Jan Walmsley
Biographic Data
| ID | 186870 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jan Walmsley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jan |
| FAMILY NAME | Walmsley |
| SIGNATURE | WALMSLEY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Open University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4955-7283 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 144 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Celebrating Thirty Years of Inclusive Research
Inclusive research has been an important way of increasing the understanding of the lives and issues of people with intellectual (learning) disabilities for 30 years. Three authors of this paper, Amanda, J and Kelley, are Australian and have been conducting inclusive research for much of this time. The other three, Danielle, Shaun and Jan, are English. Jan has been doing it for a long time, while the others are relatively new to it. In this paper…
Madhouse
Until the very end of the twentieth century the history of learning difficulties was subsumed into other histories, of psychiatry, of special education and, indeed, of disability. Initiatives to enable people with learning difficulties and their families to record their own histories and contribute to the historical record are both recent and powerful. Much of this work has been led or supported by The Open University’s Social History of Learning…
Working together is like a partnership of entangled knowledge’
While there have been significant developments in the field of inclusive research with people with learning disabilities, there is limited knowledge about the ways inclusive research teams have conducted participatory data analysis. The authors argue this is inherently tied to the sensitivities involved in the inclusive research process. In this article, we present the experiences of two inclusive research teams (from the UK and Australia) who de…
Investigating premature deaths of people with intellectual disabilities
In the light of the Corona Virus pandemic which prematurely killed an unknown number of disabled people, the main purpose of this Current Issue paper is to raise questions about how historians can investigate the subject of premature death given the fact that any records which name individual patients are closed due to ‘patient confidentiality’. It makes links between historic failures to investigate premature death, and recent examples, and argu…
Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth Century
What makes a good self-advocacy project? The added value of co-production
This article describes how two self-advocates worked with two academics and others to produce a toolkit to help self-advocacy groups run better projects. We begin by explaining why this research needed doing and how we carried out the research. We then talk about what co-produced research means to us and how we think it is different from participatory or inclusive research. We discuss whether the research and this article were co-produced. We fin…
The added value of inclusive research
BACKGROUND: The study asks when does inclusive research add value? The authors argue that this is important, given the additional time and cost of co-researching with people with intellectual disabilities. The study is situated in debates about a "second generation" of inclusive research which advocates focussing more on outcomes than process. The authors argue that this is premature, rather the authors propose that inclusive research is valuable…
Intellectual disability
The changing face of parent advocacy
This paper reviews the history of parent advocacy in the UK on behalf of and with people with learning disabilities since the mid-twentieth century and reflects on the role of the academy in illuminating and documenting its story. It argues that parent advocacy has flourished at times of change and challenge, and has seen a revival since austerity began to bite. In the twenty-first century parent advocacy has mutated into working with, rather tha…
Contraceptive decision-making and women with learning disabilities
This article explores contraceptive decision-making for women with learning disabilities. It sets the historical context of reproductive control by highlighting former practices which overtly aimed to prevent women with learning disabilities from conceiving. This is contrasted with a current legislative framework that strongly endorses the human and reproductive rights of women with learning disabilities. The article presents findings from a smal…
Diverse faces of inclusive research
Inclusive research has become an increasing focus of research with people with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper the authors argue that this generalized term covers a range of different approaches to including people with intellectual disabilities in research. Based on three case studies in which the authors were academic researchers the paper explores different approaches to inclusive research, raise…
The silence is roaring’
This paper reviews the history of sterilization of women with intellectual disabilities, and considers its relevance to current practice regarding reproductive choice and futures. The paper provides an overview of published research on historical practices, focusing on the UK, the US, Canada and the Nordic countries. Most of this research draws upon written records, centering on eugenics debates. However, emerging oral history testimonies gathere…
Disability and discourse
History from the inside
This paper reviews the place of the ‘voice’ in the history of intellectual disability, drawing principally on developments in the UK, but also making reference to comparative developments in other countries. Various approaches have been used by research historians to collect and represent the voices of those involved in this history; including biographical reconstruction, oral history, institutional histories and life histories. In response to th…
Historical perspectives on special education, 1890–1970
