The Speakers
The Speakers
Drawing upon my lived expertise as an autistic researcher, this presentation reflects on the challenges associated with the fatigue and emotional toll of conducting research as a PhD student especially when it comes to respectfully representing my community and creating meaningful change.
This critical reflection highlights how fatigue impacts autistic researchers at a core level, shaping the quality and meaningfulness of research produced. It encourages contemplation of the hurdles facing autistic researchers within a predominantly neurotypical space, emphasising the importance of supporting autistic researchers already in the field and the inclusion of autistic voices at every level of research.
Questions of representation, identity and boundaries underpin the intensity of the emotional toll and are intertwined with the difficulties of legitimising alternative perspectives within discourses on autism.
Writing as an autistic researcher comes with its own trauma—I am inextricable from my research topic. How can I leave my research behind at the end of the day when my life is part of the research?
My experiences do not represent all autistic voices; however, they raise key questions to encourage reflection on an individual and institutional basis. Do existing frameworks and practices actively empower autistic researchers? Have the voices of autistic people shaped such approaches?
The meaningful inclusion of autistic people cannot happen without an openness to adapt and a recognition of individual voices and experiences.
Lucie is a first year PhD student within the Autism Research Centre. Her work focuses on the presence of inequalities for autistic students within Higher Education and the ways in which inequalities are generated and sustained. The inclusion of lived experience, and subsequent empowerment of participants and autistic voices, plays a crucial role in her research.
Black girls in UK schools are frequently misrecognised, adultified and marginalised. This study, undertaken in Southwark and Lambeth and grounded in Milk Honey Bees’ See Us, Hear Us report, explores how cultural humility, a lifelong process of self-reflection, critical awareness and active redress of power imbalances, can help to close the gap between educator intention and Black girls’ lived realities. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, Milk Honey Bees facilitated a creative-expression workshop and student focus group, producing artefacts and narratives that vividly illustrate daily experiences. Parallel online focus groups with parents and educators provided wider perspectives, while surveys were completed by 37 Black and Black-Mixed-Race students and 36 staff members.
Findings reveal a clear visibility gap. While 86% of teachers report asking questions when unsure, only 32% of girls perceive such curiosity. 89% of staff say they show interest in cultural identity, yet just 39% of students agree. 42% of girls report discrimination from teachers and 35% from peers, but no student elaborates, suggesting low psychological safety. Four themes recur: misrecognition and stereotyping, adultification and disproportionate discipline, emotional containment, and unmet needs for representation and healing.
Cultural humility was operationalised through educator surveys exploring self-reflection, openness and curiosity, and discussions with parents addressing lifelong learning and power dynamics. Our evidence shows that intent is not impact. Embedding cultural humility through reflective supervision, youth-led feedback and accountability structures can promote equity, mental health protection and Black-girl joy, defined as resistance, self-definition, and the right to thrive beyond survival.
Jade Ecobichon-Gray is a Social Wellness and EDI Consultant, Cultural Humility Educator, and funded PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on the educational progression of care-experienced students, examining how identity, equity, and institutional practice shape access and outcomes. With over a decade of experience, she has worked across education, the public sector, and justice settings to support meaningful systemic reform. Jade specialises in helping organisations move beyond statements of intent to embedding equity, cultural humility, and wellbeing into everyday practice, creating environments where inclusion is both lived and sustainable.
Background:
People with Intellectual disabilities (ID) experience the same health conditions as the general population but at higher rates and often with more comorbidities. Despite these greater needs, they face poorer health outcomes and healthcare inequalities. These disparities are frequently linked to barriers such as communication difficulties and limited accessibility within healthcare systems. However, a critical factor is the insufficient disability-specific training in medical education, which can leave doctors with limited knowledge and confidence to provide equitable care.
Methodology:
This study evaluated the impact of a co-produced teaching intervention on second-year medical students across two cohorts (2024 and 2025). The intervention comprised lectures covering the social model of disability, healthcare inequities and communication strategies, followed by an interactive workshop co-led by people with ID. Pre- and post-training questionnaires assessed students’ definitional knowledge, self-reported confidence, and prior experience interacting with individuals with ID.
Results:
Across both cohorts, knowledge scores showed a positive shift towards more partially correct answers, though improvements were not statistically significant. In contrast, students’ confidence in working with people with ID increased significantly after the intervention. Prior experience correlated with higher baseline confidence but did not change across time points, indicating it did not act as a confounding variable.
Conclusion:
These findings highlight the value of co-produced, experiential teaching in enhancing medical students’ confidence, while also suggesting potential for knowledge development. Embedding such approaches into medical curricula may be an important step towards reducing healthcare inequalities and improving the quality of care for people with ID
Maria studied Special Education at the University of Thessaly and completed a Master’s in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at the University of Kent. She has worked in schools as a teacher and in organisations supporting people with disabilities. She is a first-year PhD student in Education at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on making schools accessible to autistic students as well as to those with vision impairments. Across both her academic and practical experience, her aim has always been to improve the quality of life and ensure the fulfilment of rights for people with disabilities.
