Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T20:04:47.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Implications for Conducting Special Education Research Drawn From the Reflexive Accounts of a Deaf With Disabilities Professor and Three Student Researchers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2020

Steven Singer ,
Kimberly Cacciato ,
Julianna Kamenakis  and
Allison Shapiro
Steven Singer*
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey, USA
Kimberly Cacciato
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey, USA
Julianna Kamenakis
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey, USA
Allison Shapiro
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: singers@tcnj.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A Deaf with disabilities (DWD) male professor, 2 hearing female teacher candidates, 11 parents (4 of whom were immigrants), and 6 DWD children sought to better understand the experiences of parents of DWD children by conducting an ethnographic study (Singer, Kamenakis, Shapiro, & Cacciato, in press). The research team recorded reflexive journals as a way to analyse their methodology. In this essay, we reflect on 3 themes developed from the reflexive journals: (a) researcher positionality, (b) negotiating power in research, and (c) language variation in practice. We discuss our experiences and contextualise these accounts within relevant scholarship, attempting to locate some amount of resolution to the very human experiences upon which we reflect. We provide key takeaways for doing research with and among people with disabilities in special educational settings, particularly focusing on people who communicate in nonnormative ways. We conclude with a culminating discussion of the significance of creating emancipatory special education research.

Keywords

special educationreflexivityDeafdisabilityDeaf with disabilities
Type
Original Articles
Information
Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , December 2020 , pp. 73 - 87
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

This manuscript was accepted under the Editorship of David Paterson.