In the light of continuing controversy over the role of special schools in England, this paper considers the development of special education through examination of evidence from two different geographical areas. Particular reference is made to uncovering the perspectives of those who were subject to the policies – children and their families – drawing on documentary sources, oral history and biographies. The authors highlight how the relative op…
Oral History, Health and Welfare
Oral History, Health and Welfare discusses the significance of oral history to the history of the development of health and welfare provisions. It includes discussion on: * the end of the workhouse * professional education and training of midwives * HIV and Aids * birth control * the role of the community pharmacist * pioneers of geriatric medicine * oral history and the history of learning disability
Normalisation, Emancipatory Research and Inclusive Research in Learning Disability
In this article I set out to trace the influence of two major sets of ideas: normalisation/srv, and the social model of disability on inclusive research in learning disability. The argument is that normalisation set the agenda for learning disability research for two or more decades. Inclusive researchers continue to apply normalisation thinking to work with people with learning difficulties, particularly in assuming the role of advocate - offeri…
The development of community care for people with learning difficulties 1913 to 1946
This article explores from an historical perspective the emerging debates on the similarities and differences between community care and institutional care. While institutional care has been widely condemned, community care has been welcomed as offering greater opportunities for adults who have long term care needs. We argue, however, that it is more helpful to regard institutional and community care as a continuum, and draw on our ongoing resear…
Using Autobiographical Approaches with People with Learning Difficulties
Biography and autobiography have been used in numerous ways to represent people with learning difficulties. In this paper we review a variety of approaches to biography and autobiography with people with learning difficulties, and discuss the roles researchers play. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential of autobiography as a means to change the power relationships in disability research
Speak Out with Other People
Contradictions in Caring
In this article the author draws on research into the experiences of women with learning difficulties and shows that they very often find themselves in caring roles, and like other women find them both sustaining and frustrating. Drawing a clear distinction between carer and dependant is frequently impossible: both parties in the caring relationship both give and receive. There can be reciprocity and interdependence. Care and dependence are seen …
Women First
‘Talking to Top People’
The author discusses the citizenship of people with learning difficulties (mental handicap). Whilst there is evidence that people with learning difficulties can develop the skills required of ‘active citizens’, there are many socio-structural and ideological barriers to the exercise of full citizenship rights by people with learning difficulties. In addition, the citizenship claims of other groups, particularly women, are likely to be in conflict…
Normalisation, Emancipatory Research and Inclusive Research in Learning Disability
In this article I set out to trace the influence of two major sets of ideas: normalisation/srv, and the social model of disability on inclusive research in learning disability. The argument is that normalisation set the agenda for learning disability research for two or more decades. Inclusive researchers continue to apply normalisation thinking to work with people with learning difficulties, particularly in assuming the role of advocate - offeri…
The silence is roaring’
This paper reviews the history of sterilization of women with intellectual disabilities, and considers its relevance to current practice regarding reproductive choice and futures. The paper provides an overview of published research on historical practices, focusing on the UK, the US, Canada and the Nordic countries. Most of this research draws upon written records, centering on eugenics debates. However, emerging oral history testimonies gathere…
Using Autobiographical Approaches with People with Learning Difficulties
Biography and autobiography have been used in numerous ways to represent people with learning difficulties. In this paper we review a variety of approaches to biography and autobiography with people with learning difficulties, and discuss the roles researchers play. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential of autobiography as a means to change the power relationships in disability research
What makes a good self-advocacy project? The added value of co-production
This article describes how two self-advocates worked with two academics and others to produce a toolkit to help self-advocacy groups run better projects. We begin by explaining why this research needed doing and how we carried out the research. We then talk about what co-produced research means to us and how we think it is different from participatory or inclusive research. We discuss whether the research and this article were co-produced. We fin…
Diverse faces of inclusive research
Inclusive research has become an increasing focus of research with people with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper the authors argue that this generalized term covers a range of different approaches to including people with intellectual disabilities in research. Based on three case studies in which the authors were academic researchers the paper explores different approaches to inclusive research, raise…
Celebrating Thirty Years of Inclusive Research
