04. Inclusive Education
Paper
Hearing Maps - Exploring the Experience of Higher Education Students (in One University) with Auditory Processing Difficulties (APD)
Carmel Capewell, Janet Evans
Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Capewell, Carmel
Exploration of the impact of impaired listening and processing skills is not generally reviewed in the educational context. The ability to process and interpret speech in noise, block out extraneous noise or the voices other than the person to whom the student needs to attend, is generically called Auditory Processing Difficulties (APD). Auditory Processing Difficulties (or Disorder) is a complex condition that impacts people worldwide (Iladou et al., 2017) and is not always related to the functioning of the hearing organs. It is only recently that its links with other conditions, such as dyslexia (Richardson et al., 2004), dyspraxia, autism (O’Connor, 2012), ADHD (Witton, 2010), as well as students with hearing impairments and those learning in their non-first language. Although the study described here took place in the UK, it is relevant to the wider European and world-wide context as are the implications of the findings.
Although speech and listening is the main form of communication in HE (and education in general) with students expected to work in groups with other students, teaching staff have little knowledge of the condition or about creating positive hearing and speech processing environments. Students have limited training in listening and speech processing skills. APD difficulties not only apply to listening to a lecturer, but also being able to understand who is speaking in a group and may impact performance in presentations when the student is asked questions.
This is among the first research to investigate the impact of APD on learning and teaching in the HE environment. This project extends previous research with younger children (Capewell, 2015) into the HE environment. It aims to raise awareness of the impact of APD among staff and non-affected students.
The underpinning theoretical framework is that according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) under Article 12, a 'child' has the right to express their views with Article 28 specifically including access to higher education for disabled students/young people. In the UK, the active involvement and right of individual students to express their needs as a basis for changing pedagogical pracitce is identified in an Insight report (Office for students, 2020) which urges individual universities to consider the experience and outcomes for those students who identify as having a disability.
The aim of this research was to enable students with APD to analyse and evaluate their experiences of processing what a target speaker says to them in noisy environments and be central to the data collection and analysis. It gives them a tool to identify enablers/barriers in learning and communicate this with their lecturers and for lecturers to have a structured way of identifying the practical and minor adjustments needed to improve the learning and teaching environment.
Research Questions:
What are the barriers/enablers for students with APD to understanding a targeted speaker in an environment with background noise?
How can students develop agency in identifying and sharing enablers/barriers to processing speech in noise, to those around them?
What information would help academic staff to implement minor adaptations in learning/teaching environments so that there could be a more inclusive environment for students with APD difficulties and evaluate such implementation?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedA mixed methodology approach using quantitative and qualitative data provided a breadth of insight (Cohen and Manion, 1994). There were three phases to the project which consisted of, Phase 1, whereby students recording their hearing experiences using a Hearing Map, Phase 2 in which a small group of students worked with their lecturers then Phase 3 in which academics not included in the first two phases volunteered to implement the student suggestions into their teaching practice.
Hearing Maps are a structured digital diary type format, which students used to chart their experience of understanding the speech of a targeted speaker. The Hearing Map identifes and explores the types of situations which a student finds to be barriers or enablers in helping them to understand what is being said to them by a targeted speaker. The student is in control of which situations to include in the Hearing Map, chooses how often iit is completed, where and when they record situations. The Hearing Map consists of details such as: the date and time; brief description of the location and its specific features; a selection from one of three options (I can understand all/most of what is said to me; I can understand some of what is said to me; I can understand little/none of what is said to me); a short explanation would identify the reasons for the choice of the option. An additional column was used by some students to reflect on these experiences as a way of considering how the individual could have agency to share their situation with others. The guided nature provides a framework for what information the student provides. The number of entries recorded was left for the student to choose. The data was collected over a timeframe of about three weeks. Students were encouraged to include both in-class and social environments. It is suggested that a range of situations and types of listening environments are included to document one of the three options identified above. The rational for including non-teaching situations was to attempt to capture the total higher education experience of the students. Each Hearing Map was collated on an excel spreadsheet for the individual student as to the percentage time in each condition. An overall collation was made of the barriers and enablers identified summatively by all students.
