Keeping connected: the design and overview of the research

Abstract

The special issue Keeping Connected: Identity, Social Connection and Education for Young People opens with a paper that discusses the research design and overview of a three-year project by a Melbourne (Australia)-based multi-disciplinary team. Over 2007–2009, the Keeping Connected team of 10 researchers investigated the lives of adolescents with ongoing health conditions. The project centrally is developed by the young people's perspectives, their identity and wellbeing, relationships with others and engagement within changing contexts and their altered opportunities in the world. The research design includes image production underpinned by visual methods and a narrative-informed approach to interview and interpretation of images. The study, which crosses the health and education interface, set out to highlight differences of perspectives adopted by 31 young people, their families and the professional groups, such as teachers and health professionals. The special issue discusses key project findings and contributes a body of scholarship that expands our knowledge of evidence-based research across the education and health interface. The longitudinal study highlighted two themes of importance for education, and poorly catered for in current policies and guidelines: that the situation of these young people needs to be addressed by schools as a process over time (including prospectively); and that the young people's identity is strongly marked by a desire to be seen and treated as ‘normal’ combined with an awareness of being vulnerable.

Keywords:

• inclusive education
• education policy
• disability

Acknowledgements

Funding for the project A Multi-disciplinary Investigation of how Trauma and Chronic Illness Impact on Schooling, Identity and Social Connectivity was received from the Australian Research Council with the partner investigator the Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute, Melbourne, Australia.

Notes on contributor

Julianne Moss is Associate Professor in Education Studies: Pedagogy and Curriculum at Deakin University. She is a member of CREFI (Centre for Research in Educational Futures and Innovation), a Deakin University Strategic Research Centre.

Notes

^†The research team published a full report. See, Yates et al. (2010). Keeping Connected: Identity, Social Connection and Education for Young People Living with Chronic Illness. The University of Melbourne. Report of ARC Linkage Project 2007–2009.  A detailed description of the report and project can be found at the Keeping Connected website located at http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/keepingconnected/.