1,721,080 research outputs found
Ethics in quasi-experimental research on people with severe learning disabilities: dilemmas and compromises
Full text linkThe present paper follows up the theme of research ethics that has been discussed in the British Journal of Learning Disabilities in recent years. We join the debate in the capacity of people involved in doing research on, rather than with, people with learning disabilities. We focus on our own quasi-experimental study evaluating the Intensive Interaction approach for pupils who are preverbal. We question our own practice, and illustrate some of the dilemmas which we have faced in our research and some of the compromises which we have reached.<br/
Moments of inclusion and exclusion: pupils negotiating classroom contexts
Full text linkThis paper uses evidence form a small-scale study of two English primary classrooms to examine school inclusion in its political contexts. We argue that 'inclusion' and 'exclusion' are complex process, enacted moment-by-moment by pupils and teachers. Our focus is on the pupils' negotiation of these moments, and we examine how their negotiations are contingent on (although not determined by) a web of intersecting indices of 'difference', including differences of social class, ethnicity, gender/sexuality, perceived academic ability and physical appearance. We take a post-structuralist approach, well-known in feminist educational research but less often used in research and thinking about 'inclusive' schooling, to foreground children's active role in making sense of social conditions that are not of their own making or choice. We conclude that a politically literature understanding of the processes of inclusion and exclusion is necessary both to hight the continuing reproduction of educational inequality, and to produce the necessary conditions for egalitarian change
Special and inclusive settings: a winning combination in the early years?
Full text linkThe paper reports on a small research project conducted in the South of England and funded by Mencap City Foundation. The study is concerned with the processes through which young children with learning difficulties come to be experiencing a combination of special and mainstream preschool provision. We have (i) explored ways of identifying parents who have "opted" for a combination of special and mainstream services for their child in the early years; (ii) sought to gain a better understanding of how parents conceptualise the choices available to them and their choice making process; and (iii) tried to elicit what parents expect from the combined provision and how they feel about it. In addition to questionnaires and follow-up interviews with parents, we sent similar questionnaires to providers (special schools, nurseries, early excellence centres, Sure Start centres etc) and to voluntary groups (local and national, disability-focused and parent-focused). This enabled us to gain the perspectives of those providing services and support as well as providing routes to accessing parents. We found that behind the New Labour rhetoric of the importance of placing children at the centre of individually created packages of provision, and parents at the centre of decision-making, there were complex stories of mixed messages, local diversity and constrained option
Combining "special" and "inclusive" settings in the early years: children's experiences of environments in a state of change
Full text linkIt is not uncommon for young children in England identified with special educational needs to attend both mainstream/inclusive and special early childhood settings. Amid the national policy context of placing children at the centre of individually created packages of provision and parents at the centre of decision-making and a reality of a multi-track system of mainstream and special services, parents can negotiate such combined packages of provision in (Nind, Flewitt & Johnston, 2005). We reported at the 2005 BERA Conference on a small-scale questionnaire and interview study of how parents had arrived at the decision to combine both special and mainstream preschool settings, their expectations of this combination, and their experiences. An emerging theme from that data was that parents believed this combination offered 'the best of both worlds' for their children – which they felt neither inclusive nor special settings alone could provide. The 2007 follow-up study, part of which is reported here, considers the experiences of three children with learning difficulties attending special and mainstream early years settings, with a particular focus on the ways in which they make meaning in these environments and at home. The study adopts an ethnographic case study approach, including visual methods of data collection. Video observations capture the multi-sensory, multimodal dynamism of children’s meaning-making, and semi-structured and informal interviews with staff and parents reveal different constructions of particular events, children and needs. Data were collected on each child for a period of one week near the start of the Spring term 2007, and will be collected for a second week during the Summer term. Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software is being used to enhance the systematic, rigorous analysis of the complex qualitative data. Adopting a social model of disability, the study is not concerned with deficits within children or within environments, but with how children act on and within the diverse social environments that may facilitate or hinder their active participation as members and learners. The approach treats the children as active meaning-makers in socio-historically situated dynamic contexts. A rich complicating contextual factor in the project is how the settings attended by the children are variously placed on a segregation-integration continuum. The study is revealing that the settings are often in complex transition as they attempt to provide for all needs within the context of current political drivers to move swiftly towards more fully inclusive provision. The findings therefore also offer a timely snapshot of a system of provision in a state of change. The detailed, empirical evidence on how individual children respond to the varied communicative environments of home and the different settings is important for the evaluation of local and national policy and for parents facing decisions about whether or not to combine settings. Ultimately, we hope that the study findings will help to illuminate the ways in which the macro processes embodied in the organizational structures and practices of different settings impact upon the micro processes of children’s everyday learning. This conference paper focuses one of four research questions addressed in the study: How are the children constructed in the different environments of home and two early years settings on the special-inclusive continuum
Strange new world: early educational experiences of non-traditional occupational therapy students
No full textThe profile of occupational therapy (OT) students is changing with 65% classified as ‘mature’ on entry (College of Occupational Therapists (COT) 2003) and an increasing number commencing with ‘non-traditional’ academic backgrounds (NTAB). The skills, prior experiences and expectations of NTAB students may generate particular challenges to successful transition into higher education (HE) (Leathwood and O’Connell 2003) and non-completion rates suggests they are more likely than school-leavers to withdraw from their studies (National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (NCIHE) 1997).Successful expansion and diversification of the OT workforce necessitates encouraging participation by a broad range of students and the provision of mechanisms that support and facilitate them to completion. While graduating NTAB OT students are as academically successful as school-leavers (Howard and Jerosch-Herold 2000; Shanahan 2004), there is limited evidence available regarding how they actually negotiate the academic demands of their programmes or considering the experiences of those who withdraw. This poster considers the educational experiences of NTAB OT students during their first year of study on a full-time undergraduate programme and represents one aspect of the initial phase of an ongoing longitudinal exploratory case study. Following ethical approval data was collected from fourteen volunteer participants via focus group, reflective diaries and individual semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of participant-verified data revealed the complex nature of participants’ engagement with HE, the degree to which it was inevitably entwined with development and transformation of their identities, and the challenges associated with learning the rules of engagement in the unfamiliar culture of HE. <br/
Accommodating diversity within occupational therapy education: exploring the experiences of non-traditional students
No full textMarking the intersection of the fields of higher education (HE) and professional practice, pre-registration occupational therapy (OT) education in the UK is subject to various government agendas, including an ongoing commitment to widening participation in HE and to diversifying the health and social care workforce to reflect modern social cultural. With 67% of the 2005 intake classified as mature (COT, 2007) and increasing numbers entering with non-traditional academic backgrounds, the OT student population in the UK is changing. Compared to more ‘traditional’ students, the skills, prior experiences and expectations of students with non-traditional academic backgrounds may generate particular challenges in negotiating the transition to, and persisting and succeeding within HE (HEFCE, 2002; Walker et al., 2004). Students from such backgrounds who graduate from OT programmes are as academically successful as traditional school-leavers (Howard and Jerosch-Herold 2000; Shanahan 2004), but there is little evidence offering insight into how they actually experience and negotiate the demands of their programmes of study.This paper considers the educational experiences of OT students from a range of non-traditional academic backgrounds. Thirteen volunteer participants were recruited to a longitudinal exploratory case study centred in one of the UK’s research intensive universities, and data were collected via focus groups, reflective diaries and semi-structured interviews over the course of participants’ studies. Theoretical thematic analysis of data was underpinned by Bourdieu’s key conceptual tools of habitus, field and capital. The findings reveal the complex nature of participant’s engagement with HE, highlighting a number of key issues including the high-value status of linguistic capital, its relationship to understanding the rules governing practices within the learning environment, the processes via which students manage to adapt to or even resist the dominant culture of the educational field, and some of the barriers to finding a legitimate position within it. This study illuminates student experiences in a powerful way, highlighting that failure to acknowledge the pervading culture inherent within individual HE institutions and to recognise the often unspoken demands that define legitimate presentation of knowledge and understanding is likely to impede efforts to diversify the graduating student body and the OT workforce.<br/
