Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy

This brief communication is the account of an emancipatory learning journey between a doctoral dissertationwriter and supervisor. In the spring of 2022, we started down a path of pushing boundaries and working through normative expectations and perceived rigidities of qualitative research. Coming fr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Leigh Graves Wolf, Jacob C. Bunch
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1310
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850208843756208128
author Leigh Graves Wolf
Jacob C. Bunch
author_facet Leigh Graves Wolf
Jacob C. Bunch
author_sort Leigh Graves Wolf
collection DOAJ
description This brief communication is the account of an emancipatory learning journey between a doctoral dissertationwriter and supervisor. In the spring of 2022, we started down a path of pushing boundaries and working through normative expectations and perceived rigidities of qualitative research. Coming from the perspectives of a disabled, first-generation doctoral researcher with Cerebral Palsy and multiple learning disabilities, and a first-generation faculty member with a chronic disease (endometriosis), this opinion piece will invite readers into a conversation which explains how the experience of the dissertation mentoring process raised our consciousness of educational trauma, ableism, and its intersection with knowledge production, specifically in the realm of qualitative inquiry. We will explore how caring and critical pedagogies supported the development of a genre-busting dissertation, which heavily integrated multimodal explorations to examine assistive technology lifeworlds from the perspective of postsecondary students with dyslexia. Through the dissertation analysis, innovative and inclusive qualitative methodological processes were developed. By rooting the experiences in care, both researcher and supervisor found joy through a process which can often be isolating, especially in an entirely online modality. At the core, the brief conversation presented explores: how did the innovations that came from the experience emancipate and restore the researcher, co-partners, and guiding faculty?
format Article
id doaj-art-88ff68b3e4e54d098bc80c4529e17b72
institution OA Journals
issn 1759-667X
language English
publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)
record_format Article
series Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
spelling doaj-art-88ff68b3e4e54d098bc80c4529e17b722025-08-20T02:10:09ZengAssociation for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education1759-667X2025-03-013510.47408/jldhe.vi35.1310Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogyLeigh Graves Wolf0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7078-1832Jacob C. Bunch1https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3983-5018University College DublinArizona State University This brief communication is the account of an emancipatory learning journey between a doctoral dissertationwriter and supervisor. In the spring of 2022, we started down a path of pushing boundaries and working through normative expectations and perceived rigidities of qualitative research. Coming from the perspectives of a disabled, first-generation doctoral researcher with Cerebral Palsy and multiple learning disabilities, and a first-generation faculty member with a chronic disease (endometriosis), this opinion piece will invite readers into a conversation which explains how the experience of the dissertation mentoring process raised our consciousness of educational trauma, ableism, and its intersection with knowledge production, specifically in the realm of qualitative inquiry. We will explore how caring and critical pedagogies supported the development of a genre-busting dissertation, which heavily integrated multimodal explorations to examine assistive technology lifeworlds from the perspective of postsecondary students with dyslexia. Through the dissertation analysis, innovative and inclusive qualitative methodological processes were developed. By rooting the experiences in care, both researcher and supervisor found joy through a process which can often be isolating, especially in an entirely online modality. At the core, the brief conversation presented explores: how did the innovations that came from the experience emancipate and restore the researcher, co-partners, and guiding faculty? https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1310critical disability studiesemancipatory pedagogypedagogy of carecritical qualitative inquiry
spellingShingle Leigh Graves Wolf
Jacob C. Bunch
Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
critical disability studies
emancipatory pedagogy
pedagogy of care
critical qualitative inquiry
title Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
title_full Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
title_fullStr Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
title_full_unstemmed Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
title_short Myth busters: centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
title_sort myth busters centring disability and displacing ableism through reimagining dissertation mentoring with care and critical pedagogy
topic critical disability studies
emancipatory pedagogy
pedagogy of care
critical qualitative inquiry
url https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1310
work_keys_str_mv AT leighgraveswolf mythbusterscentringdisabilityanddisplacingableismthroughreimaginingdissertationmentoringwithcareandcriticalpedagogy
AT jacobcbunch mythbusterscentringdisabilityanddisplacingableismthroughreimaginingdissertationmentoringwithcareandcriticalpedagogy