Note: this is a past research project that is now complete.
Identity, social connection and education for young people
living with chronic illness
School connectedness and retention is an
established key to both immediate and long-term health, academic
and life outcomes. Young people with significant chronic health
conditions often miss schooling and get caught in a spiral of
catching up and disconnection from important peer relationships and
from school.
Using a primarily qualitative methodology this
study investigates the experiences and perspectives of young people
whose schooling is disrupted by chronic illness or long-standing
physical trauma resulting from accident. It also investigates the
perspectives of parents, health care and education
professionals.
The project brings together a multi-disciplinary
team of education and adolescent health researchers, together with
industry partners from the Royal Children's Hospital
Education Institute. Visual and narrative research methods will
help illuminate the educational and social experiences of young
people with an ongoing health condition. The study also has a
longitudinal framework, and the experiences and perspectives of
young people will be elicited through in depth interviews over a
three-year period.
Through examining the professional and
institutional processes that support or impede young people's
connection to education, the research will build a new foundation
for best practice for the professionals and institutions who work
with young people in this situation. The research will highlight
key considerations for improving the services offered by health and
schooling professionals, and provide better knowledge about the
processes by which disconnection occurs.
Journal Articles
- Lyn Yates (2010) The story they want to tell, and the visual story as evidence: young people, research authority and research purposes in the education and health domains, Visual Studies, 25:3, 280-291, DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2010.523281
- Marilys Guillemin & Sarah Drew (2010) Questions of process in participant-generated visual methodologies, Visual Studies, 25:2, 175-188, DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2010.502676
- Ethnography versus Case Study, Julie White, Sarah Drew and Trevor Hay (2009), Qualitative Research Journal, Vol 9, No 1, pp 18-27
Media Reports
Publications
Funder
ARC Linkage Grant
Contact
Keeping Connected, University of Melbourne | website