Inclusive research has been an important way of increasing the understanding of the lives and issues of people with intellectual (learning) disabilities for 30 years. Three authors of this paper, Amanda, J and Kelley, are Australian and have been conducting inclusive research for much of this time. The other three, Danielle, Shaun and Jan, are English. Jan has been doing it for a long time, while the others are relatively new to it. In this paper…
History from the inside
This paper reviews the place of the ‘voice’ in the history of intellectual disability, drawing principally on developments in the UK, but also making reference to comparative developments in other countries. Various approaches have been used by research historians to collect and represent the voices of those involved in this history; including biographical reconstruction, oral history, institutional histories and life histories. In response to th…
The changing face of parent advocacy
This paper reviews the history of parent advocacy in the UK on behalf of and with people with learning disabilities since the mid-twentieth century and reflects on the role of the academy in illuminating and documenting its story. It argues that parent advocacy has flourished at times of change and challenge, and has seen a revival since austerity began to bite. In the twenty-first century parent advocacy has mutated into working with, rather tha…
Working together is like a partnership of entangled knowledge’
While there have been significant developments in the field of inclusive research with people with learning disabilities, there is limited knowledge about the ways inclusive research teams have conducted participatory data analysis. The authors argue this is inherently tied to the sensitivities involved in the inclusive research process. In this article, we present the experiences of two inclusive research teams (from the UK and Australia) who de…
Investigating premature deaths of people with intellectual disabilities
In the light of the Corona Virus pandemic which prematurely killed an unknown number of disabled people, the main purpose of this Current Issue paper is to raise questions about how historians can investigate the subject of premature death given the fact that any records which name individual patients are closed due to ‘patient confidentiality’. It makes links between historic failures to investigate premature death, and recent examples, and argu…
Historical perspectives on special education, 1890–1970
In the light of continuing controversy over the role of special schools in England, this paper considers the development of special education through examination of evidence from two different geographical areas. Particular reference is made to uncovering the perspectives of those who were subject to the policies – children and their families – drawing on documentary sources, oral history and biographies. The authors highlight how the relative op…
‘Talking to Top People’
The author discusses the citizenship of people with learning difficulties (mental handicap). Whilst there is evidence that people with learning difficulties can develop the skills required of ‘active citizens’, there are many socio-structural and ideological barriers to the exercise of full citizenship rights by people with learning difficulties. In addition, the citizenship claims of other groups, particularly women, are likely to be in conflict…
Contradictions in Caring
In this article the author draws on research into the experiences of women with learning difficulties and shows that they very often find themselves in caring roles, and like other women find them both sustaining and frustrating. Drawing a clear distinction between carer and dependant is frequently impossible: both parties in the caring relationship both give and receive. There can be reciprocity and interdependence. Care and dependence are seen …
Women First
Speak Out with Other People
Using Autobiographical Approaches with People with Learning Difficulties
Biography and autobiography have been used in numerous ways to represent people with learning difficulties. In this paper we review a variety of approaches to biography and autobiography with people with learning difficulties, and discuss the roles researchers play. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential of autobiography as a means to change the power relationships in disability research
Normalisation, Emancipatory Research and Inclusive Research in Learning Disability
In this article I set out to trace the influence of two major sets of ideas: normalisation/srv, and the social model of disability on inclusive research in learning disability. The argument is that normalisation set the agenda for learning disability research for two or more decades. Inclusive researchers continue to apply normalisation thinking to work with people with learning difficulties, particularly in assuming the role of advocate - offeri…
The development of community care for people with learning difficulties 1913 to 1946
This article explores from an historical perspective the emerging debates on the similarities and differences between community care and institutional care. While institutional care has been widely condemned, community care has been welcomed as offering greater opportunities for adults who have long term care needs. We argue, however, that it is more helpful to regard institutional and community care as a continuum, and draw on our ongoing resear…
Oral History, Health and Welfare
Oral History, Health and Welfare discusses the significance of oral history to the history of the development of health and welfare provisions. It includes discussion on: * the end of the workhouse * professional education and training of midwives * HIV and Aids * birth control * the role of the community pharmacist * pioneers of geriatric medicine * oral history and the history of learning disability
Historical perspectives on special education, 1890–1970
In the light of continuing controversy over the role of special schools in England, this paper considers the development of special education through examination of evidence from two different geographical areas. Particular reference is made to uncovering the perspectives of those who were subject to the policies – children and their families – drawing on documentary sources, oral history and biographies. The authors highlight how the relative op…
