Using photo-elicitation with children for researching disability in physical education

Educational researchers will be very aware that there is a requirement for those involved in education to “recognise the right of the child to education, with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity” as stated by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 28.1, 1989). We also know that there is a need for children to be consulted on practices that affect them (Section 2B of UK Children and Families Act, 2004). However, there is a paucity of guidance on ways in which we can really listen to children’s experience and particularly disabled children’s experiences and engage them via research to influence the design and implementation of their education. To begin to consider this gap in the academic literature we will explore how children’s views and experiences can be ascertained using multisensory and creative research methods, with a particular focus on using photo-elicitation within the context of research on physical education (PE). In doing so we offer a discussion of three short case studies;
1. The ‘Visualising Opportunities: Inclusion for Children, Education and Society’ (VOICES) Project;
2. A project intended to overcome lack of engagement with PE in a secondary school;
3. An Adventurous Activities event involving pupils within a higher education setting.
Our discussion provides examples of how creatively adapting a photo-elicitation method for use within educational research can contribute a greater understanding of disabled pupils’ experiences of PE to inform how teaching and learning for all children can be designed and implemented more effectively.