Neurodivergent Unknowing as Educational Research Methodology

• In Event: Dwelling in the In-Between: Relational and Sensory Turns in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

This paper explores how neurodivergent participants co-created methodology through collective "unknowing.” Drawing on Jackson-Perry's neurodivergent unknowing (2025), this paper explores methodological possibilities through two interconnected studies that demonstrate how embracing methodological "failure" and researcher uncertainty generates possibilities for neurodiversity-affirming educational research. Study 1 examined research-creation explorations where eight neurodivergent participants consistently refused the task (Ehret, 2023), generating alternative inquiry approaches through honoring the proposition of collective unknowing. Study 2 explored how accommodating autistic students' needs challenged researcher assumptions about identity verification and participant authenticity. Both studies reveal how researcher humility and willingness to fail transform research from extraction to relationship, offering concrete examples of how educational inquiry can "unforget" neurodivergent ways of knowing while "imagining futures" through methodology that becomes neurodivergent.

Authors

• Meaghan Krazinski, Syracuse University

• Nathan Hughes, Syracuse University