Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Exploring the Relationship between Co-construction and Empowerment within Participatory Research

Kate Carr-Fanning ^1* Tanya Rihtman ²

• ¹ University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
• ² Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Inclusive education and participatory research (PR) are both premised upon engaging with local unique needs, social justice, and empowerment. PR is limited through the lack of empirical exploration into the research approach itself, particularly its use in inclusive education. This paper explores findings from the co-construction process within a PR research project, which co-constructed a programme of inclusion for children with ADHD-type behaviours in kindergartens in countries in eastern/central Europe with local stakeholders. We will draw on findings from particular phases of the project, including two researcher constructed questionnaires: a pre-post teacher training questionnaire and an open-ended qualitative survey of participants on the process of empowerment within co-creation. The qualitative data was subject to Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests was used to analyse the results from the pre-post teacher training questionnaire. Findings support the use of participatory practices within inclusive education, especially teacher training, and the need for culturally and contextually relevant responses to including children with ADHD-type behaviours in early childhood education. Findings also emphasise particular experiences within and to external to, but as a result of, the co-creation process, which were empowering, including collaborative dialogue, positioning within ones community, and finally the role of insider experts, and the emotional experience of being identified as an expert. Partners need to embrace this expert role, which partners need to embrace, but they may be uncomfortable with or reject it.