With a little help from my friends: the value of social capital in higher education
No full textPre-registration occupational therapy (OT) education in the UK stands at the crossroads of higher education (HE) and professional practice. It is subject to various government agendas, including an ongoing commitment to widening participation in HE and to diversifying the health and social care workforce to reflect modern cultural diversity, which have contributed to a changing profile in the OT student population. In 2005, 67% of the intake was mature (COT 2007), and increasing numbers are entering with ‘non-traditional’ academic backgrounds, an umbrella term which subsumes a variety of entry qualifications.The early weeks of study in HE can prove challenging to students as they settle into the new learning environment and begin to understand what will be expected of them (Yorke 2005). It has been suggested that those from non-traditional academic backgrounds may find this transition, particularly the need to take a high level of responsibility for their own learning, difficult as a result of the skills, experiences and expectations they have developed throughout their pre-entry educational experiences (Sambell and Hubbard 2004). While small-scale studies suggest that students from such backgrounds who graduate from OT programmes are as academically successful as traditional school-leavers (Howard and Jerosch-Herold 2000), there is little evidence offering insight into how they actually experience and negotiate the demands of their programmes.The research presented in this paper focused on developing insight into and understanding of the educational experiences of students with non-traditional academic backgrounds as they studied OT in an HE environment. Recognising that learning and teaching are inextricably linked and embedded with the milieu in which they occur, this research adopted a case study methodology to capture complexity and to understand issues within their natural context (Yin 2003). In an instrumental single-case design (Stake 1995), a neither unique nor extreme undergraduate OT programme became a vehicle for exploring the educational experiences of students with non-traditional academic backgrounds.A longitudinal study followed thirteen volunteer participants who were drawn from a single cohort in one of the UK’s research intensive universities through their undergraduate programme. Data were collected via:a) focus groups conducted prior to and in the first days of the participants’ first semester, exploring their pre-entry educational experiences and motivations for, expectations of and perceived preparedness for studying in HE;b) reflective diaries recording any educational experiences that participants felt were particularly significant or meaningful;c) one-to-one semi-structured interviews conducted towards the end of their first year, informed by individual reflective diaries and focusing on participants’ initial experience of learning in HE;d) one-to-one semi-structured interviews conducted towards the end of their third year, informed by individual reflective diaries and other previously collected data, and focusing on participants’ learning experiences during the latter phases of their programme.As the study progressed, the data available at the end of each phase was subject to theoretical thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) underpinned by Bourdieu’s (1990) conceptual tools of habitus, field and capital. Emerging codes converged to represent themes suggesting clusters of shared experience amongst some of the participants. Further examination of each complete data set enabled exploration of how individual participants were positioned in relation to the field of HE and it was evident that some felt much more comfortable within it than others. Juxtaposing the nature and expectations of the new field in relation to those previously occupied by individual participants and the established habitus that each brought with them helped to shed light on this situation (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992).With the role of language as a high-value form of cultural capital discussed elsewhere (Watson et al 2009), this paper focuses on the role of social capital in participants’ experiences of learning in HE. Reflecting the potential for valued capital to beget capital, the study’s findings highlight that social capital plays an important role in how participants manage the challenges they encounter within in the field, and its role in facilitating the accumulation of further capital relevant to the field. Drawing on examples from amongst the study’s participants, this paper explores how social capital confers advantages in a number of guises to those participants who found that they could comfortably fit into, or ultimately adapt to, the field of HE. It also highlights that an apparent paucity of relevant social capital limited the resources available to those who struggled to adapt and remained on the margins of, or were excluded from, the field.Employing Bourdieu’s conceptual tools adds a new dimension to understanding individual experiences of learning in HE. By illustrating the important role played by social capital in the way that students learn to play ‘the game’ and present knowledge and understanding in the ‘legitimate’ form recognised and accepted by the field, this paper adds to understanding of the role of social integration in student experiences. <br/
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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