In 2020-2022, we used an Advance HE Good Practice Grant to co-produce a new module on Special Educational Needs, Disability and Neurodiversity for our Education Studies BA students, most of whom go on to teacher training or work in education after graduation.

Based on the co-production principle of valuing lived experience as expertise, an all-disabled/neurodivergent team of two academics (Rosi Smith and Emma Wright) and three paid undergraduate students (Robyn Wall, Melissa Vernon and Lucinda White) researched what disabled people, families, educators and academics thought new professionals needed to know and understand about SEND and neurodiversity, and how that content could most inclusively be taught.

Participants told us that educators needed to understand the importance of knowing their learners as individuals, developing affirming practice and how to manage the gap between policy and practice. They said it was less important to know about individual diagnoses and more important to understand the history, politics and theory of disability, which would underpin inclusive practice.

Based on our findings, we worked together to decide the module’s outcomes, content and assessment. Our work won a Pearson HE Innovate Award for ‘‘Most Innovative Approach to Bringing Inclusivity and Sustainability into the Classroom” (3rd place). 

We published an article on our research findings, a chapter on the power dynamics in our research process and produced a toolkit including an Easy Read description of the work. 

Article: Wright, E., Smith, R., Vernon, M., Wall, R., & White, L. (2021). Inclusive, multi-partner co-creation for the teaching of special educational needs and disabilities in higher education. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(7), 25-40. https://open-publishing.org/journals/index.php/jutlp/article/view/518

Chapter: Smith, R., Vernon, M., Wall, R., White, L. & Wright, E. (2023) ‘Rebalancing power relations in teacher-student co-creation’ in Mark Pulsford, et al., eds. Understanding Education Studies: Critical Issues and New Directions. Routledge. 

Toolkit: https://figshare.com/s/0c70c381a5c2c1a65d10