Saturday November 21st, 2009

SEN/Disabilities in Education Group

Co-ordinator: Brahm Norwich

The SEN/disability (SEND) research group is interested in educational aspects (in widest sense) of children and young people with SEN / disabilities (in various senses of these terms).It includes academic and research staff as well as doctoral students.

It usually has at least 2 meeting per term and will include discussion of current theoretical, policy, research and practice issues by examining relevant papers/books, research plans and conference presentations. New members are always welcome.

2009/10 meetings:

12 November 2009: Further discussion of the paper discussed at the June meeting ("Foolishness" in Early Modern Medicine and the Concept of Intellectual Disability by C F Goodey). A PhD student will also talk about her planned PhD research design.

21 October 2009: Welcome to new doctoral students whose research is focussed in this broad area to the group and hope all other doctoral students PhD and EdD come along too. At this first meeting we will spend some time talking about our recent research activities and consider our plans for the new academic year.

2008/09 meetings:

9 July 2009: Planning of seminars for 2009/10. Discussion of one or two papers/chapters about the history of disability.

10 June 2009: Discussion about research questions/problems. Discussion of recent Euro Journal paper.

6 May 2009: Discussion of paper about ADHD. Discussion about areas of research which as academic and research staff we might pursue, perhaps through funding.

18th March 2009: 2 doctoral students present draft papers for JURE 2009.

21 January 2009: Discuss a research paper as part of the School’s effort to define what we call research quality (Truss, Peter's Story: reconceptualising the UK SEN system).

3 December 2008: Discussion of assumptions about the nature of disability in other countries other than the UK.

23 October 2008: . Ruth Gwernan Jones will discuss her current review of work on identity and disability for the Beyond Current Horizons project run by the Bristol based Futurelab organisation (which is doing futures work for the Government Department of children, schools and families).

2007/08 topics:

Discussion of paper: The complexity of defining Deafness

Discussion of a chapter by Julie Allen, Inclusion as an Ethical Project, in Tremain, S. (ed), 2005, Foucauld and the Government of Disability.

PhD student presentation and discussion about a paper by Professor Peter Mittler on the future of provision for those with disabilities in 2040.

FORTHCOMING OPEN SEMINAR:

Dr Jillian Roberts, Associate Professor (Special Education), University of Victoria, Canada

Inclusive Education in the Canadian Context

Thursday 11 March, 1.00-2.00pm

Dr. Jillian Roberts is an Associate Professor of Special Education and Associate Dean Administration of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the area of inclusive education. She is also a practising Registered Psychologist who specialises in school and counselling psychology for children and adolescents. In the early part of her career, Dr. Roberts was an inclusive primary classroom teacher as well as a special education resource teacher. She has published extensively in the area of Special Education, with a focus on children with profound, chronic disabilities. Jillian Roberts will present on the current status of inclusive education in the Canadian context, highlighting both the strengths and operational challenges of this pedagogical approach. A question and answer period will follow her presentation.

Please confirm to Jo Moncur if you are planning to attend. All welcome.