What is the central focus of your current research?

I have more than one, and it is hard for me to separate them out: Belonging; Teaching inclusively and teaching well; Researching inclusively and researching well. This work is mostly focused on people with profound learning disabilities, and on qualitative research methods.

How did you come to choose this particular area of study?

I will focus on belonging out of the 3 above. Working on belonging was a way of retaining my interest in inclusive pedagogy and inclusive research that gave me more scope and felt more fresh. Theoretically, belonging is an interesting concept and practically, it is important for us to thrive. I had the pleasure of examining a string of PhDs that pushed the boundaries of who belonged in research and how, this led me to editing a book⁽¹⁾ to showcase some of this work and then recruiting a group of doctoral researchers and colleagues to work with me on pushing things forward further.

What are the key questions or problems your research aims to address?

• What are the experiences of belonging (and not belonging) of children and adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities? (And what happens to that during major life changes like leaving school?)
• How can we do research with (rather than on) people with profound and multiple learning disabilities such that we value their ways of knowing (i.e. without recourse to symbolic communication but through their senses, bodies etc)?

Can you describe a typical day in your research work?

No! Everyday is different. I have spent days looking at literature on how research methods are slowly becoming more inclusive. I have spent days battling with ethics committees who are risk-averse and don’t want research to change. And I have spent days transforming a regular space into one that is rich in communication opportunities using inexpensive art materials and seeing what happens to the verbal and nonverbal people within that space.

What initially sparked your interest in this field?

I was painfully aware that many children and young people don’t feel like they belong in school (I was one of them) whereas some communities have fostering belonging at the centre of everything they do. Also I like exploring new ideas and I like working outside the confines of schools. And because I began my career working on fostering the social, interaction and communication abilities of people with profound learning disabilities through developing Intensive Interaction⁽²⁾, I wanted to come back to something equally meaningful at the latter end of my career.

Was there a specific moment or experience that inspired your research path?

No, although my first teaching post and the students I worked with in the school of a long stay institution where I did my PhD has been influential throughout. My interests in teaching and researching in ways that are both inclusive and good have grown gradually over time and there is great synergy for me in being an educationalist and a methodologist.

What methodologies do you typically use in your research, and why?

I tend to work at the far end of the continuum of qualitative research approaches. I like methods where you immerse yourself in contexts and data and work organically rather than in linear fashion. I did not start out this way – my early PhD project was much more about evaluating the efficacy of a teaching approach and I did this in a quasi-experimental way. I have come to appreciate other ways of working.

What do you hope your research will contribute to your field or to society?

I want us all to feel a bit more confident about working across difference and respecting different ways of knowing. I would love to encourage people to do more possibility thinking, for example, what if people with profound learning disabilities were co-researchers rather than assuming that this cannot happen. (And I would love us all to get better at teaching research methods too.)

How do you measure the impact or success of your work?

The short answer is creep: I look at where my work has spread, like the runners of a strawberry plant. If some of it has taken root here and there, then I am happy. Someone told me once at a conference that something I’d written had completely changed how she related to her disabled daughter. That is success in my book.

Are there real-world applications or implications of your research?

Yes. While I love ideas, I only play with ones that have real-world applications for doing things more inclusively and for how we interact with others.

How do you communicate your findings to non-specialist audiences?

Creep again! I tell someone, or better still show someone, who is hopefully inspired enough to tell or show someone else. I’ve used a lot of video in my work and that is a powerful too, whatever the audience.

What’s something you’ve learned about yourself through your research?

Being a teacher makes me a better researcher and vice versa.

What are you currently most excited about in your research?

Being able to move beyond proxy voices when engaging with people with profound learning disabilities in research.

Are there any emerging trends or technologies that you think will shape your field?

My work sits within the social turn in social science research towards democratising research. This has shaped my field and will continue to do so. I also welcome the turn to the visual and sensory and to decolonising social science.

If resources were unlimited, what project would you pursue?

The one I’m currently awaiting a funding decision on. But with unlimited resources I would put together my dream team of researchers to work on it, that would be amazing!