Qualitative Inquiry

Bozalek, Vivienne; van Hove, Geert; Romano, Nike

doi: 10.1177/10778004241253261pmid: N/A

This special issue originated from a webinar series made possible through a Tri-Continental (3C) Partnership between the University of the Western Cape, the University of Missouri, and Ghent University. These universities organized a series of webinars on the theme “Doing Academia differently: In conversation with neuroatypicality.” The Tri-Continental (3C) Partnership is a trilateral agreement that set out to promote partnership between the three institutions during a time of travel restrictions due to the global pandemic.

Titchkosky, Tanya

doi: 10.1177/10778004241254394pmid: 41321645

This article explores how disability studies can take shape as an interpretive method and how disability-perception can influence this. My exploration is organized in relation to the following question: In what ways might attention to dyslexia as an interpretive act inflect social inquiry? I treat interpretive methods as a form of inquiry that attends to the social activity of interpretation itself and I regard dyslexia as part of such activity. A key issue for such inquiry is how to methodically engage appearances as an interpretive encounter: That is, how can we make the taken-for-granted activity of perception as interpretation available for reflection and keep the subject ∞ object chiasma* relation a primary focus? Disability studies is a starting point for such inquiry in at least two ways: (a) it brings to attention the ways in which people interpret disability and (b) it considers how impairment experience itself is an interpretive modality that can momentarily disrupt the normative flow of common-sense, revealing aspects of the act of interpretation, and making it available for reflection. This article will show how the perception of disability as well as disability-perception can be regarded as enacting a “pause” in the everyday flow of common-sense and, thereby, encounter interpretive acts as an occasion for further inquiry. I turn to descriptions of perceptions and experiences of dyslexia as interpretive scenes where the normative order of ordinary interpretation can be revealed. I address various ways that dyslexia is described as a disruption to the normative order of language, especially the written word, print-language, even as the term dyslexia is used as a sense-making-device to reassert the primacy of normative expectations and values in literate-culture. As a sense-making-device imposed from without or as experience that seems to come from within, or as both, the appearance of “dyslexia” serves as a primal scene for uncovering the ways in which the social order of interpretation works.*Chiasma is not a dyslexic rendering of “chasm.” Instead, chiasma refers to the crosswise relation between concepts and structures that rely on each other for their meaning, for example, reading and readers; subject and object.

Jonker, Francois

doi: 10.1177/10778004241253251pmid: N/A

With the aim of contributing toward posthuman orientations in educational research, this article actively engages neuroqueerness as a means to trouble humanist assumptions regarding empirical data and representational language. As its overarching objective, this article seeks to explore some possibilities for the cripqueering of method as a way of doing inquiry differently. I do so by diffracting the disidentificatory queering of identity through the postidentitarian urge of neurodiversity. This article argues for an attunement to the relational errantry of neuroqueer becomings-with, autistic perception and autistic voicing as means of provoking generative methodological perspectives that might challenge the compulsory able-bodymindedness embedded in traditional representationalist humanist modes of education and research.

Vandenbussche, Hanne; Van Goidsenhoven, Leni; Vandekerckhove, Amber; De Schauwer, Elisabeth

doi: 10.1177/10778004241254393pmid: N/A

Entering higher education presents significant challenges for students whose learning styles differ from the norm of the “(neuro)typical student.” In Flanders, the prevailing notions persist in asserting that people with disabilities do not belong in a higher education system due to perceived shortcomings in meeting the traditional standards. In this article, we focus on a podcast “I write so I am: The power of the dyslexic brain” created by a former student. By drawing on a critical dialogical methodology we engage with the stories presented in the podcast, contemplating ways to progress toward an affirmative and relational approach to disability. We make this more concrete by plugging-in concepts such as “recognition,” “relational accessibility,” and “caring communities” as they guide us in challenging ableist structures. The practice of dialoguing calls for engaging communities where listening with care opens negotiations to bypass the current rigid system of “reasonable accommodations.”

Reaume, Geoffrey

doi: 10.1177/10778004241253249pmid: N/A

Periodically from the 15th to early 20th centuries, mad people left written accounts of their experiences. Originally written by upper- and middle-class White authors who had both the money and literacy skills to record their thoughts, since the late 19th century, the diversity of mad people’s writings has increased to reflect more representative experiences regarding class, gender and, to a lesser extent, race and disability. The origins of what is now called “Mad Studies” can be found among writers discussed here, though long before such a field came to formally exist. From the 18th century, there were also individuals and organized groups who challenged abusive practices and attitudes toward mad people, whose efforts are precursors to recent activist histories. This article reflects on how Mad Studies is the direct beneficiary of centuries of critical analyses and activism by mad people long before contemporary times.

Manning, Erin; Bozalek, Vivienne Grace

doi: 10.1177/10778004241254397pmid: N/A

This paper documents a conversation with Erin Manning in the first webinar of the series Doing Academica Differently: In conversation with Neuroatypicality. Drawing on her scholarship, teaching experience, as well as the more recent 3Ecologies project, Manning shows how systems serve to pathologize by framing difference from the angle of typicality and as a divergence from the norm. She argues, therefore, that it is necessary to move beyond the ontological presuppositions enacted by systems of whiteness/neurotypicality. She proposes that academic work must continue to remain open to the differential within difference, and value slow and convivial practices that texture qualities of existence as a mode rather than as gridded individual identities. By focusing on the crucial notion of value in higher education and how it might be reworked in experimental ways, Manning suggests ways of attuning for learning otherwise beyond a neurotypical frame.

Yakira,

doi: 10.1177/10778004241256139pmid: N/A

I am bipolar. Writing has helped me during very troubled times. These are just some of the extracts written between 2013 and 2016, expressing despair, agony, loneliness, and desperation. My brother died when I was 7 years old and my father 2 years later. Fifty years later, it is the loss of my wonderful Jungian therapist that opened deep scars and mangled wounds. In the poem—the Dead came upon Me—I have tried to turn each expression of despair into one of hope. As the struggle of being bipolar continues, I am deeply aware of an affinity to so many others who suffer through being “other,” “troubled,” “isolated”—perhaps if this resonates with a few of the readers it has done some good. I am so grateful to those who have helped me along the way—and continue to do so. Particularly, thank you to Paul Ashton for showing me (in The Dead came upon Me) that words matter and that it is possible to accept “difference” or “otherness,” to use poetry or images to transform pain into something more meaningful and perhaps, with time, even into something of beauty

Carette, Lieve; de Bie, Lee; Brown, Kate; De Schauwer, Elisabeth

doi: 10.1177/10778004241253263pmid: N/A

In response to Lee de Bie and Kate Brown’s webinar on neuroatypicality in academia, Lieve Carette and Lee de Bie delve into the concept of “relational access” and its transformative influence on neurodivergent relationships, overcoming obstacles and expanding possibilities of support. Drawing inspiration from the creative initiatives of Mad and neurodivergent students and staff reshaping the academy, the authors share insights from their 6-year friendship, exploring the challenges of navigating university through neuroatypicality. Their interconnected reflections underscore the importance of facilitating the creation of the zine “Outliers” in shaping their dialogues. Within the context of Qualitative Inquiry, this article indirectly explores zines as an academic methodology, emphasizing the integral role of the intimate relationship in zine project development and personal and professional growth. The paper concentrates on the zine’s impact within their relationship, accentuating its modest contribution to the project’s inception compared with its substantial significance in their lives and personal growth.