The focus in this paper being on the outcomes from Phase 1.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsEighteen students were recruited from across the university. Because APD is not a unitary condition, students were asked to identify any other co-conditions they had. Of the students who completed their Hearing Maps, there were 9 who identified at Dyslexic, 5 with APD, 4 with Autism, 4 non-native English speakers, 3 with Dyspraxia and 2 with ADHD. A requirement of participation was that students had a formal diagnosis as required by the Disability Support Service in the University. Students ranged from newly diagnosed (within the last 12 months) to 21 years since diagnosis. In total 106 comments were provided which ranged from 3-12 individual entries. We speculate that although those students who identified as having ADHD were initially enthusiastic for the study, they completed less entries and were more likely to drop out, which could be related to their ability to maintain sustained participation.
The three top barriers identified were the speed, tone and volume of delivery by the speaker; interfering background noises; and too much information being provided without having time to process it. The main enablers were being able to work in small groups; the speaker talking slowly and clearly; and lack of competing noises. These will be explained in more detail in the presentation. In the qualitative data provided students identified that their emotional responses (such as feeling stupid or not fitting in) and anxiety levels before entering a classroom or interacting 1:1 with others. The latter are mentioned in the literature (Iladou et al., 2017) and issues around reassurance and relationship development may be something for academics to consider.
ReferencesCapewell, C. (2015) Hearing Maps: Documenting a child’s speech comprehension in noise. Audacity 7, 20-22.
Cohen, L. and Manion, L. (1994) Research methods in Education, 4th ed. London: Routledge.
Iliadou V, Ptok M, Grech H, et al. (2017) A European Perspective on Auditory Processing Disorder: Current Knowledge and Future Research Focus. Front. Neurol. 8:622.
Moore, D., Rosen, S., Bamiou, D., Campbell, N. and Sirimanna, T. (2013) Evolving concepts of developmental auditory processing disorder (APD): A British Society of Audiology APD Special Interest Group ‘white paper’. International Journal of Audiology, 52, 1, 3-13.
O’Connor, K. (2012) Auditory processing in autism spectrum disorder: A review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, 36, 836-854.
Office for Students (2020) The National Student Survey: Consistency, controversy and change. Insight 6. Available on-line at https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/the-national-student-survey-consistency-controversy-and-change/
Richardson, U., Thomson, J., Scott, S., and Goswami, U. (2004) Auditory Processing Skills and Phonological Representation in Dyslexic Children. Dyslexia, 10, 215-233.
UNICEF (1989) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Available on line
https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/
Witton, C. (2010) Childhood auditory processing disorder as a developmental disorder: The case for a multi-professional approach to diagnosis and management. International Journal of Audiology, 49, 83-87.
04. Inclusive Education
Paper
Paving the Way for Developing a Higher Education Recognizing Disability. Lessons Learned from a Norwegian Pilot Study
Inger Marie Lid1, Rosemarie van den Breemer2, Anna Chalachanová3, Anne Raustøl4
1VID Specialized University, Norway; 2VID Specialized University, Norway; 3VID Specialized University, Norway; 4VID Specialized University, Norway
Presenting Author: Lid, Inger Marie
In this paper we focus on access to education for persons with intellectual disability or. The articles puzzle is the mismatch between proclaimed intent to include all through education and provide long life learning for all citizens as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2008).
In 1994 the UNESCO adopted the Salamanca declaration, which states that every child has a right to education and that the education system should be designed, and educational programmes implemented, to meet the diversities among children, and that students with special need must have access to regular schools and adapted education (Shakespeare, 2018, p. 110). Education is critical to most citizens but in particularly for persons with disability because having formal qualifications can make the difference between being included or excluded in employment and society (Shakespeare, 2018). In higher education, students need to navigate many disabling barriers (Magnus & Tøssebro, 2014).
Since 2021, VID Specialized University has planned and carried out a pilot program of 30 ECTS funded by the foundation DAM called “Higher education in human rights for students with intellectual disabilities”. The courses taught were: Human rights and everyday life, Worldview, values and professional relations, and o-research. The courses have been carried out partly for this group of students as a segregated provision and partly with students in the master program in citizenship and co-operation, a hybrid form of provision. This pilot program is the case providing the empirical material for the paper.
The main objective is Disability as an exclusionary factor in Education The obstacles and possibilities for granting persons belonging to these groups access to, and meaningful participation in higher education, lifelong learning and knowledge production. We operationalize this in two research questions:
- What obstacles or possibilities can be identified for granting these groups access to, and successful participation in higher education, lifelong learning?
- What obstacles or possibilities can be identified for granting these groups access to, and successful participation in knowledge production?
