Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2014, Page 87

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 23(2) 2014 87
kriStín BJörnSdóttir
uniVerSitY of iCeland, SCHool of eduCation
dan GoodleY
uniVerSitY of SHeffield, SCHool of eduCation
Hanna BJörG SiGurJónSdóttir
uniVerSitY of iCeland, SCHool of SoCial SCienCeS
Behind the quest for tales, stories and lives:
Reflections on narrative research with
people with intellectual disabilities
This paper reflects upon the growing narrative research with people with intellectual disa-
bilities. In this paper we consider some of the unexpected, hidden, elusive consequences of
our quests for narratives with people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper we respond
to Bourdieu’s invitation to reflexivity in an attempt to unpack some of the complexities
and power relations of research. We reflect on some of our own narrative work with people
with intellectual disabilities. Our attention is not solely drawn to issues of method, but
also highlights the ways in which we understand the narratives we collect and the narra-
tors we work with. We also explore how our narrative work has potentially contributed
to the construction of the label of intellectual disability. Our conclusion is that reflex-
ivity is fundamental to research collaboration with people with intellectual disabilities.
And attention should be paid to the strategies that people with intellectual disabilities
employ in their resistance to prejudice and lack of power they experience in their daily lives.
Keywords: Intellectual disability, narratives, disability studies, reflexivity
intrODUCtiOn
Narrative and life history approaches have a long history in social and human sciences.
They are particularly useful when applied to recover the stories and voices of people
who previously had been silenced and made invisible in history and society. Plum-
mer´s phrase, ‘tales of the outcast, the marginal and the silenced’, captures this well
(2001a, p. 91). Examples of these included an increased interest in women’s autobiog-
raphies and narratives of slaves in North America in the 19th century. By the mid-20th
century, this interest expanded and included the recognition of the voices of other
marginalized groups in the form of lesbian and gay narratives and the stories of disa-
bled and colonized people (Plummer, 2001a).
Uppeldi og menntun
23. árgangur 2. hefti 2014