'We aren't heroes, we're survivors': higher education as an opportunity for students with disabilities to reinvent an identity. Issue 2 (4th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Moriña, Anabel
• Is Part Of: Journal of further and higher education. Volume 41:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 215
• Page End: 226
• Publication Date: 2017-03-04
• Subjects: Students with disabilities -- higher education -- inclusive education -- resilience -- biographical narrative methodology; Education, Higher -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Education -- Periodicals; 374.941
• DOI: 10.1080/0309877X.2015.1070402
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-877X

Abstract

Abstract: The partial results of ongoing research in the 'University Barriers and Aids Identified by Students with Disabilities' Project are presented. This four-year study (2011–2014) was carried out by a University of Seville research team with lecturers from a variety of fields and areas of knowledge (Educational Sciences, Economics, Health Sciences and Experimental Sciences). The general aim was to discover, from listening to the students themselves, barriers and aids they identified as affecting access, academic performance and overall perception of their higher education experience. The biographical narrative method, which allows the participants to talk freely about themselves without silencing their subjectivity, was used. This information was acquired by data collection techniques, such as in-depth interviews, observations, photographs and interviews with key persons in the life of each student. A structural analysis was implemented using an inductive system of categories and codes included in the MaxODA10 data analysis program. This study revealed the most personal and private feelings of the participants as they discussed such things as their perception as students, identification of disabilities or their strategies for facing 'adversities'. The discourse revealed higher education as a privileged scenario in which they are socially included and able to reinvent an identity that may have deteriorated during other stages of their education.