Trigger warnings for pregnancy, mental health issues, trauma, suicide and childhood sexual abuse
As insider researchers, we have the opportunity to bring unique perspectives that can help educate and inspire others. In this presentation, we will share our personal experiences of using a Heuristic Inquiry approach and reflect on how this has led to transformation—not only in ourselves, but also in our participants and, more broadly, in our educational communities.
We will explore what it means to share our own stories in our two different research projects (exploring the autistic experience of maternity services, and intrafamilial child sexual abuse survivors' experiences of primary school). We will touch on difficult or even traumatic experiences. While being open and vulnerable can be emotionally challenging throughout the research process, we have found that it can also be deeply meaningful. This openness has helped us build trust and connection with participants and has made our dissemination materials memorable and impactful. By weaving together our voices with those of our participants, we hope to amplify lived experiences and foster genuine understanding.
Throughout the presentation, we will discuss why we have chosen this approach, what it looks like in practice, and how it can lead to positive change for ourselves, in others and in educational settings.
Doctoral Researcher in the Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs Department.
My research focusses on inclusive and trauma-responsive practice in education. I am particularly interested in interpretive methodology and ethical application of heuristic inquiry and autoethnographic research. My PhD investigates primary school experiences with women survivors who have living experience of intrafamilial child sexual abuse by an adult male within their family environment. I aim to find ways of supporting staff in school contexts to provide appropriate responses for children. I also wish to raise awareness, promote conversation and counter silencing and marginalisation for the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.
Working from a diverse teaching background in primary school, creative arts and further education, I progressed to managing outstanding Inclusion and Special Educational Needs provision at a large further education and landbased college. Professional curiosity and drive to make a difference for young people led to further training and exploration of neurodiverse perspectives. I have a master’s degree in inclusion and special educational needs and am a dyslexia specialist qualified to conduct diagnostic assessments.
Across the world, many children and young people (CYP) are educated outside of mainstream schools. In England, this increasingly takes place within Alternative Provision (AP) - education settings designed for school aged CYP who have been excluded from, or cannot attend, mainstream school, often due to behavioural or additional support needs. The AP sector is characterised by significant educational inequalities: CYP in AP typically achieve lower academic outcomes, experience poorer long-term wellbeing, and are more likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have special educational needs and disabilities, or belong to specific minoritised ethnic groups.
Understanding the perspectives of these young people is essential to addressing these inequalities. This presentation draws on a systematic narrative review that explored the methodologies used to access and represent the voices of CYP in English AP. The review evaluated how these methodologies positioned CYP’s authentic voice, employing Biggs’ (1989) participatory framework alongside a transformative paradigm to examine and classify the methodology used to access and represent CYP’s views and experiences. The review identified a wide range of approaches used to engage CYP, revealing differing assumptions about young people’s agency within the research process. However, it also highlighted an overreliance on semi-structured interviews and a limited use of more creative or participatory methods. The presentation concludes by calling for greater methodological innovation and reflexivity in participatory research with CYP in AP, ensuring that their voices do not simply inform academic work but actively shape policy and practice towards more equitable educational futures.
Lucy is a second-year ESRC-funded doctoral student in Education at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on alternative provision, inclusion and exclusion, and participatory approaches to working with children and young people. Lucy’s interest in these areas developed through her studies in Education and her experience working with children in Birmingham. Her research explores how young people experience movement between alternative provision and mainstream school. The project aims to map local authority reintegration practices, capture young people’s lived experiences, and develop a student-centred framework to support reintegration between alternative provision and mainstream schools.
Current trends show that there is an insufficient number of teachers who are recruited and retained, meaning that there is a national shortage in many subject areas. There is ongoing national interest within the recruitment, retention and development of Early Career Teachers (ECTs), further to the development of the national Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in 2019. There have been recent evaluations of the national rollout of the Early Career Framework (ECF); approaches to teacher development continue to be a subject of academic research and scrutiny. However, research into induction policy enactment, lived experiences of ECTs and the effect of induction on teacher retention remain limited, partly due to the current ECT induction process still being a relatively new policy. This study investigates the induction experiences of ECTs, ECT mentors and induction tutors from schools within a geographical Teaching School Hub area in the West Midlands region, with a focus on teacher retention. The literature review draws on existing global research into teacher induction and retention to develop a conceptual framework. Within forthcoming data collection, documentary analysis will be utilised to consider the role of retention in current national induction policy and ECF training programme provision, before using semi-structured individual interviews to gather data from ECT mentors (n=5-10) and induction tutors (n=5), as well as focus groups of ECTs (n=20-30). There is a longitudinal aspect to the study where ECT experiences of induction will be monitored over a one-year period, with repeated data collection from ECTs involved in the study.
Luke is a part-time EdD student and a full-time Appropriate Body Lead for the Star Teaching School Hub (Birmingham South). Luke is a qualified secondary modern languages teacher with nearly fifteen years of experience in diverse educational roles. He has taught and led within the sector across the West Midlands. His career focus has been on teacher recruitment, early career teacher development and teacher support.
Luke’s doctoral research focuses on the current induction processes for early career teachers (ECTs) in England. Luke is investigating how current policy is experienced by ECTs and those who support them throughout their induction period.
Leadership in higher education is often discussed in terms of vision, strategy, and innovation. However, as shown by assurance and accreditation bodies, it is less visible and harder to measure at the classroom level. This presentation explores how visionary leadership can be observed through everyday teaching and learning practices, using the engineering and management practices as a context.
The project investigates the concept of artificial wisdom, a form of intelligent guidance that connects institutional values, decision-making, and emerging technologies. For that, we use Large Language Models (LLMs) , (which is a type of AI system that is trained to understand and generate a high-level languages), as a tool to examine how feedback practices reflect leadership qualities.
Through a small-scale teaching and learning tool developed within the School of Engineering, we explore whether AI can help shape a more reflective and value-aligned feedback process. The study focuses on how LLMs might support both staff and students in understanding feedback not just as an academic exercise, but as a leadership behaviour that promotes growth, resilience, and shared vision.
This presentation will share early findings on how AI-driven feedback can enhance leadership visibility in higher education classrooms. It will also discuss implications for institutional growth, decision-making, and the responsible use of generative AI to support educational leadership.".
Logayna is a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham with a background in Electronics and Computer Engineering and a master’s in Educational Leadership and Management. Her research explores how Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models (LLMs) can enhance feedback and leadership practices in higher education. Alongside her research, she serves as a part-time Academic Registrar, leading on curriculum design, accreditation, and institutional development. Bridging technology and education, Logayna’s work focuses on how data-informed and values-driven innovation can strengthen decision-making, foster resilience, and support visionary leadership across universities.
Trigger warnings for pregnancy, mental health issues, trauma, suicide and childhood sexual abuse
As insider researchers, we have the opportunity to bring unique perspectives that can help educate and inspire others. In this presentation, we will share our personal experiences of using a Heuristic Inquiry approach and reflect on how this has led to transformation—not only in ourselves, but also in our participants and, more broadly, in our educational communities.
We will explore what it means to share our own stories in our two different research projects (exploring the autistic experience of maternity services, and intrafamilial child sexual abuse survivors' experiences of primary school). We will touch on difficult or even traumatic experiences. While being open and vulnerable can be emotionally challenging throughout the research process, we have found that it can also be deeply meaningful. This openness has helped us build trust and connection with participants and has made our dissemination materials memorable and impactful. By weaving together our voices with those of our participants, we hope to amplify lived experiences and foster genuine understanding.
Throughout the presentation, we will discuss why we have chosen this approach, what it looks like in practice, and how it can lead to positive change for ourselves, in others and in educational settings.
Doctoral Researcher with the Autism Centre for Education and Research (ACER)
I am a Doctoral Researcher studying for her PhD with the Autism Centre for Education and Research (ACER) at the University of Birmingham. My PGDip (Autism Adults) explored the autistic experience of pregnancy and birth. My PhD further developed this by exploring autistic women and birthing people’s experiences of maternity services and maternity staff understanding and experience of supporting autistic people. I am the Vice Chair of the Maternity Autism Research Group (MARG).
I am autistic, with other autistic and neurodivergent family members. I work as an autism trainer, consultant and mentor, and am committed to learning more about autistic people’s experiences to help improve services. I have developed and delivered training for a wide range of organisations including social workers, teachers, mental health practitioners, midwives, NHS staff and employer organisations in the private sector. For the last eight years, I have facilitated topic-based peer support discussion groups for autistic women for local organisations that provide specialist autism support.
As I continue developing my literature review, I want to share with other PGRs how I am conducting my search and the steps I have taken so far. Key themes include informal exclusions and minoritised groups (ethnicity), viewed through the lens of Critical Race Theory. I aim to offer ideas and encourage other PGRs to consider different approaches for their own literature searches. Initially, I sought support from the Academic Skills Centre through the library to complement completing the online Canvas course by attending a one-to-one session with a Library Team Advisor. This was an excellent starting point, providing resources that helped guide and organise the core concepts of my research, such as structural inequalities and disciplinary practices, which effectively initiated my literature review process. My original research design included both young people and adults as participants. However, practical and ethical challenges like attrition, participant vulnerability, and navigating the ethics review process led me to refocus my approach on including only adult professionals. I recognise that critical self-evaluation and flexibility are vital when addressing complex social issues. As a result, I have slightly revised my methods and research questions based on an updated review of the literature, to ensure coherence and a firm critical foundation, especially in line with the framework of CRT. My approach to the literature review involves searching relevant databases and Google Scholar, mapping the literature on spreadsheets, reading physical copies, and using Zotero software to 'tag' themes. I employed specific strategies to locate historical documents not available online (found in archives). My next step as a part-time PGR is to start writing my literature review in preparation for this year’s GRS3 annual progress review, which requires integrating ethical reflection, systematic searching, and a theoretical framework.
Michelle Longhurst is an Inclusion Manager working within the education sector. She holds a master’s degree (M.Ed) qualification in Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties and is studying towards her Education PhD at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests focus on how race and exclusion intersect in educational settings.