According to the World Bank and WHO report on disability (2011), 15% of the population lives with disability, thus disability is highly relevant for education at all levels. However, disability is to a little degree explored as an exclusionary factor in the system of education. In the Norwegian system of education all persons have equal right to education, and yet persons with disabilities are more vulnerable to dropping out of education at high school and have less access to higher education than their peers. A proper system of education is an important key for combating social inequality and for creating a just society for all inhabitants. According to CRPD article 24, state parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education and “shall ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with other” (UN, 2008). Also the UN Sustainability Development Goals, 4 focuses on inclusive education.
The overarching theoretical perspective is Citizenship and the importance of the educational system for supporting citizenship for persons with disabilities (Nussbaum, 2007). This theoretical perspective is promising for understanding the role of education for individual and society, and even the role of education in the welfare state. Those excluded from education often are also excluded from citizenship. Education supports citizenship and democracy (Nussbaum, 2010). The capabilities approach, offers a conception of the states responsibilities supporting every persons right to be recognized as equal citizens with rights and duties and to live lives according to human dignity.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe methodology is based on participatory approaches (Banks et al 2013; Lid, 2021)
After two and more decades of knowledge production as social practice (Nowotny et al., 2003), we are moving towards a new mode: knowledge production as social practice together with new, and still unrecognized, subjects of knowledge. In research internationally, there is a shift from the traditional understanding of experts approaching research objects to researchers and participants both being conceptualised as subjects of knowledge.
Including persons from vulnerable groups in knowledge production rises research ethical challenges. The Helsinki declaration (Association, 1964), originally established in medical research, is concerned with informed consent and protection of vulnerable persons because they are patients in care of the researchers. This concern has been adopted as a concern for research integrity as such (NESH, European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity), excluding groups of vulnerable persons from knowledge production. It has also resulted in heavy regulation of data protection (GDPR) and research ethics (Law on organisation of research-ethical work) in Norway.
There are several reasons for applying co-production in knowledge production. First, there are moral reasons: recognising persons and their rights, including their human rights to meaningful participation in all aspects of human lives. This reason furthers into a democratic reason – that citizenship and participation for all is a precondition for a democratic society, where also knowledge production is essentially democratic (Jasanoff, 2010). Furthermore, there are epistemological reasons – that the quality of the knowledge produced is essential to provide a correct or rich enough knowledge base for our social practices, such as professional practice.
More specific we have conducted group interviews interviews with students and with four administrative groups in the pilot program, the admission office, administration at the VID specialized university, employees at the school faculty and students support system and workplaces. This material will be analyzed in light of CRPD and national legislation on universal design and individual accommodation in higher education.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsChallenges universities face when establishing university education for persons with intellectual disabilities concerns the inclusion of the new target group, funding, how their education is organized administratively and educationally, and how they are supported as students in their student role (Brian & Bonati, 2018). We will discuss findings from the pilot project in light of strategies for Universal design and individual accommodation in higher education according to the CRPD examining what is done to follow up law and policy in Norway and what are the limits of UD in higher education. We are interested in studying this both from an individual and institutional perspective.
Preliminary findings indicate that there are barriers at the institutional levels, both at the scale of the university and the state. There are also strong indications that this is a much wanted opportunity for taking part in higher education according to students experiences. In order to secure and mainstream the education, institutional support is necessary together with individual accommodation supporting students learning processes.
ReferencesAssociation, W. M. (1964). WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical principes for medical researhc involving human subjects. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/
Banks, S., Armstrong, A., Carter, K., Graham, H., Hayward, P., Henry, A., Holland, T., Haraway, D. (1991). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books, 183-201.
Holmes, C., Lee, A., McNulty, A., Moore, N., Nayling, N., Stokoe, A., & Strachan, A. (2013). Everyday ethics in community-based participatory research. Contemporary Social Science, 8(3), 263-277. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2013.769618
Jasanoff, S. (2010). A new climate for society. Theory, culture & society, 27(2-3), 233-253.
