John Swain
Biographic Data
| ID | 3927991 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Swain |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Swain |
| SIGNATURE | SWAIN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northumbria University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 286 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Disability Studies
Critical perspectives on user involvement
edited by Marian Barnes and Phil Cotterell, Bristol, The Policy Press, 2012, xxvi + 269 pp., £56.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-84-742751-9, £26.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-84-742750-2 Although there hav
Men with learning difficulties doing research
This paper explores the views of men with learning difficulties living in a secure environment. Reflecting findings from a doctoral thesis based upon a research project where the participants looked at the processes and concepts of research, the dialogues within the study were analysed using critical discourse analysis. Thesis aims relevant here include investigating given ‘truths’ about the positives of having a learning disability. The men are …
Telling stories for a politics of hope
This paper is about listening to voices from an excluded past. The oral history of disabled people challenges accepted, formal history, the history from dominant voices well established in unequal power relations. The paper draws on an oral history project conducted with over 60 visually impaired people who gave detailed accounts, telling stories of their experiences of education. This oral history research was carried out through the medium of t…
Disabling barriers--enabling environments
Organisational simplification and secondary complexity in health services for adults with learning disabilities
Parent-Professional Power Relations
This paper reflects on a small-scale qualitative research study around the establishment of a conductive education centre in a city in the north of England. From the outset, the centre's existence presented a challenge to existing services because the monopoly control of existing professional practice and policy was under question. The research does not offer an evaluation of the effectiveness of conductive education. The task was to examine the …
Voices from Segregated Schooling
This paper considers the notion of ‘inclusion’ in the provision of education for young disabled people in a climate of closing specialist schools. Uniquely, it analyses the judgements of disabled adults on their education and the views and experiences of pupils from a specialist school. Cook argues that understanding experiences of segregation is crucial to the construction of education policies that are truly inclusive. The paper highlights the …
In the name of inclusion
Romantown local education authority (LEA), like other authorities in England and Wales, is adopting a policy of ‘inclusion’ in providing education for young disabled people alongside non-disabled peers. Ostensibly, at least, this is a process of radical change towards institutions which are explicitly designed to cater for all, rather than the ‘integration’ or assimilation of disabled individuals into existing or adapted mainstream provision. We …
Towards an Affirmation Model of Disability
In this paper we argue that a new model of disability is emerging within the literature by disabled people and within disability culture, expressed most clearly by the Disability Arts Movement. For the purposes of discussion we call it the affirmative model. It is essentially a non-tragic view of disability and impairment which encompasses positive social identities, both individual and collective, for disabled people grounded in the benefits of …
What's in a Name? The Implications of Diagnosis for People with Learning Difficulties and their Family Carers
Diagnosis plays a significant role in the shaping of individual identities and the quality of life for people with learning difficulties and their family carers. Diagnostic labels are constitutive of peoples' lives, in that they bring forth pathology, create problem-saturated stories and construct careers as patients and cases. Disabled identities of people with learning difficulties remain largely 'embodied' and within the definitional control o…
Seizing the Moment
Current policy in relation to special needs prioritises early intervention and inclusive education, at least as 'good intentions'. This article argues for a paradigmatic shift away from individualist models of learning and disability. The social context of play is emphasised as the crucial arena for realising such good intentions, as long as it is geared to responding to, and developing, the self-determination, control, and identity of young disa…
Public Research, Private Concerns
This paper is an exploration of the ethical dilemmas in open-ended interview research with people with learning difficulties. We address the possibility that research which gives voice to the experience of abuse, from the viewpoint of the victim, can itself be abusive. Such research is justified in terms of empowering, illuminating and disseminating the meaning that participants give to their lives. Yet every stage of the process raises complex e…
A Risk Management Dilemma
This paper describes a qualitative study which explored the views about challenging behaviour of staff in day centres for people with learning difficulties. Respondents' abstract definitions stressed the relativity of the concept. However, they readily cited concrete illustrate incidents of challenging behaviour which involved physical, sexual and verbal assault, noise, non-compliance, non-communication and exposure to danger. Staff explained spe…
Life History or ‘Case’ History
Case histories of people with learning difficulties tend to privilege information that is useful to professionals, such as IQ and medical diagnosis. Such information allows professionals to slot people with learning difficulties into categories which inform 'treatment' and aid prognosis. Case records, as they are currently constructed, appear to further silence an already oppressed group of people, and to objectify, pathologise and label them. Th…
Alone in the crowd
Disabling Barriers
John Swain, Vic Finkelstein, Sally French and Mike Oliver (Eds). Disabling Barriers: Enabling Environments. London: Sage Publications, 1993. $22.95 papercover
A vocational special college
This paper is based on an ethnographic type study of the say that young people have in the decisions which shape their education and their lives. Such student participation in decision-making is not only a challenge to an essentially authoritarian system in which education is controlled by teachers, politicians and others, it is the foundation of citizenship. The research was undertaken in a newly established, supposedly unique, vocational colleg…
