Book review: creative research methods in the social sciences: a practical guide

Helen Kara’s new book explores the messy realities of research and emerging, creative opportunities. Sarah Lewthwaite finds Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences a reflexive, dialogic book that demands active reading. As a creative text for students and teachers, the book is designed to enable and support, rather than prescribe. The book looks at the breadth of innovative research practices and is ideal for those seeking to gain a broad sense of this dynamic field

Book review: 100 activities for teaching research methods by Catherine Dawson

In 100 Activities for Teaching Research Methods, Catherine Dawson offers a sourcebook of 100 ready-to-use activities for teaching research methods from undergraduate to doctoral level. This is an important and welcome addition to the emerging literature on the practical aspects of teaching research methods that will be of particular use to early career teachers looking to expand or complement their existing pedagogic repertoire and teaching strategies, finds Sarah Lewthwaite

The NCRM quick start guide to: teaching advanced research methods

Teaching advanced research methods presents a number of distinct pedagogic challenges - from diverse learner groups and the practicalities of handling data, to the challenge of structuring and sequencing course content within an intensive period. This guide is the result of NCRM research involving interviewing and observing teachers, learners and strategic developers of advanced competence in social science research methods. The guidance is based on evidence and collective wisdom pertaining to methods teaching specifically and it is intended to stimulate the development of good practice

Exploring pedagogical culture for accessibility education in Computing Science

This paper identifies some of the challenges of teaching and learning accessibility through the lens of pedagogy (which deals with the theory and practice of education). We argue that accessibility education in computing science presents a set of unique and challenging characteristics for those engaged in accessibility capacity building. Significant moves are being made to embed accessibility within academic curricula and professional domains. However, through a qualitative thematic review of the accessibility pedagogic literature, we find that the field lacks the pedagogic culture necessary to support widespread excellence in teaching and learning. Nonetheless, our review identifies aspects of this small but important literature that indicate how a pedagogic culture for accessibility can be stimulated through research, debate and discussion, to promote a more pedagogically-grounded approach to the field as a whole

Disability 2.0, student dis/connections: a study of student experiences of disability and social networks on campus in higher education

For many young people, social networks are an essential part of their student experience. Using a Foucauldian perspective, this qualitative study explores the networked experiences of disabled students to examine how dis/ability difference is ascribed and negotiated within social networks. Data comprises 34 internet-enabled interviews with 18 participants from three English universities. Accessible field methods recognise participant preferences and circumstances. Data is analysed using discourse analysis, with an attention to context framed by activity theory. Disabled students’ networked experiences are found to be complex and diverse. For a proportion, the network shifts the boundaries of disability, creating non-disabled subjectivities. For these students, the network represents the opportunity to mobilise new ways of being, building social capital and mitigating impairment. Other participants experience the network as punitive and disabling. Disability is socio-technically ascribed by the social networking site and the networked public. Each inducts norms that constitute disability as a visible, deviant and deficit identity. In the highly normative conditions of the network, where every action is open to scrutiny, impairment is subjected to an unequal gaze that produces disabled subjectivities. For some students with unseen impairments, a social experience of disability is inducted for the first time. As a result, students deploy diverse strategies to retain control and resist deviant status. Self-surveillance, self-discipline and self-advocacy are evoked, each involving numerous social, cognitive and technological tactics for self-determination, including disconnection. I conclude that networks function both as Technologies of the Self and as Technologies of Power. For some disabled students, the network supports ‘normal’ status. For others, it must be resisted as a form of social domination. Importantly, in each instance, the network propels students towards disciplinary techniques that mask diversity, rendering disability and the possibility of disability invisible. Consequently, disability is both produced and suppressed by the network

Case Studies in Research Methods Pedagogy - Teaching quantitative design methods through exposition

