Professor Nind presents at conference on inclusive research

Professor Nind spoke on the subject: ‘Inclusive research and inclusive education: unnecessarily unconnected?

In this paper she began a discussion of some of the unanswered questions following the push for research concerned with disability to, at the very least, represent the voices of disabled people, and moreover to be under their control: why is it that the moves towards inclusive (participatory and emancipatory) research have happened largely outside of the discipline of education and distinctly unconnected to the field of inclusive education? How viable are the claims to the moral superiority of inclusive research? What kinds of knowledge are produced by inclusive research? What does quality look like in inclusive research? And, to round the circle, what does all this mean for inclusive education?

This proved to be a lively debate and an important opportunity to explore the interface of education, philosophy and methodology. The audience was a mix of academics, doctoral researchers and people working in the local authority – mostly from Scotland but from as far away as Plymouth.

Melanie comments, "My presentation was based on exploring how learning disabled researchers and the call for inclusive research can help up to think afresh, not just about how we research inclusive education but also about how we can think about creating the conditions for educational inclusion. "

There were strong connections across the series of papers and with discussion time built into the programme to develop these. Funded by BERA, the organisers, the SIG convenors, are hoping that the papers will form the basis of a special issue of Cambridge Journal of Education.