ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for a reflexive, rhetorical approach to inclusive mental health rhetoric research. By critically reflecting on how their inclusive research tactics—methodological moves aimed at fostering greater inclusion in one’s research practice—originate in prior experiences of inclusion, mental health rhetoric scholars can manifest uniquely situated, inclusive approaches to field-based research. I demonstrate this claim through describing how my experience working at a mental health nonprofit shaped methodological judgments I made while researching self-advocacy practices at an inclusive education program for students with intellectual/developmental disabilities. My particular approach, which oriented toward inclusion by emphasizing privacy, autonomy, and self-determination, helped gain the trust of participants and enabled a rich analysis of self-advocacy’s contextual dimensions, but precluded a nuanced investigation of its embodied aspects. The chapter concludes by offering a reflective tool researchers can use to assess the affordances and limitations of their own inclusive research tactics.
