The PMLD Ambiguity

Dr Ben Simmons is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol. His long-standing research interests involve developing understandings about the agency, lived experiences, and inclusion of children with PMLD. He is particularly interested in the application of phenomenology and consciousness studies to these issues. Before joining Bristol, he was a Qualitative Researcher at the Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford, where he developed an online information resource about arthritis in young people. Prior to this, he was a research assistant at the University of Exeter and Plymouth University, supporting projects in the fields of special education, inclusion, and outdoor pedagogy. He also worked as a researcher and support worker for third-sector disability organisations, including Scope and Mencap. Dr Debbie Watson is a Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. She is a qualified secondary school teacher and has a PhD in Education from the University of Exeter (1998). Her research interests focus on understanding and improving children's wellbeing, particularly in school contexts; rights-based approaches to working with children and young people; diversity and children's identities; educational inclusion; and supporting children and families in inclusive services. Her current and recent research projects include projects developing postgraduate training for children's advocates in Egypt and Jordan, quality in family support provisions, services for young disadvantaged children and post adoption support. She has long held interests in theorising children's experiences of diversity and in developing methodologies that enable children and young people's participation in research.

Preface -- Exploring “PMLD” -- Behaviourism -- Cognitivism -- Phenomenology -- Interpreting Sam: the search for a sensitive methodology -- Sam’s life-worlds: subjectivities and intersubjectivities -- Concluding discussion: negotiating ambiguity as a means to the life-world