Sex Education Programmes for Students with Severe Learning Difficulties in Further Education and the Problem of Evaluation
This paper is based on a qualitative study of the evaluation of sex education programmes for young people with severe learning difficulties. In an area so fraught with dilemmas and controversies, any such research will be problematic and tentative. The approach to evaluation described here is one which attempts to realise the right of people with learning difficulties to make informed choices. The course aims both to provide students with informa…
Professional/client Relationships
People labelled as mentally handicapped are perhaps the last amongst the various client groups to be considered as autonomous individuals with a say in their own destinies. There is growing pressure on professionals in all fields to relinquish power and control and recognise the inherent problems of attitudes and practices which promote rather than reduce dependency in clients. Even where client groups are recognised as independent and effective …
Towards an Affirmation Model of Disability
In this paper we argue that a new model of disability is emerging within the literature by disabled people and within disability culture, expressed most clearly by the Disability Arts Movement. For the purposes of discussion we call it the affirmative model. It is essentially a non-tragic view of disability and impairment which encompasses positive social identities, both individual and collective, for disabled people grounded in the benefits of …
Disability Studies
Public Research, Private Concerns
This paper is an exploration of the ethical dilemmas in open-ended interview research with people with learning difficulties. We address the possibility that research which gives voice to the experience of abuse, from the viewpoint of the victim, can itself be abusive. Such research is justified in terms of empowering, illuminating and disseminating the meaning that participants give to their lives. Yet every stage of the process raises complex e…
Life History or ‘Case’ History
Case histories of people with learning difficulties tend to privilege information that is useful to professionals, such as IQ and medical diagnosis. Such information allows professionals to slot people with learning difficulties into categories which inform 'treatment' and aid prognosis. Case records, as they are currently constructed, appear to further silence an already oppressed group of people, and to objectify, pathologise and label them. Th…
What's in a Name? The Implications of Diagnosis for People with Learning Difficulties and their Family Carers
Diagnosis plays a significant role in the shaping of individual identities and the quality of life for people with learning difficulties and their family carers. Diagnostic labels are constitutive of peoples' lives, in that they bring forth pathology, create problem-saturated stories and construct careers as patients and cases. Disabled identities of people with learning difficulties remain largely 'embodied' and within the definitional control o…
Telling stories for a politics of hope
This paper is about listening to voices from an excluded past. The oral history of disabled people challenges accepted, formal history, the history from dominant voices well established in unequal power relations. The paper draws on an oral history project conducted with over 60 visually impaired people who gave detailed accounts, telling stories of their experiences of education. This oral history research was carried out through the medium of t…
Voices from Segregated Schooling
This paper considers the notion of ‘inclusion’ in the provision of education for young disabled people in a climate of closing specialist schools. Uniquely, it analyses the judgements of disabled adults on their education and the views and experiences of pupils from a specialist school. Cook argues that understanding experiences of segregation is crucial to the construction of education policies that are truly inclusive. The paper highlights the …
Critical perspectives on user involvement
edited by Marian Barnes and Phil Cotterell, Bristol, The Policy Press, 2012, xxvi + 269 pp., £56.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-84-742751-9, £26.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-84-742750-2 Although there hav
Alone in the crowd
Organisational simplification and secondary complexity in health services for adults with learning disabilities
Parent-Professional Power Relations
This paper reflects on a small-scale qualitative research study around the establishment of a conductive education centre in a city in the north of England. From the outset, the centre's existence presented a challenge to existing services because the monopoly control of existing professional practice and policy was under question. The research does not offer an evaluation of the effectiveness of conductive education. The task was to examine the …
In the name of inclusion
Romantown local education authority (LEA), like other authorities in England and Wales, is adopting a policy of ‘inclusion’ in providing education for young disabled people alongside non-disabled peers. Ostensibly, at least, this is a process of radical change towards institutions which are explicitly designed to cater for all, rather than the ‘integration’ or assimilation of disabled individuals into existing or adapted mainstream provision. We …
A Risk Management Dilemma
This paper describes a qualitative study which explored the views about challenging behaviour of staff in day centres for people with learning difficulties. Respondents' abstract definitions stressed the relativity of the concept. However, they readily cited concrete illustrate incidents of challenging behaviour which involved physical, sexual and verbal assault, noise, non-compliance, non-communication and exposure to danger. Staff explained spe…
Professional/client Relationships
People labelled as mentally handicapped are perhaps the last amongst the various client groups to be considered as autonomous individuals with a say in their own destinies. There is growing pressure on professionals in all fields to relinquish power and control and recognise the inherent problems of attitudes and practices which promote rather than reduce dependency in clients. Even where client groups are recognised as independent and effective …
A vocational special college
This paper is based on an ethnographic type study of the say that young people have in the decisions which shape their education and their lives. Such student participation in decision-making is not only a challenge to an essentially authoritarian system in which education is controlled by teachers, politicians and others, it is the foundation of citizenship. The research was undertaken in a newly established, supposedly unique, vocational colleg…
