Society is increasingly acknowledging diversity as a common aspect of humanity, in all its forms. This has been reflected in educational research too, where the interest in diversity has grown over time. However, the trend in researching diversity is still very much focused on doing research on certain groups, i.e. people with intellectual disabilities, rather than embracing such diversity in the research design itself (Walmsley, 2001). Over the past few decades, researchers in the field of inclusive education have started reshaping the research landscape by developing diverse forms of inclusive research approaches to increase the active engagement of certain groups in the research process (Walmsley et al., 2018).  

This paper presents a participatory action research project on intellectually disabled students’ college experience. Sitting within the framework of inclusive research (Nind, 2020) and adopting a social model of disability, the project supports the empowerment of students as co-researchers around themes that they feel are relevant to their life as university students. The participants are students with intellectual disabilities attending a 2-year course at a major university in Ireland. Designed as part of a module on human rights, this project is based on principles of research-based teaching (Brew, 2012) and aims to bridge the applied learning of the UDHR article 26 ‘right to education’ with the experience of inclusive research using the photovoice method. The main aim of this project is to promote inclusivity at the institution level by responding to the continuous need for development or change (Mertler, 2019), creating knowledge for a further step in establishing a diversity-sensitive approach. Another aim is to explore how the combination of teaching and research can create a safe space for upcoming accounting student experiences and have a high awareness of unbalanced power relations in teaching/learning situations. This perspective should help to set up the project as a sustainable tool in inclusive postsecondary education.  

 The research objectives are:  

• to strengthen students’ self-advocacy and promote self-determination, with an impact on their current education and other life areas.   

• To voice students’ experiences with a wider impact on the wider college community and society  

The research questions are as follows:  

• How do students with intellectual disabilities experience university?   

• What elements of photovoice are helpful to students in voicing their experience?  

• Is inclusive research-based teaching effective in promoting applied learning of human rights?  

The project uses a visual participatory method called photovoice to express and document students’ experiences in college. Based on eight weekly sessions (2h) held within a human rights module between January and April 2023, participants work with two lecturers/facilitators to explore what the right to education looks like in their college experience. During the sessions, participants agree on what themes they want to focus on and take photographs to help document, reflect upon, and communicate issues of concern while stimulating social change. The sessions provide guidance and support in developing some basic visual literacy and photography knowledge while leaving decision-making around the subjects of the photographs to each participant. Following the session, a photography exhibition is co-organised with participants to engage with the wider college community and create a space for understanding and dialogue around inclusion in the university. Full ethical approval has been obtained from the institution prior to the start of the project.  

In this paper, the authors will discuss the different phases and highlights of the project and will present the main findings of the project contributing to the wider conference debates on diversity in educational research.  

The project fits within the participatory action research framework and applies a qualitative and visual method named photovoice. This approach allows students with intellectual disabilities to be actively involved in the research process and act as co-researchers. The research design is based on a practice/inquiry combination in the form of research-based teaching through transformative social learning with a change agenda (Mertler, 2019). Knowledge is produced as well as used and occurs in the participants´ contexts and nurtures learning among everyone involved (Tandon, 1981 in Latz, 28, 2017). One target of this research is to create an environment in which participants give and get valid information as well as have the opportunity to make free and informed choices – including the choice to participate (Latz, 2017). Choosing this methodological approach is a critical component for us as academic researchers to make sure to highlight their experiences, perspectives, and stories from an authentic point of view. The project is structured in 8 sessions within a human rights module and includes a final exhibition to the wider college community to “oscillate between the private and public world” (Latz, 2017). Throughout the sessions, participants are invited to take part in targeted activities based on the photovoice method and facilitated by the two researchers/lecturers. The supported sessions aim to build up knowledge and confidence in using photography as a means of expression, participants will identify what themes to focus on and will take pictures with their phones to work out the question “How do I experience college”. The photographs offer stimuli to identify what aspects of the college experience are important to the participants. We will generate a multi-method collection of data material: notes, several key tasks (photo reading; photo treasure hunt...,), group discussion, questionnaire (final decisions about that are still a work in progress), and of course the transcripts of the narratives made out of the photos. An inductive qualitative narrative analysis will be the data baseline to answer the research questions. For some of the databases, a qualitative content analysis is useful, some databases, especially the group discussions, will need a deeper glance at process structures and prototypes of narratives and will be analyzed by a narrative method like Bohnsack´s (2014, 2010) documentary method which is a procedure of reconstructive qualitative social research.

As the project is in its initial stages, there are no set conclusions yet, but we expect to generate findings related to two main strands. The first strand regards the impact of students’ voices through photography and how this can inform an academic institution about its inclusivity. The second strand focuses on the use of photovoice as a research-based teaching method and its value in future teaching situations. Elements in both strands will provide answers to the research questions and we expect to provide evidence of the following: Introduce the students to the model of ‘inclusive research Learn about the right to education through participatory and self-determined access. Capture the student voice around their experience of inclusivity in the project institution. Showcase the Photovoice project to the wider community within and beyond the university. Empowerment through the method of photovoice as a means of self-advocacy Keep a reflecting stance toward the power balance in the project as well as in the module itself (e.g., decision-making; assessment; outcomes) Overall, this paper will provide an overview of the project and will present its main findings offering interesting viewpoints for further discussion among the conference audience. Issues related to diversity in research will be addressed from different angles and an account of research-informed teaching will be provided as a way to promote inclusion in higher education.

Allweiss, T., Perowanowitsch, M., Burtscher, R., & Wright, M. T. (2017). Participatory exploration of factors influencing the health of people with intellectual disabilities in an urban district: A Photovoice study. Proceeding of the 3rd International conference on Public Health, 237–245. Bigby, C., Frawley, P., & Ramcharan, P. (2014). Conceptualizing inclusive research with people with intellectual disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27(1), 3-12. Bohnsack, R. (2014). Rekonstruktive Sozialforschung: Einführung in qualitative Methoden (9., überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage). Verlag Barbara Budrich. Bohnsack, R., Pfaff, N., & Weller, W. (Hrsg.). (2010). Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational Reserarch. Barbara Budrichs Publishers. Brew, A. (2012). Teaching and research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education. Higher education research & development, 31(1), 101-114. Dillon, M. (2014). A Foucauldian analysis of power relations in an action research study. Action Research, Vol. 12(2), 209–223. Freire, P. (2017). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (M. Bergman Ramos, Übers.; Published in Penguin Classics 2017). Penguin Books. Hartung, S., Wihofszky, P., & Wright, M. T. (Hrsg.). (o. J.). Partizipative Forschung. Ein Forschungsansatz für Gesundheit und seine Methoden. Springer VS. Latz, A. O. (2017). Photovoice Research in Education and Beyond: A practical guide from theory to exhibition. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Mertler, C. A. (Hrsg.). (2019). The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education. John Wiley & Sons. van Meer, P. (2022). Imaginal knowing in action research. Action Research, Vol.20(1), 10–26. Nind, M. (2020). Inclusive Research. Bloomsbury United Nations (1948). Universal declaration of human rights. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights Walmsley, J. (2001). Normalisation, emancipatory research and inclusive research in learning disability. Disability & Society, 16(2), 187-205. Walmsley, J., Strnadová, I., & Johnson, K. (2018). The added value of inclusive research. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 31(5), 751-759.