This article draws on insights gained from three projects described as participatory action research (PAR) undertaken in the UK. What binds them together is that each project coordinator raised the issue of the under-representation of opportunities for disruption in the possible trajectory to knowledge democracy.PAR places a relational process at…

This research review provides a synthesis of articles that analyse the impact of the educational system on families with special needs children and the potential ways that these families can be empowered and equipped. The articles selected focus on research participants and schools found in North America and Great Britain, in order to give the…

When communities fall into decline, disabled people can find themselves alone and invisible in a society of indifferent individuals. Arendt offers an account of such a time in her discussion of the rise of a society of mass labouring and consuming. Bauman's insights into the fragmentation of life, in which established norms, traditional ties and…

This article discusses the representation and participation of disabled students in the development of higher education policy and provision within the UK, at both a national and institutional level. Findings are drawn from a doctoral study, which identified the importance of student participation in securing equality and inclusion. Power…

Disability research is conducted within a highly politicised "hotbed" of competing paradigms and principles. New researchers, who want to work within the social model, are soon faced with complex and challenging methodological and philosophical dilemmas. The social model advocates research agendas that are focused on the emancipation and…

Virtually every Government programme for children and every Government Department in the UK is expected to involve children and young people in its policy development and service delivery (Children and Young People's Unit, 2001). It is the new orthodoxy. Yet, hard questions are often avoided when reciting the mantra of participation. Why bother?…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…