ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses trends in research over the past twenty years. The controlled experiments of psychologists which attempted to measure and predict, for example, the learning capacities of children with a particular disability, were superseded by more qualitative approaches, for example, the evaluation of policy and practice by means of interviewing and observation and by the work of sociologists, who asked awkward questions about vested interests and the function of socially-constructed categories, such as ‘educationally sub-normal’. Further, disabled people are now engaged in ‘emancipatory’ research, representing their own experience, challenging the status quo and actively intervening to improve the quality of their lives. However, these new approaches still retain a disciplinary allegiance. Graham Vulliamy and Rosemary Webb argue that a ‘pedagogic’ approach is more appropriate: one in which practitioners, working collaboratively, generate questions, put forward solutions and evaluate the outcomes from a variety of perspectives. They have worked with teachers on what they call an ‘outstation’ MA course at York University and this chapter is a version of the introduction to their edited collection of students’ project-work: Teacher Research and Special Educational Needs (1992), David Fulton, London.
