Educable: No Choice – No Chance [NI]
‘Educable’, a project involving nine young people with various disabilities, Save the Children and Disability Action was established to examine the educational experiences of young people with disabilities.
The Educable project, which comprised of a group of young people with disabilities, was formed by Disability Action’s Youth Project. It’s remit was to conduct research into the lives of young people with disabilities in Northern Ireland. They chose the research focus of young people’s experience of education and were supported in conducting the research by the research officer at Save the Children Fund. The group published its findings in a report called “"No choice, no chance"”.
The report is divided into the following chapters:
- Chapter 1 – includes biographies of the nine young people involved with the project and the principles underlying the project;
- Chapter 2 – provides a summary of the steps involved during the planning phase of the research including the questions to be addressed;
- Chapter 3 – outlines the qualitative methodology used by the researchers and explains how the data was analysed;
- Chapter 4 – the main findings are divided into the following four sub-sections: mainstream or special school?; subject choices, examinations and expectations; after school and social lives;
- Chapter 5 – the main conclusions are discussed in this section which are aimed at improving the choices and chances available through education to young people with disabilities;
- Chapter 6 – presents the 30 recommendations which emerged from the project;
- Chapter 7 – presents Save the Children’s perspectives on the need to involve all young people, especially those with disabilities in the research process, and;
- Chapter 8 – Disability Action’s point of view is expressed in the final chapter.
The appendices also contain information about the schools that participated in the study and the coding frame which was used to analyse the data.
Although the project has been completed and the final report ‘No Choice – No Chance’ was published in 2000, copies of the report, which costs £5, are still available from:
Save the Children
15 Richmond Park
Belfast
BT10 OHB
Tel: 02890431123
Disability Action
Portside Business Park
189 Airport Road West
Belfast
BT3 9ED
Tel : 028 9029 7880
Text : 028 9029 7882
Fax : 028 9029 7881
ISBN: 1 84147 021 8.
