Take three postgraduate researchers with a shared interest in developing inclusive approaches to disability and education, a carrier bag of magazines donated by the Women’s Institute, scissors borrowed from a school, a pile of gluesticks, a lavish amount of hand cream and some recently acquired BERA publications and we have the beginnings of a BERA 2023 Annual conference workshop.
We have each attempted to develop inclusive approaches within our own education research and presentations – Julia is utilising worn go-pro cameras to explore touch with her pupils who have Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities; Neetha interviewed disabled teachers, creating affective ‘found poems’ (Butler-Kisber, 2002) bringing teachers’ experiences to the fore; and Sharon engaged in conversation with parents of disabled children, before generating collage and poetic transcription (Glesne, 1997) for analysis and dissemination. We have presented together previously at University of Birmingham conferences, our home institution, and were delighted when our workshop abstract was accepted for BERA 2023.
Our aim for the session was to collaborate with other researchers, exploring questions that we continue to ponder on in our own work, namely:
- What role might our prior/current experience outside of academia bring to our research and is that important?
- What does the use of creative research approaches enable/bring to inquiry?
- What does being inclusive in research mean to us?
- How might we embrace uncertainty and open-endedness in our inquiry?
