Conceptualizing effectiveness in disability research

Abstract

Policies promoting evidence-based practice in education typically endorse evaluations of the effectiveness of teaching strategies through specific experimental research designs and methods. A number of researchers have critiqued this approach to evaluation as narrow and called for greater methodological sophistication. This paper discusses the value and complexity of working within and against the experimental research model in disability research by simultaneously engaging in inclusive research practices. A study is presented to support the discussion using case examples of researching on/for/with young people diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The study incorporated a single-case research design to investigate the impact of an educational practice. The investigation was co-constructed and co-evaluated by students, parents and teachers to consider multiple pathways and perspectives on the intervention's impact on students' progress towards their goals. Deleuzian thinking was employed as a framework for producing different forms of knowledge and to help negotiate the tension existing between the processes of experimental and inclusive research. The study is both complicit with and a critique of traditional research approaches, by working partially within the experimental and inclusive models and reflecting on the benefits and limitations of each.

Keywords:

• intervention
• effectiveness
• inclusive
• experimental
• Deleuze

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Catriona L. de Bruin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3299-7805

Notes

1. A pseudonym.

2. A pseudonym.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government through an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship.