Pages 63 - 65: Ontology, Epistemology, Method/Methodology

These three words are at the start of every PhD, you have to be able to defend your ontology (what you believe there is), epistemology (how you believe you can know about what there is) and Method (how you plan to go about knowing what there is).

I absolutely fell in love with my epistemology, that I found through Hanne De Jaegher: Participatory Sense-making. Read more about it here: https://hannedejaegher.net/research/p...

From a practical point of view, if you support people with profound and multiple learning disabilities/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities these types of questions are not as remote as they might seem at first glance. In general we deal with an assumption that meaning is found in words, where as words are one tool for conveying meaning, and meaning extends outside words. The considerations of what there is and how we can know, when applied to meaning without words creates access for those who do not use words. If you have ever questioned whether an activity was meaningful for someone with a profound disability, then thinking about what meaning is in relation to them is worth doing.


You can read a little about this on pages 63-65 of my thesis (which is available for free here: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/497372/ )

The other publications resulting from this work were:

Nind, M and Grace, J (2024) The emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them: a relational reading. Disability & Society, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024...

Grace, J (2024) Fairness, Fruitfulness, Fact: An Argument for the Belonging of People with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities within Research, in Fleming, K & Demissie, F (Ed) Nurturing ‘Difficult Conversations’ in Education Empowerment, Agency and Social Justice in the UK https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/nurturi...

Grace, J. and Nind, M. (2024), "Creating Insight About Inclusion Together With Young People With Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities", in Rose, R. and Shevlin, M. (Ed.) Including Voices (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 23), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3636202...

Grace, J.; Nind, M.; de Haas, C.; Hope, J. (2024) Expanding Possibilities for Inclusive Research: Learning from People with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities and Decolonising Research. Soc. Sci. , 13, 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010037

Grace, J. (2022) Share their picture, say their name. Is it safe to share photos of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities online? The ethics of being presented to the online world. PMLD Link. 34. 3. 103.
www.PMLDlink.org.uk

de Haas, Catherine, Joanna Grace, Joanna Hope, and Melanie Nind. 2022. Doing Research Inclusively: Understanding What It Means to Do Research with and Alongside People with Profound Intellectual Disabilities. Social Sciences 11, 4: 159. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11040159