Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

31 August 2010  Page 1  

 

The broad area of interest for my doctoral research is an exploration of

neurodiversity as experienced by teaching professionals and, in particular, their

experiences of teacher training.

Key research question:

Teaching with a difference: How is neurodiversity experienced in the teaching

profession and how is this addressed in teacher education programmes?

Subsidiary questions:

° What are the educational trajectories of neurodiverse teachers?

° How do teacher training programmes address the needs and potentials of

neurodiverse participants?

° What attributes do neurodiverse teachers offer to the profession?

° What creative strategies/learning technologies do neurodiverse teachers draw

on to support their teaching and learning activities?

The intended outcomes of the research include:

To inform and enhance inclusive approaches to teaching and learning on a Masters

in Education (Higher Education) programme

To explore the norms and values of a generalist pedagogy in order to identify the

qualities of a creative pedagogy.

To identify and explore a range of learning technologies that enhance creative

expression and self-authorship in teaching and learning.

To provide a conduit for the voices of teachers who have encountered and overcome

significant challenges in choosing education as a profession.

Theoretical approaches and influences:

Pedagogy as a creative act

Eisner (2002) – thinking about teaching as an “artful undertaking”

Jackson (2006) – The imaginative curriculum project

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

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Craft (2006)– everyday creativity

Edwards (1979/2008) – Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (also Robertson

(1999) and Sacks(1985) on neurological aspects of cognitive processes)

Danvers (2003) – challenges mainstream ‘monolithic educational culture’

Atkinson and Claxton (2000) – Intuitive Practitioner and ‘slow’ learning

Hodge, Baxter-Magolda and Haynes (2009) - Negotiated self-authorship and

authenticity of voice

Socio-cultural considerations

Pollak (2009) Neurodiversity - Challenging the medical model of specific learning

differences

Collinson (2009), Barrow (2005) –marginalization in education contexts

Ecclestone and Hayes (2009) – rejection of a therapeutic model of education that

encourages ‘diminished subjects’

Post-post-modernism

Kirby, (2010) Beyond post-modernism

Gardner (2007) ‘productive failure’ – learning lessons of the past

Barnett (2004) ‘supercomplexity’

Wolf (2008), Greenfield (2003) , Gardner (2007) – developing minds of the future

Methodology

° Qualitative

° Interpretive

° Life-history/narrative

° Appreciative inquiry rather than problem-based

Approaches to analysis

° Interpretive – critical incident i.e. focusing on what is selected as important by

the participant ( supported by qualitative coding using manual and Nvivo

systems)

° Iterative (dialogic)

° Creative authorship

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

31 August 2010  Page 3  

Presentation and dissemination

EdD thesis

Creative/reflective writing exploring aspects of narratology

Creative artefacts/performance

Exploration of technologies appropriate to creative pedagogy

Limitations (external factors)

Time available for researcher and participant(s) to devote to lengthy discussion

Commitment required by participants

Willingness of participants to contribute artefacts to explore creative dimension of

education.

De-limitations (research led boundaries)

Access to participants (sampling strategy)

Small scale (maximum of 3 participants)

Focus on particular aspect of neurodiversity (dyslexia)

Ethical considerations

Inclusion of colleagues who have/are undertaking MA Education on which I am

course leader

Difficulty of anonymising data

Small number of participants

Supporting rationale (extracted from EdD assignment 5):

For Module 3 my proposed research was entitled ‘Teaching with a difference: How is

neurodiversity experienced in the teaching profession and how is this addressed in

teacher education programmes?’ and aimed to explore issues of neurodiversity in

the teaching profession. This remains the focus of my intended research with the key

outcome intended to inform and enhance inclusive approaches to teaching and

learning on a Masters in Education (Higher Education) programme.

