Inclusive research: a site for lifelong learning for people with learning disabilities?

Abstract

In Europe, in the absence of other opportunities for adult learning for people with learning difficulties, self-advocacy has an important role as a site for learning (Fernandez et al. 2002). In the UK, increasingly self-advocates are learning not just skills in speaking up, active citizenship and self-determination (as promoted in the government white paper Valuing People, DH 2001); many of those in organized self-advocacy groups are also learning research skills through their involvement with research. This is not merely involvement as participants, but as co-researchers, researchers in their own right, authors, reviewers and commissioners of research. This phenomenon is also evident in Australia and parts of Europe where debates and action are growing. The adoption of these new roles by people who may otherwise be seen as subjects or even objects of research is characteristic of inclusive research (Walmsley and Johnson 2003), inclusive research being an umbrella term encompassing what is also known as participatory, emancipatory, community-based, participatory action, partnership and user-led (Nind 2014). Such research is increasingly valued by funders for its power to ask the right questions and have impact (Involve 2004; Nind & Vinha 2012). It is valued by self-advocates for its potential bringing funds to organisations and for making a difference to people’s lives, for building networks, gaining employment, and learning new skills (Nind & Vinha 2014). This conference paper summarises an exploration of this last element and the educational lifelong learning resource that inclusive research is and can be.

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ORCID for Melanie Nind: orcid.org/0000-0003-4070-7513

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