Lid. (2021). Integrating Participatory Approaches in Research: Power, Dilemmas and Potentials. Diaconia, 12(1), 41–60. https://doi.org/10.13109/diac.2021.12.1.41
Magnus, E., & Tøssebro, J. (2014). Negotiating individual accommodation in higher education. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 16(4), 316–332. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2012.761156
Nowotny, H., Scott, P., & Gibbons, M. (2003). INTRODUCTION: 'Mode 2' Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge. Minerva, 41(3), 179-194. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41821245
Nussbaum, M. C. (2007). Frontiers of justice: disability, nationality, species membership. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
O’Brien, P. & Bonatti, M. L. (2018). From institutionalisation to inclusion. In P. O’Brien, M.L. Bonatti, F. Gadow., & R. Slee (eds.). People with People with intellectual disability experiencing university life : theoretical underpinnings, evidence and lived experience (2018) (s. 3-19). Brill
Shakespeare, T. (2018). Disability. The basics. Routledge
https://www.allea.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ALLEA-European-Code-of-Conduct-for-Research-Integrity-2017.pdf
United Nations, (2008). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
04. Inclusive Education
Paper
Diversity in Academia and the Nexus of Migration, Education and Language: Reflections on the Positionality and Perceptions of BIPOC Researchers
Hosay Adina-Safi, Aybike Savaç
Universität Hamburg, Germany
Presenting Author: Adina-Safi, Hosay;
Savaç, Aybike
The German-speaking research fields with regard to understanding Germany as a migration society (Mecheril 2010) often deal with integration, (the lack of) educational success, multilingualism or power asymmetries between Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) persons and non-BIPOC persons within institutions or society in general. While there is knowledge about the role of researchers in qualitative studies and the importance of reflecting the powerful position they find themselves in, it seems to be a different context when the researchers themselves come from a minority within academia (Karabulut 2022). Usually, researchers are not BIPOC persons and come from educated middle-class families (ibid.) But what if the researchers have the same social positioning as the persons who are objectified for research purposes? How will data be collected or analyzed (differently)? What are the opportunities and challenges of being BIPOC for the researchers and the research process? How are BIPOC researchers perceived by interview partners or other researchers?
Based on two research projects, the problematization of the role as a BIPOC researcher will be developed and presented with reference to concepts of Othering, the Critical Race Theory, and Bourdieu’s concept of capital (1990). The research projects deal with different topics of inclusion and language learning in the migration society.
In the first project, 18 qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with teachers and school leaders from six different schools on the practices and challenges of including newcomer students into the school. In Germany, newcomer students are primarily educated in separate but highly diverse classes in order to learn German as a second and academic language as quickly as possible (BSB 2018). Although cultural and linguistic diversity is not a new phenomenon in the German education system, the “monolingual habitus” (Gogolin 1994) is still persistent and can be identified in the data as well as in the addressing of the researcher during data collection. While the researcher was seen as a professional and potential teacher or co-expert on the topic of teaching newcomer students and additionally as a qualified researcher coming from university to pursue a study, another component was relevant: the attribution of a natio-ethni-cultural affiliation (Mecheril 2010) and related competencies and knowledge were mentioned in some interview situations. The so-called “visible” migration background might have led to label the researcher as “other” (ibid.) and construct different social groups where the researcher is in- or excluded.
The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis according to Kuckartz (2018). With the help of the systematic approach, all relevant units of analysis could be considered in a multi-level interpretation. The analysis is complemented by an evaluative qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz 2018, 124ff.) based on selected features as those were identified as central influencing factors for the embedding of preparatory classes in the respective schools and the construction of a racial or social “other”.
The second project is about creativity and literacy development with a focus on migration-related multilingualism and examines texts which are written in German and Turkish by primary school students. With a researcher that not only has a knowledge of German as a native speaker but also Turkish language skills at a high level, the data analysis differs from that of other researchers. Research on migration-related multilingualism, which is particularly concerned with the acquisition of German as a second language, explores the linguistic development of German as a condition for school success or failure. In this context, linguistic deviations from convention are declared as errors or interference resulting in linguistic inability (e.g. Klicpera/ Gasteiger-Klicpera/ Schabmann 2006, 415). /...
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used.../ Researchers who are not only multilingual in foreign languages, but just like the group being researched, have themselves grown up multilingual due to migration, usually interpret these deviations not as errors, but as an interlingual transfer (e.g. Kalkavan 2012, Savaç 2020) or in the case of the dissertation project as 'translanguaging' (García 2009). It is assumed that there is a link between these two points of views on the deviation from the standard linguistic norm, because those researchers argue that on the one hand there is a language inability because of the errors, which is attributed to multilingualism (e.g. Esser 2009; Hopf 2005) instead of needs-based learning support.
The difference between an 'error' and an 'interlingual transfer' is not only in the consideration of the object of study but is relevant in terms of the student’s learning development. This is because once the cause of the deviation from the standard linguistic norm is understood, needs-based learning strategies can be applied to develop the linguistic skills.
