Beyond the Icebreaker: Multiple Melting Points of Facilitating Participatory Action Research With Disabled Graduate Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Disability Research: The Power of Accessible, Critical, and Creative Methodologies (Table 11)

Abstract

Participatory Action Research (PAR) can presume neurotypical and able-bodied research methods. This study adopts an embodied disability approach that unites emancipatory disability research, which centers disabled ways of knowing, and the framework of critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Siebers, 2013) to explore anti-ableist approaches to engaging in PAR with disabled graduate students (DGS). Eight DGS were recruited as participant-researchers. An evenly distributed change of participation is attributed to not only the passing of time, but rather the incorporation of access-focused “melting points:” an exclusive Zoom modality, a structural-based critique icebreaker, and a universal designed learning (UDL) activity. This research has implications for building rapport, improving access, and conducting PAR with disabled communities to drive social change.

Author

• Emily Simone Doffing, California State University - Long Beach