Digital stories for transition: co-constructing an evidence base in the early years with autistic children, families and practitioners

Abstract

Concerns have been raised about the quality of practice-focused research in education generally and in early years education specifically. Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram argue that a shift in worldview is needed to improve the robustness and overall quality of participatory research in the early years and proposed a "praxeological framework" for research comprising praxis, power, values, and methodology. This paper provides an example of how this praxeological framework was applied within an existing research-practice partnership focusing on autism education in the early years. We used a "non-orthodox" Digital Storytelling methodology to coconstruct knowledge between researchers, practitioners, children and families about educational transitions. Our co-construction of knowledge involved the embodied knowledge of children and the exemplary (practical) knowledge of families and practitioners, leading to new insights into educational practices. In adopting a knowledge co-creation approach from the start, we established a powerful pathway to impact through which our research is already making a difference to practice. We propose that pathway to impact is an important element that could be made more explicit within a praxeological framing of research.

The transition to adulthood for autistic young people with additional learning needs: the views and experiences of education professionals in special schools

“…While our participants did report a wide range of ways in which to elicit the voices of their pupils, they were unsure of the success of their approaches. Recent research has evidenced innovative methods of documenting pupil voice, such as digital stories (Parsons et al, 2020) and Talking Walls (Richards & Crane, 2020). Yet these approaches still rely on the skills of educators who know their pupils well and are able to interpret their voices to a degree (as per Richards & Crane, 2020).…”

The importance of collaboration for knowledge co‐construction in ‘close‐to‐practice’ research

“…Knowledge coconstruction is an explicitly and deliberately contrastive stance with knowledge transfer or exchange, since it recognises that there is a shared and more 'synergistic' (Leibowitz et al, 2014(Leibowitz et al, , p. 1258) space between research and practice which can offer new insights and theories for both research and practice (Guldberg et al, 2017). Such a 'third space' (Ostinelli, 2016, p. 542) enables the combination of practical (exemplary) knowledge of practitioners and families (Thomas, 2012) and the embodied knowledge of children (Parsons et al, 2020b) with more formalised, research-based knowledge, without positioning one type of knowledge as more or less valuable or important than the other. Rather, they are different but equally valuable forms of knowledge, some of which may be more tacit and all of which may be differently represented by the people working in collaboration (Guldberg et al, 2017).…”

“…their own biases). As I discuss elsewhere (Parsons et al, 2020b), none of the interviewees seemed to be from early years education and so this was a major gap in the sampling. Special educational needs and inclusion are also not mentioned; this is another bias of mine, and so is something I am always going to look for, but it is, nevertheless, entirely missing.…”

English Language Teaching Strategy for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Students

“…In the field of education, one of the hardest challenges for teachers and families is to treat children with special needs, such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Denne, Hastings, & Hughes, 2017), in order that they can learn and receive proper education ( Guldberg, Achtypi, D'Alonzo, Laskaridou, Milton, Molteni, & Wood, 2021;Hidayah & Morganna, 2019;Parsons, Kovshoff, & Ivil, 2020). Many autism students have not developed as they are supposed to be and must therefore be supported by special education which fulfills their needs (Parsons et al, 2020;Preece & Howley, 2018;Ravet, 2018).…”

“…In the field of education, one of the hardest challenges for teachers and families is to treat children with special needs, such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Denne, Hastings, & Hughes, 2017), in order that they can learn and receive proper education ( Guldberg, Achtypi, D'Alonzo, Laskaridou, Milton, Molteni, & Wood, 2021;Hidayah & Morganna, 2019;Parsons, Kovshoff, & Ivil, 2020). Many autism students have not developed as they are supposed to be and must therefore be supported by special education which fulfills their needs (Parsons et al, 2020;Preece & Howley, 2018;Ravet, 2018). In terms of subjects taught, inclusive education theories inform that any students, including ones with special needs, have to be served with the same components of learning subjects with diverse compositions dependent upon students' competences and needs (Efendi, 2018;Murawski, 2005;Wibowo & Muin, 2016;Friantary, Afriani, & Nopitasari, 2020).…”