ResearchSEND: Considering Abandoned Educational Research
In my latest piece for nasen connect I consider ‘Rescuing, Recycling and Renovating abandoned research’ influenced by an Instagram feed called ‘its abandoned’ and some of the principles behind the recent publication ‘ResearchSEND in Ordinary Classrooms’
Have you come across ‘its abandoned’ on Instagram, a feed of pictures featuring not just abandoned buildings but also cars, railway lines and amusement parks?
Many of the buildings such as a castle in Scotland or a house in Detroit have stories of historical significance behind their abandonment and suggest there is possibility that they could be renovated, repaired or recycled, maybe to become a family home again or a wedding venue for example.
Whereas other featured abandoned items, usually objects such as the car in the forest in Finland covered in moss, or stonemason’s yard of full of ‘giant’ uncompleted busts of past American Presidents have been deserted and could be considered unlikely to ever be useful or functional again.
I have often thought that elements of education policy and research are not dissimilar. There are policies, which carried huge weight at the time, but are long forgotten and are difficult to locate, such as the 1944 Education Policy which created the statutory system of education into three stages; primary, secondary and further education.
And then there is The Warnock Report (1978) which has been rediscovered over the last couple of years, with a publication from Rob Webster (Including Children & Young People with SEND in learning and life: How far have we come since the Warnock Enquiry and where do we go next) , an anniversary and a tribute at the TES Awards.
Forty years on, it may be difficult to appreciate the impact of the Warnock Report in changing narrative around SEN, its influence on subsequent government legislation, and its role in the creation of the modern SENCO, but it was this inquiry which informed the 1981 Education Act and amongst its outcomes, recommended that eleven categories of ‘handicap’ were replaced by one; Special Educational Need and introduced the Statement of SEN.
Equally, key pieces of research can be largely abandoned and overlooked but they may have paved the way for greater understanding. Dyslexia for example was first recorded in the British Medical Journal in 1896 when ‘Percy’ was described as having ‘an inability to learn to read’ and although it was described as ‘congenital word blindness’ a term which we don’t use today, it began an recognition that children and young people could have underlying difficulties which could make learning to read more difficult for them.
This is not the only example where dyslexia is concerned, there are many more, for example, Miles & Miles’ dyslexia research undertaken at Bangor University in the 1990s, is in essence the Dyslexia Friendly Schools checklist, which is not acknowledged and rarely mentioned but schools use ‘dyslexia friendly’ resources every day, often without realising it, as many of the strategies have become what could be considered ‘good teaching.
In previous editions of Nasen Connect I have spoken about the journey of ResearchSEND from its inaugural conference and now to the publication of a book two years later. ResearchSEND was set up and continues to be a knowledge exchange platform for sharing research and what works for pupils with SEND, and sharing our experience about research from the past and the present. We want to acknowledge that what we know in education does not exist in a vacuum, and much of what we know has a tradition of practice, which has been built on over many years.
ResearchSEND recognises that pieces of research can have impact but may have become hearsay in popular education language and we pick up and acknowledge original research and its intentions, throughout our promotion of the use of research in supporting learners with SEND.
In the recent ResearchSEND publication, ReserachSEND in Ordinary Classrooms there is a section entitled new voices, but paradoxically the new voices, all recent Primary PGCE trainee teachers have visited the past to put their subject into context. Jess Horsley for instance, has written an account based on her first hand experiences, but uses references such as Skinner’s (1974) focus on reinforcement, to consider the PECS system used in a Specialist setting.
Whilst Rona Tutt and Sean Starr through their consideration of policy around SEND recognise that provision for learners with SEND has been on a journey, responding to many inquiries, pieces of research and Education Acts throughout its Tour. The very title ‘ordinary classrooms’ has also been recycled from a range of publications that followed the Warnock Report in the 1980s to early 1990s, where ‘ordinary schools’ were the focus.
As Michael Jopling says at the end of the ResearchSEND in Ordinary Classrooms publication, we need to keep talking but we also need to continue to break down the barriers between research and practice that exist in education, and one way to do this, could be to recognise our already existing research tradition and rescue it from its current moss covered resting place in a forest in Finland!
ResearchSEND in Ordinary Classrooms is now available from Amazon
michhayw 