Peter Clough

Researching life stories : method, theory, and analyses in a biographical age

Part 1: Four Life Stories: 1. Gerry O Toole: A Design for Life 2. Id never met a vegetarian, never mind a lesbian: Colleens story 3. Research and Narrative and the Death Story of David Hope 4. Frank Part 2: Doing Life Story Research 5. Approaching: Methodology in Life Story Research 6. Doing: Method in Life Story Research 7. Informing: Epistemology in Life Story Research Part 3: Making Sense of Life Stories 8. Frameworks: Analyses in Life Story Research 9. Findings: Four Analyses of Life Stories 10. Reflexivity: Reflections on Analyses Part 4: The Age of Biography: Personal and Political Considerations 11. Teaching: Craft and Ethics in Researching Life 12. A/Effecting: Audience and Effects in Researching Life Stories 13. Applying: Policy, Practice and Theory in Life Story Research

Exclusive tendencies: concepts, consciousness and curriculum in the project of inclusion

This paper explores a view that exclusive structures in institutions reflect exclusive structures in the development of consciousness. In the context of a current rhetoric of inclusion in the UK, the paper starts by examining some of the theoretical conditioners of policy and practice in Special Educational Needs, and hence their effects on teacher thinking. Drawing on a survey of teacher perspectives on SEN, the paper identifies their correlation with economic resources, but asks whether exclusive attitudes might be further explained in terms of conceptual development. The paper thus brings together argument from (variously empirical) psychological, sociological and philosophical enquiry to question assumptions about the moral and political project of inclusion.

Community Projects and Excluded Young People: Reflections on a Participatory Narrative Research Approach

Much has been written about the epistemological, theoretical and methodological bases of inclusive research, but how does it look in practice? This paper critically documents a participatory narrative approach to research with young people that, it is argued and demonstrated, foregrounds their agendas as critical researchers. The paper draws upon a research project that explored the meaning of community projects to young people excluded from school‐based educational provision in Sheffield, UK. The remit was to capture their critical views on these projects and to flag up good practice with them as co‐researchers. This paper reflects on the research approach and the findings that, as a team, were elicited. ‘Its time for a fresh start’ was a phrase much heard in the research. When projects worked well, they appeared to draw heavily upon a philosophy of giving young people new contexts and experiences to better themselves in ways that might not have been met in schools; they remained in projects when they felt respected by workers and when the projects gave them new and relevant experiences that they could take with them as they entered early adulthood. Similarly, young people illuminated the potency of research to elicit meaning and meaningmaking practices. By focusing on narrative, a storied approach to research provided opportunities for participation, included a whole host of perspectives and critically engaged with emergent policy, practice and theory issues.