'Our Stories...': co-constructing Digital Storytelling methodologies for supporting the transitions of autistic children - study protocol
'Our Stories...': co-constructing Digital Storytelling methodologies for supporting the transitions of autistic children - study protocol
The voices of autistic children and their families are routinely underestimated and overlooked in research and practice. Research is challenged methodologically in accessing the views of autistic people who, by definition, are characterised by social and communication difficulties. Consequently, many voices remain unheard and experiences undocumented. This has important implications for the validity of research that is interested in improving the life experiences of marginalised groups since the representation of those experiences is partial and dominated by research perspectives that prioritise particular kinds of evidence. This situation matters because there remains a substantial gap between research and practice such that the longer-term outcomes for autistic people across social, educational and economic indices remain poor. We argue that research can only make an impact on practice if there is a genuine commitment to gathering and understanding these different sources of evidence in ways that connect research and practice from the start. This protocol describes a methodological project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK. The ‘Our Stories’ project applies and extends a participatory Digital Stories methodology to explore the research challenge of gathering a range of views from autistic children, families, and practice in authentic ways and at points of transition. Digital Stories is an accessible and inclusive methodology that supports the sharing of views and experiences in visual, video form. We describe the rationale for, and design, of the project across four pilot studies in different contexts as well as our approach to analysis and ethics. While our project focuses on autism, the knowledge we gain is applicable to research and practice much more widely and to any voices or groups who are marginalised from the traditional ways of doing research and to any contexts of practice.
autism, close-to-practice research, digital storytelling, knowledge co-construction, participatory research, voice
Parsons, Sarah
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Kovshoff, Hanna
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Yuill, Nicola
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Glass, Devyn
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Holt, Samantha
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Ward, Asha
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Barron, Cleo
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Ward, Rebecca
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28 January 2023
Parsons, Sarah
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Kovshoff, Hanna
82c321ee-d151-40c5-8dde-281af59f2142
Yuill, Nicola
283a73fb-b03e-4185-9acd-85fdc7992743
Glass, Devyn
92750cd0-7f24-4dc8-93c7-6e742f7ea836
Holt, Samantha
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Ward, Asha
19f4879e-8bd9-4da1-899b-b6a4e579b0f6
Barron, Cleo
554d942b-b15f-461f-82c7-fd2f8258c343
Ward, Rebecca
e87b6fbd-ebb2-48da-8872-ad5add3000e4
Parsons, Sarah, Kovshoff, Hanna, Yuill, Nicola, Glass, Devyn, Holt, Samantha, Ward, Asha, Barron, Cleo and Ward, Rebecca
(2023)
'Our Stories...': co-constructing Digital Storytelling methodologies for supporting the transitions of autistic children - study protocol.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22.
(doi:10.1177/16094069221145286).
Abstract
The voices of autistic children and their families are routinely underestimated and overlooked in research and practice. Research is challenged methodologically in accessing the views of autistic people who, by definition, are characterised by social and communication difficulties. Consequently, many voices remain unheard and experiences undocumented. This has important implications for the validity of research that is interested in improving the life experiences of marginalised groups since the representation of those experiences is partial and dominated by research perspectives that prioritise particular kinds of evidence. This situation matters because there remains a substantial gap between research and practice such that the longer-term outcomes for autistic people across social, educational and economic indices remain poor. We argue that research can only make an impact on practice if there is a genuine commitment to gathering and understanding these different sources of evidence in ways that connect research and practice from the start. This protocol describes a methodological project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK. The ‘Our Stories’ project applies and extends a participatory Digital Stories methodology to explore the research challenge of gathering a range of views from autistic children, families, and practice in authentic ways and at points of transition. Digital Stories is an accessible and inclusive methodology that supports the sharing of views and experiences in visual, video form. We describe the rationale for, and design, of the project across four pilot studies in different contexts as well as our approach to analysis and ethics. While our project focuses on autism, the knowledge we gain is applicable to research and practice much more widely and to any voices or groups who are marginalised from the traditional ways of doing research and to any contexts of practice.
Text
Parsons_et_al_2022_Our_Stories_Author_Accepted_IJQM
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 28 November 2022
Published date: 28 January 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Reference: ES/V005286/1 https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV005286%2F1
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
autism, close-to-practice research, digital storytelling, knowledge co-construction, participatory research, voice
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 473185
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473185
ISSN: 1609-4069
PURE UUID: 3638cb5c-ee4b-42c2-858f-3ef8bef62046
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 11 Jan 2023 17:57
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:08
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Contributors
Author:
Nicola Yuill
Author:
Devyn Glass
Author:
Samantha Holt
Author:
Asha Ward
Author:
Cleo Barron
Author:
Rebecca Ward
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