Derwen College Autism Advisor Helen Evans has been working with student researchers to identify strategies to support autistic students and those with learning difficulties to communicate their thoughts and experiences. Derwen College Communications Officer Eluned Watson found out more about this important project.

Derwen College is proud to be a specialist further education college with a robust tradition of ensuring that learners with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have their say about how they live their lives. The vast majority of students have capacity to make choices about their learning, environment and to make their own life choices, and all are supported to have a ‘voice’. 

The college, where more than half of students are diagnosed as autistic, is represented by students on our Student Union Board. Gaining the perspective of all students on their experiences of college is essential, both ethically and logically, to design, modify and create effective policy and practice.  

At Derwen College, we are aware that it is often still our most articulate or confident learners whose voices are being heard most loudly. Research into SEND learner voice (the National Union of Students and Natspec, 2018) has found that within both mainstream and specialist colleges, it can be a challenge to support learners with more significant needs to have their views heard and articulated. 

Capturing the SEND learner voice at Derwen College  

Derwen College Autism Advisor Helen Evans recognised this bias and set about researching whether enabling students to support each other might be an important step towards a more diverse learner voice. She formulated a small-scale study working collaboratively with two autistic students to elicit the views of eight fellow learners at the specialist further education college (six of whom were also autistic). 

The main aim was to create a model to capture the SEND learner voice. This involved creating a student research group and training them in supporting their peers to express their views. The research group consisted of two autistic students who met with Helen for weekly two-hour sessions throughout one academic term.  

Conducting the study 

Reviewing previous research in this area, Helen found that studies involving students as researchers generally took place in mainstream settings with non-disabled and neurotypical students, using methods which were highly discussion-based. 

Helen explored the use of visual creative research methods, including walking maps and photography, and focused the research project on discovering how students felt in different areas of the college. 

Students were given a floor plan of the college and were asked to colour-code areas according to how they felt as they walked into each space: red to convey strong emotions such as anger; yellow to indicate unease or anxiety; green for calmness, focus or being happy; and blue to symbolise sadness, tiredness or illness. This colour-coding followed the familiar Zones of Regulation format. 

Conclusions from the study 

Responses from participating peers indicated a general feeling of safety in college, yet highlighted a few areas of the site which caused discomfort for some. Four of the maps showed the toilet as a problem area, but further discussion revealed all public toilets were an issue for these individuals. The other area of concern was an overlooked garden area from which students disliked being seen from the road or neighbouring buildings. 

Another research method involved giving students five minutes with a camera and the directive: “Take a photograph of something you don’t like at college or something you’d like to change.” All participants went instantly to the area or object of concern, often with a determined expression or grin on their face. Their photographic responses were printed out and arranged by the researchers. The resulting themes included areas of clutter and the toilet, confirming the results of the walking map activity. 

On conclusion of the research, all of the peers shared that they felt listened to and enjoyed the activities. 

Helen said: “I believe the input of the student researchers in the development of the activities was a strong factor influencing such a positive response from participating peers.” 

She also noted that the two researchers enthusiastically suggested alterations to the map template to include areas that Helen had not thought about. 

She said: “Having researchers who share your experiences gives a shared identity which can open up interaction unattainable by non-disabled researchers.”  

Taking further steps to capture SEND learner voice  

This small study addressed a significant gap in knowledge, specifically on how to represent the ‘voice’ of learners with alternative communication styles. Since then, a larger scale photographic-voice project has taken place at one of the college’s larger sites. The Student Union Board supported each other to identify and visually capture areas where they felt safe on campus using photography. From these images, a safe spaces ‘site map’ was created and displayed to share findings with all students. Students also met with the senior leadership team and governors to present their findings.  

Helen is now working on the formation of a larger student researcher group who will, following an experiential ten-week training programme, initiate their own college-related research question. They will co-design research activities and adapt these to be more accessible, supporting more peers to participate in their research.  

Helen said: “I believe that, with support, students themselves could potentially be the best people to listen to and capture the views of their peers; to hear that all-important ‘voice’.”  

The full article is published in the Good Autism Practice journal: Evans, H. (2021). Quiet voices: using creative research methods to increase participation and the voice of learners often overlooked. Good Autism Practice, 22(1), pp13-23.