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

31 August 2010  Page 4  

The field of education inevitably includes political aspects concerning social justice

and issues of equality and within the MA Ed programme much consideration is given

to legislative, organisational and curricular aspects that reduce inequalities in

access, provision and experience of learning. The focus is on the ‘learner

experience’ and how teaching methods, curriculum design and modes of

assessment may take appropriate and anticipatory account of physical, cognitive and

psychological learning needs (Disability Rights Commission, 2007). It is clear that

higher education institutions are doing much to ensure compliance with widening

participation policy, disability and inclusivity legislation in terms of the student

experience. There appears to be, however, a gap between the support for students

to fulfill their HE learning potential and the support for colleagues with teaching roles

who have aspects of neurodiversity that do not present in a overtly physical form.

The most commonly identified specific learning need in HE within the umbrella term

‘neurodiversity’ is that of dyslexia. In my institution this accounts for over 13% of

students compared with 3% nationally (HESA 2009). While students may be willing

to disclose a specific learning difficulty, my experience on the MA Ed is that

colleagues tend not to disclose dyslexia as a disability and enter teaching in HE

having developed their own coping strategies within the terms and requirements of

their roles.

The curriculum profile of my institution is largely practice-based and vocational,

covering the performing and decorative arts, media and design. The course content

is predominantly practice-based underpinned by theoretical approaches delivered by

lecturers specialising in historical and cultural aspects of the subject areas. The

theoretical content is assessed mainly through standard written modes of essays

and dissertations which is when students with dyslexia encounter most study

difficulties. A qualification in teaching is not yet a requirement in higher education,

though most institutions have probationary and appraisal processes that encourage

teaching and learning development staff to engage with courses accredited by the

Higher Education Academy or to demonstrate professional development in the field

of education. Many of the applicants to the MA Ed and PGCHE at my institution have

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

31 August 2010  Page 5  

entered tertiary sector teaching from practice or industry backgrounds. Their primary

professional identities are located in their subject/working background with ‘teaching’

as a secondary profile. In many cases it is their subject expertise and industry

experience that brings fresh and current knowledge to the courses rather than a

traditional academic research profile. The vocational nature of the courses places

emphasis on the employable and transferrable nature of knowledge, techniques,

processes and craftsmanship (Peter Dormer, 1994) coupled with an intuitive

approach to teaching such skills (Claxton, 2000). There is a perception from such

colleagues that they need to be seen as ‘academic’ in their approaches and that it

would undermine their professional identity as educators to express any difficulty

with approaches to reading and writing in academia. This manifests itself in a

number of ways including:

- The reluctance with which colleagues engage in writing research and

funding proposals

- The delegation of course report writing

- The divide between those who teach theory and those teaching practice

- Large scale non-disclosure to the HR dept.

Over the three years that I have run the MA in Education, 28% of staff have

disclosed to me verbally that they are dyslexic. Of these only three have disclosed

this on their application form for the course, and only one has disclosed to the HR

department. All these colleagues have engaged in other careers to a high level

which have necessitated sophisticated levels of knowledge, skills, critical and

analytical capabilities. They have developed organisational and procedural strategies

to ensure that they can cope with the demands required in their working roles. These

capabilities have been transferred to their teaching roles, yet when faced with the

repositioning of their identity to student of the MA Education course, deep seated

insecurities about their abilities to cope with the academic requirements of the

course and their ‘fitness’ as educators. My intended research project seeks to take

an appreciative inquiry approach with participants to collaboratively explore their

identities as learners, as educators and as creative practitioners to how their

professional approaches (both practice-based and educational) may influence the

development of greater inclusivity in learning teaching and assessment.

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

31 August 2010  Page 6  

The fact that participants will also be colleagues creates extra consideration with

regard to the ethical aspects of the narrative inquiry. As researcher, my role in

relation to the participants may impact on the ways that life-histories are recounted

and the primary selection of emphasis by the narrators/participants. Goodson and

Sikes (2001) make the point out that participant anonymity is particularly difficult to

achieve in narrative inquiry and careful assessment need to be accounted for risk

and vulnerability if the information is not sensitively handled and includes the

revelation of compromising details. Such an approach to research necessarily

involves developing a close relationship between researcher and primary narrator

and there is likelihood of impact on self-knowledge and identity for both parties.

