Blind Faith? Empowerment and Educational Research

Revisiting the politics of special educational needs and disability studies in education with Len Barton

“…Links between the discussions and the disability movement's political struggle were omnipresent. That was indeed the point -praxis -'partisan research' (Troyna 1994). The sociological purpose was always described in relation to the disabled people's movement and to the struggle against disabling barriers.…”

Review of Roger Slee, The Irregular School: Exclusion, Schooling and Inclusive Education

“…Slee drew a link to the work of Troyna (1994) who commented on the overapplication of the term 'empowerment'. The gains in usage may not always be reflecting the required shift in values.…”

Coming to knowabout teaching, its development and researcher practice through collaborative action research with adult education teachers in Sudan

“…In particular, commandeering extracts of the participants' voices to illustrate my own interpretations is open to accusations of acts of "ventriloquism" (Fine, 1994). This problematic approach to supposedly "giving voice" has double disempowering outcomes, both by reproducing stereotypes which are conferred 'authenticity' and by making inequal power relations in research (Troyna, 1994 Deconstructing re-presentation If this work is, as I claim, founded on my ethical stance, then I must re-view the ethics of knowledge production, in the form of research re-presentation. My ethical objective in re-presenting this work was that it should be an 'honest' account, which I initially conceived as being highly descriptive.…”