The Lunch Bunch: A Narrative Inquiry Into the Creative Voices of Students With Autism

• In Event: Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Researchers and Teachers Attending to the Lives of Children

Abstract

This narrative chronicles the story of the Lunch Bunch, a group of 4 students with autism, 1 student with a specific learning disability and their art educator/researcher as they ate lunch together and discussed creativity and at times made art. A chronological story of the Lunch Bunch was crafted utilizing narrative inquiry as the overarching methodology and methods borrowed from arts-based educational research, portraiture, and arts-based self-study research. This study was viewed and conceptualized through the lens’ of social constructivist and disability theories from a strengths perspective in order to co-construct the experience through the voices of the participants. The major themes that emerged were space, creative expression, socialization, carting/time and trust.

Authors

• Kelly Ann Kotowski, The Help Group

• Sharon H. Ulanoff, California State University - Los Angeles