Life-history offers the opportunity of a socially dynamic mode of inquiry in which

meaning is iteratively and co-operatively reviewed to expose depth of reflection and

consideration. Despite the criticism that it is not necessarily universally generalisable

it does allow transferability through comparative studies. Most excitingly, in the digital

age, narrative inquiry offers all participants new modes of collaborative narrative

structures mediated through digital technologies to collect, review and disseminate

life-histories, incorporating and linking multiple perspectives. This also offers the

possibility of participants illustrating their narratives with other personally created

artifacts.

I am conscious of the fact that through a narrative inquiry approach I risk turning the

life-experiences of people, who have encountered difficulties with reading and

writing, into academic text. In order to mitigate this I would like to offer participants

the opportunity to create, produce, perform or develop something that encapsulates

their approach to learning and teaching in neurodiverse ways. In this way the story

would be encapsulated in a visual or performative manner. Not only would the

research be about creativity, but it would embody creativity in its process. I hope that

this would ensure that the self-authorship and authorial voice remains primarily with

the participant, even if the text version is a secondary, possibly fictionalized,

construct.

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

31 August 2010  Page 7  

Key references:

Atkinson, T. & Claxton, G. 2000, The intuitive practitioner : on the value of not always knowing what one is doing, Open University Press, Maidenhead.

Barnett, R. 2004, "Learning for an unknown future", Higher Education Research and Development, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 247-260; 247.

Collinson, C. 2009, "In spite of the system, not because of it: Reflections of 'false generosity' and 'dehumanization' in the experience of dyslexic postgraduates.", Eighth Conference of CLTREdge Hill University, .

Craft, A. 2006, "Creativity in Schools" in Developing Creativity in Higher Education Imaginitive Curriculum, ed. N. Jackson, Routledge, London, pp. 19-28.

Danvers, J. 2003, "Towards a radical pedagogy: Provisional notes on learning and teaching in art and design", Journal of Art and Design Education, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 47.

Dormer, P. 1994, The Art of the Maker, Thames and Hudson, London.

Ecclestone, K. & Hayes, D. 2009, The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education, Routledge, London.

Edwards, B. 1979/2008, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 4th edn, Harper Collins, London.

Eisner, E.W. 2002, "what can education learn from the arts about the practice of education?", John Dewey LectureThe encylopaedia of informal education (INFED), on-line http://www.infed.org

Gardner, H. 2007, Five Minds for the Future, Massachusettes, USA: Harvard Business School.

Goodson, I. & Sikes, P. 2001, Life History Research in Educational Settings, Open University Press/McGraw Hill, Maidenhead.

Greenfield, S. 2003, Tomorrow's People, Penguin, London.

Hodge, D.C., Baxter Magolda, M.B. & Haynes, D.A. 2009, "Engaged learning: Enabling self-authorship and effective practice", Liberal Education, vol. 95, no. 4, pp. 16-23.

Jackson, N. (ed) 2006, Developing Creativity in Higher Education Imaginative Curriculum, Routledge, London.

Kirby, A.:. 2010, Successor states to an empire in free fall, Times, London.

Pollak, D. 2002, Dyslexia, the self and higher education: learning life histories of students identified as dyslexic, De Montfort University.

Pollak, D. 2009, Neurodiversity in Higher Education: Positive Responses to Specific Learning Differences, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

Robertson, I. 1999, Mind Sculpture, Transworld, London.

Sacks, O. 1985, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Picador, London.

Summary EdD Research Proposal     Caroline Cash  

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Sikes, P. 2000, "Truth and Lies Revisited", British Educational Research Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 257.

Wolf, M. 2008, Proust and the Squid, Icon Books, Cambridge.