Perception of families and students with disabilities of a University Service-Learning program: an ethnographic and visual ethnographic study

Abstract: To engage in reciprocal and equitable relationships among stakeholders participating in a Service-Learning program, this work seeks to give voice not only to the students with specific educational needs receiving the service, but also their families and teachers. In this way, the objective of the present study is to examine how a University Physical Education Service-Learning program was perceived by these participants. The specific objectives established for this study are: (1) to identify and recognize previous experiences that families and children have experienced with this type of project; (2) to find out the involvement that families request in the projects (advising, collaboration, etc.); (3) to know the experience lived by the families and by the children, once the project has finished; (4) to discover if the project may serve to uncover other needs of the group; (5) to know if these experiences favor the relations (or the implication) of the families with the schools (synergies families-teachers-students). For this, from a qualitative approach, based on ethnography and visual ethnography, we use images, 30 semi-structured interviews, and a field diary to gather data, which will be analyzed using the NVIVO software. Results and conclusions will show how this type of research may be instrumental to inform best practices of SL in teacher education, to understand the impact of the SL program and to provide insights on how to engage different stakeholders in SL research.

Narrative: The Endavant research group has been applying and researching Service-Learning (SL) programs in teacher education for more than a decade. In the 2022-2023 academic year, our SL program was applied in the subject "Basic Physical Education". This is a course is developed in the 2nd year of the Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences at the University Jaume I of Castelló (Spain). The SL program was carried out from February to May 2023. Basically, undergraduate students collaborated with two special education schools (i.e., “Castell Vell” and “Penyeta Roja”), and had to design and lead physical education (PE) sessions for children and youth with special educational needs (SEN). Therefore, the SL program aimed at (1) improving the teaching skills of future PE teachers, and (2) promoting inclusion among children with SEN who belonged to the partner schools.
During the last years, our research has tended to focus on undergraduate students’ development of academic, personal, inclusive and critical thinking skills. However, we aspire to engage in reciprocal and equitable relationships with communities when applying SL as well as to foster relationships that are reciprocal and equitable with service receivers. In fact, literature calls for giving voice to all partners involved in SL in order to improve both its research and practical implementation (Calle-Molina et al., 2021; Carson & Raguse, 2014; Chiva-Bartoll, et al., 2019). Consequently, it is necessary to attend to listen to service receiver. In addition, within our project, the perceptions of the children’s relatives and teachers may also be instrumental to better understand our SL program and its impact on these kids. Therefore, this study is focused on understanding the perceptions of the participating children and their relatives and teachers. Although parents and teachers may not be considered direct receivers of the service (only teachers were present in the PE sessions), their involvement in their children's learning is important (Ruiz & Mérida, 2015; Ros & Filella, 2022). Thus, we consider that, for our SL program, considering their viewpoint is basic to really engage in reciprocal and equitable relationships among stakeholders.
Bearing in mind the aforementioned ideas, the specific objectives established for this study are: (1) to identify and recognize previous experiences that families and children have experienced with this type of project; (2) to find out the involvement that families request in the projects (advising, collaboration, etc.); (3) to know the experience lived by the families and by the children, once the project has finished; (4) to discover if the project may serve to uncover other needs of the group; (5) to know if these experiences favor the relations (or the implication) of the families with the schools (synergies families-teachers-students).
To achieve these goals, we rely on qualitative research, through which the research team will be blended in with the participants in order to experience the SL program in first person with them. Therefore, an ethnographic and visual ethnographic approach will be used. 30 people will participate in this study: 6 students of a special education school, 15 parents and 9 teachers. Ethnography has tended to seek the understanding and definition of cultures or groups of people, seeing what others do not see and building knowledge around it. In other words, it is a social research method interested in understanding the actions and conceptions of a group of people in a given context (Antolínez-Domínguez, 2019). Additionally, visual ethnography provides access to different points of view on the same topic, and enable the construction of stories that aim to deepen and even question the findings obtained (García, 2011). In addition to images, 30 semi-structured interviews, and a field diary will be used as data collection instruments.
All data gathered will be transferred to the NVIVO software, and we will rely on an inductive process in order to obtain data-driven analysis categories. Given that we give great relevance to the role of the participants in the study, the analyzed data will be shared (in the form of narrative vignettes) with the people who participated to seek consensus. In this way, their active role in research and their essential participation are emphasized.
Our SL program finished a few weeks ago, and we have just finished collecting data. Therefore, we are unable to share our results in this proposal yet. Nevertheless, we be able to share all the results and conclusions at the Conference in October. There, we will show how our research may be instrumental to inform best practices of SL in teacher education, to understand the impact of our SL program and to provide insights on how to engage different stakeholders in SL research.

References
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Ros, Agnès. & Filella, Gemma. (2022). Programa de intervención para familias con hijos e hijas con necesidades educativas específicas. Revista de Educación Inclusiva, 15(1), 33-49.