-making.Little attention has been paid to the ways in which school design shapes and is shaped by the practices of inclusion, with the focus largely disability specific. The chapter provides a review of the empirical literature and places this alongside guidance and reaches a conclusion that inclusive design is not an optional add-on but the essence of good design

Be careful how you ask! Using focus groups and nominal group technique to expore the barriers to learning

Schools have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils who experience barriers to learning. Inclusive approaches to data collection ensure that the needs of all children who are struggling are not overlooked. However, it is important that the methods promote sustained reflection on the part of all children, do not inadvertently accentuate differences between pupils, and do not allow individual needs to go unrecognized. This paper examines more closely the processes involved in using Nominal Group Technique to collect the views of children with and without a disability on the difficulties experienced in school. Data were collected on the process as well as the outcomes of using this technique to examine how pupil views are transformed from the individual to the collective, a process that involves making the private, public. Contrasts are drawn with questionnaire data, another method of data collection favoured by teachers. Although more time-efficient this can produce unclear and cursory responses. The views that surface from pupils need also to be seen within the context of the ways in which schools customize the data collection process and the ways in which the format and organization of the activity impact on the responses and responsiveness of the pupils

Testing of disability identification tool for schools

There has been an ongoing concern about the lack of reliable data on disabled children in schools. To date there has been no consistent way of identifying and categorising disabilities. Schools in England are currentlyrequired to collect data on children with Special Educational Need (SEN), but this does not capture information about all disabled children. The lack of this information may seriously restrict capacity at all levels of policy and practice to understand and respond to the needs of disabled children and their families in line with Disability Discrimination Act (2005) and the single Equality Act (2010). The aim of the project was to test the draft tools for identifying disability and accompanying guidance in a sample of all types of maintained schools in order to assess their usability and reliability and whether they resulted in the generation of robust and consistent data that could reliably inform school returns for the annual School Census

β-adrenergic receptor activation in immortalized human urothelial cells stimulates inflammatory responses by PKA-independent mechanisms

BACKGROUND: Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a debilitating disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the urinary bladder, yet specific cellular mechanisms of inflammation in IC are largely unknown. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that β-adrenergic receptor (AR) signaling is increased in the inflamed urothelium, however the precise effects of these urothelial cell signals have not been studied. In order to better elucidate the AR signaling mechanisms of inflammation associated with IC, we have examined the effects of β-AR stimulation in an immortalized human urothelial cell line (UROtsa). For these studies, UROtsa cells were treated with effective concentrations of the selective β-AR agonist isoproterenol, in the absence or presence of selective inhibitors of protein kinase A (PKA). Cell lysates were analyzed by radioimmunoassay for generation of cAMP or by Western blotting for induction of protein products associated with inflammatory responses. RESULTS: Radioligand binding demonstrated the presence of β-ARs on human urothelial UROtsa cell membranes. Stimulating UROtsa cells with isoproterenol led to concentration-dependent increases of cAMP production that could be inhibited by pretreatment with a blocking concentration of the selective β-AR antagonist propranolol. In addition, isoproterenol activation of these same cells led to significant increases in the amount of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and the induced form of cyclooxygenase (COX-2) when compared to control. Moreover, preincubation of UROtsa cells with the selective PKA inhibitors H-89 or Rp-cAMPs did not diminish this isoproterenol mediated phosphorylation of ERK or production of iNOS and COX-2. CONCLUSION: Functional β-ARs expressed on human urothelial UROtsa cell membranes increase the generation of cAMP and production of protein products associated with inflammation when activated by the selective β-AR agonist isoproterenol. However, the increased production of iNOS and COX-2 by isoproterenol is not blocked when UROtsa cells are preincubated with inhibitors of PKA. Therefore, UROtsa cell β-AR activation significantly increases the amount of iNOS and COX-2 produced by a PKA-independent mechanism. Consequently, this immortalized human urothelial cell line can be useful in characterizing potential AR signaling mechanisms associated with chronic inflammatory diseases of the bladder

Reflexivity and visual technology in research: young children’s perspectives of paternal engagement in the home environment

Although existing notions of reflexivity address the positionality of researchers, they rarely consider the processes through which methods and methodologies can come about. This study builds children’s reflexivity into the research design. Drawing on footage from a pilot visual ethnography of paternal engagement in home environments, we show first, that at one level, building children’s reflexivity into data collection and analysis, allows us to look at the relationship between the child, technology and the subject of their images; thereby establishing a position from which their perspective is produced. We found that their age and the particular visual technology used, shaped how the children positioned themselves and in turn, the kind of representations we gathered. As this was a collaborative study with a film maker and also involving discussions of film findings with teachers; a more general level reflexive analysis allowed us generate different viewpoints from which their perspectives were produced

Discriminating quantity: new starting points for teaching children with Down syndrome about number?

The focus of much mathematics teaching has been on the acquisition of counting, an area where children with Down syndrome can experience particular difficulties. Research with typically developing children has highlighted how early awareness of quantity provides a strong platform for the acquisition of later mathematical skills and programmes of early intervention have been introduced. Many of these studies are embedded in the work and traditions of developmental and cognitive psychology and can be difficult to access. Consequently, this is an area that has been largely ignored in the curricula of children with Down syndrome. This paper seeks to make this literature more available. It systematically reviews previous research with children with Down Syndrome on these early foundations. It considers seemingly contradictory findings in the light of differences in tasks, their presentation and instructions, and the responses required, in order to draw conclusions and reflect on the implications for teaching and learning. Some of these propositions are in contrast to existing practices and call for further research to test their effectiveness