There are different pedagogical traditions surrounding the teaching of quantitative methods. This case study comprises a detailed account of pedagogy for science-based quantitative methods from an intensive international seasonal school. The case study draws upon one teacher interview, eight hours of classroom observation, written field-notes, teaching materials, two short student interviews and informal research conversations with students across the sessions. In this case, the teacher, who I call Larry, is lecturing on quantitative design within a wider context of hands-on and computational sessions. Here, Larry’s pedagogic approach is one of exposition. However, this nominally didactic teaching – the lecture – is shown to convey rich pedagogical strategies and tactics, particularly in terms of pedagogical rhetoric. The pedagogic hook (and locus) of ‘teaching through data’, a preeminent facet of quantitative teaching [1], is clearly visible, even at this conceptual and discursive content stage as theory is constantly drawn back to data

Case Studies in Research Methods Pedagogy - Teaching computational statistics through active learning

This case draws upon ten hours of observation, field-notes, teaching materials, one teacher and two student interviews, student notes and informal research conversations with students across the sessions. The narrative seeks to demonstrate and situate the detail of a singular teaching approach: active learning. This is done to draw out the teacher’s craft knowledge – the strategies and tactics that make the teaching come alive

Disability 2.0, student dis/connections: a study of student experiences of disability and social networks on campus in higher education

For many young people, social networks are an essential part of their student experience. Using a Foucauldian perspective, this qualitative study explores the networked experiences of disabled students to examine how dis/ability difference is ascribed and negotiated within social networks. Data comprises 34 internet-enabled interviews with 18 participants from three English universities. Accessible field methods recognise participant preferences and circumstances. Data is analysed using discourse analysis, with an attention to context framed by activity theory. Disabled students’ networked experiences are found to be complex and diverse. For a proportion, the network shifts the boundaries of disability, creating non-disabled subjectivities. For these students, the network represents the opportunity to mobilise new ways of being, building social capital and mitigating impairment. Other participants experience the network as punitive and disabling. Disability is socio-technically ascribed by the social networking site and the networked public. Each inducts norms that constitute disability as a visible, deviant and deficit identity. In the highly normative conditions of the network, where every action is open to scrutiny, impairment is subjected to an unequal gaze that produces disabled subjectivities. For some students with unseen impairments, a social experience of disability is inducted for the first time. As a result, students deploy diverse strategies to retain control and resist deviant status. Self-surveillance, self-discipline and self-advocacy are evoked, each involving numerous social, cognitive and technological tactics for self-determination, including disconnection. I conclude that networks function both as Technologies of the Self and as Technologies of Power. For some disabled students, the network supports ‘normal’ status. For others, it must be resisted as a form of social domination. Importantly, in each instance, the network propels students towards disciplinary techniques that mask diversity, rendering disability and the possibility of disability invisible. Consequently, disability is both produced and suppressed by the network

Disability 2.0, student dis/connections: a study of student experiences of disability and social networks on campus in higher education

For many young people, social networks are an essential part of their student experience. Using a Foucauldian perspective, this qualitative study explores the networked experiences of disabled students to examine how dis/ability difference is ascribed and negotiated within social networks. Data comprises 34 internet-enabled interviews with 18 participants from three English universities. Accessible field methods recognise participant preferences and circumstances. Data is analysed using discourse analysis, with an attention to context framed by activity theory. Disabled students’ networked experiences are found to be complex and diverse. For a proportion, the network shifts the boundaries of disability, creating non-disabled subjectivities. For these students, the network represents the opportunity to mobilise new ways of being, building social capital and mitigating impairment. Other participants experience the network as punitive and disabling. Disability is socio-technically ascribed by the social networking site and the networked public. Each inducts norms that constitute disability as a visible, deviant and deficit identity. In the highly normative conditions of the network, where every action is open to scrutiny, impairment is subjected to an unequal gaze that produces disabled subjectivities. For some students with unseen impairments, a social experience of disability is inducted for the first time. As a result, students deploy diverse strategies to retain control and resist deviant status. Self-surveillance, self-discipline and self-advocacy are evoked, each involving numerous social, cognitive and technological tactics for self-determination, including disconnection. I conclude that networks function both as Technologies of the Self and as Technologies of Power. For some disabled students, the network supports ‘normal’ status. For others, it must be resisted as a form of social domination. Importantly, in each instance, the network propels students towards disciplinary techniques that mask diversity, rendering disability and the possibility of disability invisible. Consequently, disability is both produced and suppressed by the network