This interpretation of how researchers analyze and conclude the linguistic skills in German leads to two hypotheses. Firstly, the focus on the language skills or lacks the standard linguistic norm seems to leave out the social and daily circumstances which go along with growing up as a child in an immigrated family and the social status which comes with the immigration like dealing with racism and getting worser grades than students with no migration history (e.g. Karabulut 2020). These circumstances have an impact on language development as well as on identity development.
Secondly to understand how students develop language skills especially those skills which are relevant for being successful in school like literacy skills and academic language (Gogolin/ Lange 2011) it is necessary to analyze the language and literacy activities in the daily lives of the students like in school or social life.
The third relevant aspect is the question according to daily use of language(s). Which language is the dominant language in the daily life of the students? /...
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings.../ Studies have shown that students which were tagged as Second Language Learners of German but also were alphabetized in German schools transfer standard linguistic norms from German into Turkish texts (e.g. Kalkavan 2012; Şahiner 2018). This result can be connected to the circumstance that German is the dominant language and is more developed in some skillsets than those languages which are also used in the family and social life. It should furthermore be emphasized that students are in a learning process and that language development is a lifelong endeavor.
This paper contributes to filling a significant gap by pointing out the experiences of racialized emerging researchers as emerging knowledge producers and focuses on the German context while taking into account the relatively few sources from the existing North American academic literature (Park and Bahia 2022). The expected outcomes are relevant to researcher’s perspectives on language skills which should be more resource-oriented instead of deficit-oriented to contribute to the student’s language skill development. On the other hand, challenges of situational racism and othering are to be regarded from a perspective on power relations within data collection and the research process to aspire a holistic picture of what it means to foster diversity in academia and what the challenges and benefits are.
ReferencesBourdieu, Pierre (1990): Was heißt sprechen? Die Ökonomie des sprachlichen Tausches. Wien.
BSB (2018): Die schulische Integration neu zugewanderter Schülerinnen und Schüler. Rahmenvorgaben für die Vorbereitungsklassen an allgemeinbildenden Schulen. Hamburg. Online verfügbar unter https://www.hamburg.de/contentblob/11222210/9f7510e386bb7da83e453dbf439b27fc/data/rahmenvorgaben-2018.pdf [31.01.2023].
Gogolin, Ingrid (1994): Der monolinguale Habitus der multilingualen Schule. Münster.
Gogolin, Ingrid/ Lange, Imke (2011): Bildungssprache und Durchgängige Sprachbildung. In: Fürstenau, Sara/ Gomolla, Mechtild (Hrsg.): Migration und schulischer Wandel: Mehrsprachigkeit. Wiesbaden, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften / Springer Fachmedien. S. 107-127.
Mecheril, Paul et al. (2010): Migrationspädagogik. Weinheim & Basel.
Kalkavan, Zeynep (2012): Orthographische Markierungen des Deutschen in türkischsprachigen Lernertexten. In: Grießhaber, Wilhelm/ Kalkavan, Zeynep (Hrsg.): Orthographie- und Schriftspracherwerb bei mehrsprachigen Kindern. Stuttgart, 57-80.
Karabulut, Aylin (2020). Rassismuserfahrungen von Schüler*innen. Institutionelle Grenzziehungen an Schulen. Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31181-0
Karabulut, Aylin (2022). Forschung im Spannungsfeld rassistischer Ordnungen. In: Schulische Rassismuskritik. Pädagogische Professionalität und Migrationsdiskurse. Wiesbaden.
Klicpera, Christian/ Gasteiger-Klicpera, Barbara/ Schabmann, Alfred (2006): Rechtschreibschwierigkeiten. In: Bredel, Ursula/ Günther, Hartmut/ Klotz, Peter/ Ossner, Jakob/ Siebert-Ott, Gesa (Hrsg.) Didaktik der deutschen Sprache. Ein Handbuch. Bd. 1. Paderborn, 405-419.
Kuckartz, Udo (2018): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Computerunterstützung. Weinheim & Basel.
Park, Augustine SJ and Jasmeet Bahia (2022): Examining the Experiences of Racialized and Indigenous Graduate Students as Emerging Researchers. In: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 8.3, 403-417.
Şahiner, Pembe (2018): Vokalschreibungen bei bilingual deutsch-türkischen Grundschüler/innen. Eine Fallstudie. Berlin.
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