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This book offers a unique approach to the study of disabled children's views, articulating methodological reflections, findings and experiences from a study conducted with children with diagnoses of autism and their parents. The reader is invited to engage with the ways the children reclaimed their social agency and multiple ways of knowing and being, through creative encounters where mattering and autonomy were protected. Weaving together arts-based research, art activism, multimodality and Gramsci's study of language and social hierarchies, the analysis unpacks the oppressive systems that serve to dehumanise and stifle children's identities and agency, reshape parenthood and obscure capabilities.
The author addresses the need for autonomy in ethical research with disabled children and communities to encourage scholars, community-responsive practitioners, educators and artists, to think critically about freedom and the directive practices that pervade children's lives. This is an urgent call to question the ways disabled children's freedom of expression is easily sacrificed, enmeshed in rhetoric, bureaucracy and habit. The dialogue between the narrative and the artworks open up diverse channels for hope, respect, and attentiveness towards children's self-expression, inviting adults/educators/researchers to be present, to problematise and resist direction in research, education and other interactions.
About the author
Francesca Bernardi is an artist, activist, advocate and educator, founding chair of the Antonio Gramsci Society UK, and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). Francesca is a Visiting Lecturer in Childhood Studies (Leeds Beckett University) and Arts Therapies (University of Roehampton). She trained in Art and Design education and theatre properties design, and as a qualified teacher (QTS), has worked in schools, Alternative Provision and Further Education. She most consistently engages in multi-disciplinary research, setting up creative environments for critical non-hierarchical participatory work, focusing on children’s rights, disabled identities, and aesthetic processes.
Summary
This book offers a unique approach to the study of disabled children’s views, articulating methodological reflections, findings and experiences from a study conducted with children with diagnoses of autism and their parents. The reader is invited to engage with the ways the children reclaimed their social agency and multiple ways of knowing and being, through creative encounters where mattering and autonomy were protected. Weaving together arts-based research, art activism, multimodality and Gramsci’s study of language and social hierarchies, the analysis unpacks the oppressive systems that serve to dehumanise and stifle children’s identities and agency, reshape parenthood and obscure capabilities.
The author addresses the need for autonomy in ethical research with disabled children and communities to encourage scholars, community-responsive practitioners, educators and artists, to think critically about freedom and the directive practices that pervade children’s lives. This is an urgent call to question the ways disabled children’s freedom of expression is easily sacrificed, enmeshed in rhetoric, bureaucracy and habit. The dialogue between the narrative and the artworks open up diverse channels for hope, respect, and attentiveness towards children’s self-expression, inviting adults/educators/researchers to be present, to problematise and resist direction in research, education and other interactions.
