This research evaluates the process of providing an inclusive education in a market culture. It investigates the experiences of eight young people with learning difficulties and disabilities who are students in a further education college. As it applies a focus to one specific case study example, in order to generalise from the literature and two other sample colleges, it represents ethnographic methodology. This is appropriate for the purposes of the study, which are to explore the implications of such processes, within an institutional and organisational structure which is subject to significant changes and restraints. The period under examination is one in which provision for this group of learners is influenced by a multiplicity of factors, not always evident on surface examination. Consequently, a focused ethnographic case study allows for a level of detailed analysis which can illuminate the effects of organisational changes upon individual development. The context in which the case study is set includes the plethora of Further Education Funding Council documentation during the 1990s, the critiques offered by academics of a narrowly competence-based and outcomes-related system, and the implications for students with special educational needs in further education colleges of the recent Dearing Report (1996) and soon to be published Tomlinson Report (1996). The case study provides an illustration of issues raised in recent literature and is set within the broader framework of recent initiatives. Through the use of detailed evaluation of a sample of students progressing through the assessment process in one college, recommendations and reflections contribute original evidence of the influence of legislation on current practice. Using the model of further education, tensions between an inclusive ideology and the demands of a market economy are evaluated and the case-study evidence has application beyond this sector to other areas of educational developments.

Yes / Research with prisoners’ families is limited in the context of learning difficulties/disabilities (LD) and autism spectrum. Life-story interviews with mothers reveal an extended period of emotional and practical care labour, as the continuous engagement with their son’s education and experiences of physical and emotional abuse are explored. Prior to their son’s incarceration, mothers spoke of stigma and barriers to support throughout their childrearing, as well as limited or absent preventative/positive care practices. Subsequently prisons and locked wards seem to feature as a progression. Mothers have experienced abuse; physical and/or emotional, as well as lives that convey accounts of failure. Not their failure, but that of the systems. A care ethics model of disability assists an analysis of the narratives where care-less spaces are identified. Interrelated experiences merging emotional responses to extended mothering, the external forces of disabilism and destructive systems, lead to proposing a rehumanising of care practices within for example, education and the criminal justice system. / The Leverhume Trust (RF-2016-613\8)

Students with learning difficulties are said by many writers to be prohibited from having a valued learner identity and denied a voice in which to influence their educational circumstances. They are, it is argued, kept submerged in a ‘culture of silence’, where they are homogenised as a deficit category of learners and, therefore, perceived in a one-dimensional way. Such disabling barriers stem from practitioner assumptions and wider sociological influences, which are also part of this same culture. The by-products of this thinking have prevented practitioners from developing more interactive and enabling relationships with their students. Starting with a commitment to listen to student views, and explore accessible, flexible and innovative ways in which to advocate these, the research reported in this thesis sought ways to address this agenda. Set in a further education college, five student co-researchers, four practitioner co-researchers and a facilitator co-researcher embarked on a year long project to learn how the same students could be supported in contributing to their own learning. Being a transparent account, the inquiry was also interested in exploring the difficulties of this endeavour and whether student empowerment would alter the relational dynamics and, therefore, practitioner roles. As the facilitator was instrumental in introducing these ideas, she also examined her own influential role. Data were generated from observations and co-researcher experiences of engaging with roles, body collages, student interviews, photo voice, journals, portfolios and reflective meetings. These exploratory processes and methods were predicated upon the ideological frameworks of the social model of disability and multiple intelligences theory. The study revealed that renegotiated co-researcher roles and body collages were effective processes for enabling reciprocal engagement, causing students to empower themselves and leading practitioners to rethink in ways that had not been anticipated. These processes were also felt to be educationally effective in relation to curriculum aims. Whilst journals and lengthy meetings proved to be impractical and of little use, the reflective journal did prove to be an essential tool for the facilitator, allowing her to draw upon further evidence. The findings indicate that student voice can be raised through collaboration and forging relationships of trust and co-ownership. The thesis concludes by arguing that silences were broken, not least since these collaborative actions are still being used in the particular context in ways that are conducive to everyday practices. Although time and commitment are needed, these are valuable strategies that other marginalised educational communities may benefit from adopting.