‘Drawing’ on disabled students’ experiences of physical education and stakeholder responses

Abstract

Within education generally and more specifically physical education inclusion has become a central concern of legislation, policy and programming. Set within an environment where there is much talk of inclusion this paper seeks to interrogate adult stakeholders’ understandings of inclusion by exploring their responses to the drawings and commentary of young disabled students’ experiences of mainstream physical education. By engaging in this research in this way I attempt to ‘connect’ these conversations about inclusion. Four main themes emerged from these data including: (1) ‘activity setting’; (2) ‘enjoying physical education’; (3) ‘challenging practice’; and (4) ‘stakeholder empathy’. In concluding, this paper highlights the contradictory and inconsistent views stakeholders express about inclusion. Furthermore, the utility of adopting a data generation strategy incorporating student drawings and stakeholder responses is reflected upon.