History from the inside
This paper reviews the place of the ‘voice’ in the history of intellectual disability, drawing principally on developments in the UK, but also making reference to comparative developments in other countries. Various approaches have been used by research historians to collect and represent the voices of those involved in this history; including biographical reconstruction, oral history, institutional histories and life histories. In response to th…
Disability and discourse
The silence is roaring’
This paper reviews the history of sterilization of women with intellectual disabilities, and considers its relevance to current practice regarding reproductive choice and futures. The paper provides an overview of published research on historical practices, focusing on the UK, the US, Canada and the Nordic countries. Most of this research draws upon written records, centering on eugenics debates. However, emerging oral history testimonies gathere…
Diverse faces of inclusive research
Inclusive research has become an increasing focus of research with people with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper the authors argue that this generalized term covers a range of different approaches to including people with intellectual disabilities in research. Based on three case studies in which the authors were academic researchers the paper explores different approaches to inclusive research, raise…
Contraceptive decision-making and women with learning disabilities
This article explores contraceptive decision-making for women with learning disabilities. It sets the historical context of reproductive control by highlighting former practices which overtly aimed to prevent women with learning disabilities from conceiving. This is contrasted with a current legislative framework that strongly endorses the human and reproductive rights of women with learning disabilities. The article presents findings from a smal…
The changing face of parent advocacy
This paper reviews the history of parent advocacy in the UK on behalf of and with people with learning disabilities since the mid-twentieth century and reflects on the role of the academy in illuminating and documenting its story. It argues that parent advocacy has flourished at times of change and challenge, and has seen a revival since austerity began to bite. In the twenty-first century parent advocacy has mutated into working with, rather tha…
The added value of inclusive research
BACKGROUND: The study asks when does inclusive research add value? The authors argue that this is important, given the additional time and cost of co-researching with people with intellectual disabilities. The study is situated in debates about a "second generation" of inclusive research which advocates focussing more on outcomes than process. The authors argue that this is premature, rather the authors propose that inclusive research is valuable…
Intellectual disability
Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth Century
What makes a good self-advocacy project? The added value of co-production
This article describes how two self-advocates worked with two academics and others to produce a toolkit to help self-advocacy groups run better projects. We begin by explaining why this research needed doing and how we carried out the research. We then talk about what co-produced research means to us and how we think it is different from participatory or inclusive research. We discuss whether the research and this article were co-produced. We fin…
Investigating premature deaths of people with intellectual disabilities
In the light of the Corona Virus pandemic which prematurely killed an unknown number of disabled people, the main purpose of this Current Issue paper is to raise questions about how historians can investigate the subject of premature death given the fact that any records which name individual patients are closed due to ‘patient confidentiality’. It makes links between historic failures to investigate premature death, and recent examples, and argu…
Madhouse
Until the very end of the twentieth century the history of learning difficulties was subsumed into other histories, of psychiatry, of special education and, indeed, of disability. Initiatives to enable people with learning difficulties and their families to record their own histories and contribute to the historical record are both recent and powerful. Much of this work has been led or supported by The Open University’s Social History of Learning…
Working together is like a partnership of entangled knowledge’
While there have been significant developments in the field of inclusive research with people with learning disabilities, there is limited knowledge about the ways inclusive research teams have conducted participatory data analysis. The authors argue this is inherently tied to the sensitivities involved in the inclusive research process. In this article, we present the experiences of two inclusive research teams (from the UK and Australia) who de…
Celebrating Thirty Years of Inclusive Research
Inclusive research has been an important way of increasing the understanding of the lives and issues of people with intellectual (learning) disabilities for 30 years. Three authors of this paper, Amanda, J and Kelley, are Australian and have been conducting inclusive research for much of this time. The other three, Danielle, Shaun and Jan, are English. Jan has been doing it for a long time, while the others are relatively new to it. In this paper…
Sociology (21 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Disability Rights and Representation (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Law (10 works) · Healthcare innovation and challenges (9 works) · Intellectual disability (8 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Learning disability (7 works) · Public relations (7 works)