“He did not want to tell me and so I did not push”: Researchers' experiences of navigating ethnographic data collection in a special school

<p>Learning-disabled children and young people experience systemic barriers to their inclusion in research, and researcher expertise and experience can either act as one of those barriers or as a facilitator. Researcher accounts of conducting research with learning-disabled children and young people can provide useful insights into practices that facilitate inclusion, yet such accounts are scarce. This study presents a secondary analysis of ethnographic data collected by four researchers during a study exploring the communication preferences of learning-disabled students in a special school setting in the North of England. It focuses on the researchers’ reflections on their own experiences of data collection, as captured in their fieldnotes. Four themes were developed using thematic analysis: (1) Moving beyond a "one size fits all" approach; (2) The importance of relationships; (3) Researching as an outsider/insider; (4) Why it matters who does the research. Findings highlight the positive, yet sometimes challenging, experiences of working with learning-disabled students in a special school setting, and contribute to the knowledge base on supporting inclusive practices for qualitative research with learning-disabled participants. Suggestions for how researchers can develop strategies to navigate the challenges they may encounter during data collection are discussed.</p>