References

Alzouebi, K., & Pahl, K. (2006, March). Dilemmas of translation and identity: Ethnographic research in multilingual homes . Paper presented at the UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum Seminar, Milton Keynes, UK.Google Scholar
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101–336, 104 Stat. 328 (1990).Google Scholar
Anderson, C. L., Stahley, K., & Cullen, A. C. (2014). Individual and intra-household positionality in Vietnam. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 49, 26–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2014.02.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anglin-Jaffe, H. (2015). De-colonizing deaf education: An analysis of the claims and implications of the application of post-colonial theory to deaf education. In Lesnik-Oberstein, K. (Ed.), Rethinking disability theory and practice: Challenging essentialism (pp. 76–97). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137456977_6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Artiles, A. J., & Ortiz, A. A. (Eds.). (2002). English language learners with special education needs: Identification, assessment, and instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Barton, E. L. (1996). Negotiating expertise in discourses of disability. Text, 16, 299–322. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1996.16.3.299 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, L. (Ed.). (2005). Disability and dependency. London, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203973608 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behar, R. (1996). The vulnerable observer: Anthropology that breaks your heart. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theories and methods (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Bravo-Moreno, A. (2003). Power games between the researcher and the participant in the social inquiry. The Qualitative Report, 8, 624–639.Google Scholar
Brueggemann, B. J. (2009). Deaf subjects: Between identities and places. New York, NY: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814799666.001.0001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charlton, J. I. (2000). Nothing about us without us: Disability oppression and empowerment. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cho, S., Crenshaw, K. W., & McCall, L. (2013). Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38, 785–810. https://doi.org/10.1086/669608 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Collins, P. H. (2015). Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology, 41, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112142 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtin, N., Kende, A., & Kende, J. (2016). Navigating multiple identities: The simultaneous influence of advantaged and disadvantaged identities on politicization and activism. Journal of Social Issues, 72, 264–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12166 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, J., Furness, P., Verrier, D., Lennon, H., Bennett, C., & Spencer, S. (2018). Desert island data: An investigation into researcher positionality. Qualitative Research, 18, 273–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794117714612 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, P. M., & Nusbaum, E. (2012). Disability studies: What is it and what difference does it make? Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 37, 70–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/154079691203700202 Google Scholar
Fernandes, J. K., & Myers, S. S. (2010). Inclusive deaf studies: Barriers and pathways. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 15, 17–29. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enp018 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freebody, P., & Power, D. (2001). Interviewing deaf adults in postsecondary educational settings: Stories, cultures, and life histories. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 6, 130–142. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/6.2.130 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frost, N., Nolas, S. M., Brooks-Gordon, B., Esin, C., Holt, A., Mehdizadeh, L., & Shinebourne, P. (2010). Pluralism in qualitative research: The impact of different researchers and qualitative approaches on the analysis of qualitative data. Qualitative Research, 10, 441–460. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794110366802 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, M. J. (2014). On the inside looking in: Methodological insights and challenges in conducting qualitative insider research. The Qualitative Report, 19(29), 1–13.Google Scholar
Grimaldi, E., Serpieri, R., & Spanò, E. (2015). Positionality, symbolic violence and reflexivity: Researching the educational strategies of marginalised groups. In Bhopal, K. & Deuchar, R. (Eds.), Researching marginalized groups (pp. 134–148). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hoyle, E. (2001). Teaching: Prestige, status and esteem. Educational Management & Administration, 29, 139–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263211X010292001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckaby, M. F. (2011). Researcher/researched: Relations of vulnerability/relations of power. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24, 165–183. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2010.529851 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knoors, H., & Marschark, M. (Eds.). (2018). Evidence-based practices in deaf education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190880545.001.0001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladd, P. (2003). Understanding deaf culture: In search of deafhood. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853595479 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lederberg, A. R., Schick, B., & Spencer, P. E. (2013). Language and literacy development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children: Successes and challenges. Developmental Psychology, 49, 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029558 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marschark, M., Lang, H. G., & Albertini, J. A. (2002). Educating deaf students: From research to practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McRuer, R. (2010). Compulsory able-bodiedness and queer/disabled existence. In Davis, L. J. (Ed.), The disability studies reader (3rd ed., pp. 383–392). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Middleton, T., & Cons, J. (2014). Coming to terms: Reinserting research assistants into ethnography’s past and present . Ethnography, 15, 279–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138114533466 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyquist, J. D., & Wulff, D. H. (1996). Working effectively with graduate assistants. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.Google Scholar
Orb, A., Eisenhauer, L., & Wynaden, D. (2001). Ethics in qualitative research. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33, 93–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2001.00093.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oliver, M. (1992). Changing the social relations of research production? Disability, Handicap & Society, 7, 101–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/02674649266780141 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, M., & Barnes, C. (2012). The new politics of disablement (2nd ed.). Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan International Higher Education.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, A. J. (2011). Research with individuals labeled ‘other’: Reflections on the research process. Disability & Society, 26, 293–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2011.560413 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Relles, S. R. (2016). A call for qualitative methods in action: Enlisting positionality as an equity tool. Intervention in School and Clinic, 51, 312–317. https://doi.org/10.1177/1053451215606690 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, S., Schouten, W., & Cahill, S. (2003). Exploring the dynamics of subjectivity and power between researcher and researched. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 4(2), 1–19.Google Scholar
Samuels, E. (2002). Critical divides: Judith Butler’s body theory and the question of disability. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 58–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2007). The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science, 18, 429–434. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01917.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shah, S. (2004) The researcher/interviewer in intercultural context: A social intruder! British Educational Research Journal, 30, 549–575. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192042000237239 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, J. P. (2011). No pity: People with disabilities forging a new civil rights movement. New York, NY: Broadway Books.Google Scholar
Siebers, T. (2011). Disability aesthetics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Singer, S. (2016). Transforming transformative disability experiential learning. Issues in Teacher Education, 26(2), 23–40.Google Scholar
Singer, S., Kamenakis, J., Shapiro, A., & Cacciato, K. (in press). Determining language and inclusion for DeafPlus children. Critical Education. Google Scholar
Sirnate, V. (2014). Positionality, personal insecurity, and female empathy in security studies research. PS: Political Science & Politics, 47, 398–401. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096514000286 Google Scholar
Snyder, T. D., de Brey, C., & Dillow, S. A. (2019). Digest of education statistics, 2017 (NCES 2018-070). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.Google Scholar
Sullivan, A. L. (2011). Disproportionality in special education identification and placement of English language learners. Exceptional Children, 77, 317–334. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440291107700304 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thye, S. R., Willer, D., & Markovsky, B. (2006). From status to power: New models at the intersection of two theories. Social Forces, 84, 1471–1495. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2006.0070 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Cleve, J. V. (2007). The deaf history reader. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Weldon, K. J. (2016). Acculturation: Examining perceptions of self identity of deaf and hard of hearing college students (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Lamar University, Beaumont, TX.Google Scholar