Research in the Classroom

On Friday 7th February, Dr Kirsty Liddiard, of iHuman and the School Education, went to Greenacre School, Barnsley, to co-run a workshop for teachers and school leaders from the Wellspring Academy Trust on the benefits of research as pedagogy for disabled children and young people in SEN/D schools.

Alongside Professors Dan Goodley and Katherine Runswick-Cole (iHuman and the School Education), Kirsty has been developing the Living Life to the Fullest Co-Production Toolkit — a key output from their ESRC-funded project, Living Life to the Fullest. The Living Life to the Fullest Project explores the lives of disabled children and young people, but through its Co-Researcher Collective, has developed ways of making research processes accessible to disabled young people as researchers and research leaders.

Working closely with Harry Gordon, SEN/D teacher at Greenacre School, the Research Team are furthering tailoring the Living Life to the Fullest Co-Production Toolkit to the needs of teachers and schools. The team began working with Greenacre School in order to diversify their methods of co-production, extending the work to children and young people with the labels of learning disability and/or autism. Greenacre is a school educating children and young people aged 3–19 labelled with severe and complex needs.

Friday’s Research in the Classroom workshop is the first step in sharing the Toolkit inter/nationally. To learn more, please see our project website here and visit the Living Life to the Fullest Co-Production Toolkit here.

Dr Kirsty Liddiard is a Research Fellow and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead at The School of Education, The University of Sheffield.