Sex Education Programmes for Students with Severe Learning Difficulties in Further Education and the Problem of Evaluation
This paper is based on a qualitative study of the evaluation of sex education programmes for young people with severe learning difficulties. In an area so fraught with dilemmas and controversies, any such research will be problematic and tentative. The approach to evaluation described here is one which attempts to realise the right of people with learning difficulties to make informed choices. The course aims both to provide students with informa…
Disabling Barriers
John Swain, Vic Finkelstein, Sally French and Mike Oliver (Eds). Disabling Barriers: Enabling Environments. London: Sage Publications, 1993. $22.95 papercover
Life History or ‘Case’ History
Case histories of people with learning difficulties tend to privilege information that is useful to professionals, such as IQ and medical diagnosis. Such information allows professionals to slot people with learning difficulties into categories which inform 'treatment' and aid prognosis. Case records, as they are currently constructed, appear to further silence an already oppressed group of people, and to objectify, pathologise and label them. Th…
Alone in the crowd
Public Research, Private Concerns
This paper is an exploration of the ethical dilemmas in open-ended interview research with people with learning difficulties. We address the possibility that research which gives voice to the experience of abuse, from the viewpoint of the victim, can itself be abusive. Such research is justified in terms of empowering, illuminating and disseminating the meaning that participants give to their lives. Yet every stage of the process raises complex e…
A Risk Management Dilemma
This paper describes a qualitative study which explored the views about challenging behaviour of staff in day centres for people with learning difficulties. Respondents' abstract definitions stressed the relativity of the concept. However, they readily cited concrete illustrate incidents of challenging behaviour which involved physical, sexual and verbal assault, noise, non-compliance, non-communication and exposure to danger. Staff explained spe…
Seizing the Moment
Current policy in relation to special needs prioritises early intervention and inclusive education, at least as 'good intentions'. This article argues for a paradigmatic shift away from individualist models of learning and disability. The social context of play is emphasised as the crucial arena for realising such good intentions, as long as it is geared to responding to, and developing, the self-determination, control, and identity of young disa…
Towards an Affirmation Model of Disability
In this paper we argue that a new model of disability is emerging within the literature by disabled people and within disability culture, expressed most clearly by the Disability Arts Movement. For the purposes of discussion we call it the affirmative model. It is essentially a non-tragic view of disability and impairment which encompasses positive social identities, both individual and collective, for disabled people grounded in the benefits of …
What's in a Name? The Implications of Diagnosis for People with Learning Difficulties and their Family Carers
Diagnosis plays a significant role in the shaping of individual identities and the quality of life for people with learning difficulties and their family carers. Diagnostic labels are constitutive of peoples' lives, in that they bring forth pathology, create problem-saturated stories and construct careers as patients and cases. Disabled identities of people with learning difficulties remain largely 'embodied' and within the definitional control o…
Voices from Segregated Schooling
This paper considers the notion of ‘inclusion’ in the provision of education for young disabled people in a climate of closing specialist schools. Uniquely, it analyses the judgements of disabled adults on their education and the views and experiences of pupils from a specialist school. Cook argues that understanding experiences of segregation is crucial to the construction of education policies that are truly inclusive. The paper highlights the …
In the name of inclusion
Romantown local education authority (LEA), like other authorities in England and Wales, is adopting a policy of ‘inclusion’ in providing education for young disabled people alongside non-disabled peers. Ostensibly, at least, this is a process of radical change towards institutions which are explicitly designed to cater for all, rather than the ‘integration’ or assimilation of disabled individuals into existing or adapted mainstream provision. We …
Parent-Professional Power Relations
This paper reflects on a small-scale qualitative research study around the establishment of a conductive education centre in a city in the north of England. From the outset, the centre's existence presented a challenge to existing services because the monopoly control of existing professional practice and policy was under question. The research does not offer an evaluation of the effectiveness of conductive education. The task was to examine the …
Disabling barriers--enabling environments
Organisational simplification and secondary complexity in health services for adults with learning disabilities
Telling stories for a politics of hope
This paper is about listening to voices from an excluded past. The oral history of disabled people challenges accepted, formal history, the history from dominant voices well established in unequal power relations. The paper draws on an oral history project conducted with over 60 visually impaired people who gave detailed accounts, telling stories of their experiences of education. This oral history research was carried out through the medium of t…
Disability Studies
Critical perspectives on user involvement
edited by Marian Barnes and Phil Cotterell, Bristol, The Policy Press, 2012, xxvi + 269 pp., £56.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-84-742751-9, £26.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-84-742750-2 Although there hav
Men with learning difficulties doing research
This paper explores the views of men with learning difficulties living in a secure environment. Reflecting findings from a doctoral thesis based upon a research project where the participants looked at the processes and concepts of research, the dialogues within the study were analysed using critical discourse analysis. Thesis aims relevant here include investigating given ‘truths’ about the positives of having a learning disability. The men are …
Psychology (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Political science (11 works) · Disability Rights and Representation (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Healthcare innovation and challenges (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Pedagogy (5 works)