Personal journey and rationale for research

My research topic changed from mathematical creativity to ADHD in mathematics because I was diagnosed with ADHD and was fascinated and perplexed by the difficulties caused by the neurodevelopmental condition. This change brought about obstacles and opportunities. In this blog post, I will outline my personal journey on the professional doctorate and how it has been influenced by strengths and obstacles associated with my own ADHD diagnosis and the area of research.

I am a researcher with a disability investigating disability and I have ‘familiar knowledge’ of the group without being a part of the group (Fleming, 2018, p. 311). Initially, ADHD itself was an obvious obstacle, but it gave me an opportunity to engage in research that could support students with a disability or learning difference and to learn more about how I engage with learning as a student with ADHD myself. The ADHD diagnosis came after multiple struggles with engagement, concentration, completion and overwhelm which was exacerbated through embarking on the professional doctorate in education (EdD) journey. It was a relief to have the formal diagnosis and gave me a way to understand some of the difficulties experienced and to get help.

‘Initially, ADHD itself was an obvious obstacle, but it gave me an opportunity to engage in research that could support students with a disability or learning difference and to learn more about how I engage with learning as a student with ADHD myself.’

ADHD and links with mathematics

My current EdD study aims to determine what the factors are that influence studying mathematics at university and teaching mathematics in school, for pre-service teaching students with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). People with ADHD have a higher proclivity to experiencing specific mathematics difficulties (Anobile et al., 2022). There are also strengths associated with ADHD (Owens & Yates, 2022), which if explored within a non-deficit view of disability, could support pre-service teaching students with ADHD.

Obstacles and opportunities of the insider positionality

An obstacle which also presents as an opportunity is the insider positionality. I am an insider researcher as a university lecturer with a formal diagnosis of ADHD, similar to the participants who will be recruited. Therefore, I belong to the SEND community (Bukamal, 2022) but not to the student community. The insider researcher position came about as more teaching professionals seek to examine and subsequently improve their own practice (Fleming, 2018) and therefore applies to my role as a lecturer in mathematics within teacher training. The insider position can carry some risks, such as being too close to the participants or being too invested in the research; however, a surprising finding has assuaged some of these concerns I had in my own ‘biographical relationship to the topic’ (Burnard et al., 2018, p. 43).

This surprising aspect is that insider research is often a feature of research in disability (Bulk & Collins, 2023) and therefore an opportunity. There has not been much research into investigating the experience shared by disabled researchers (Bulk & Collins, 2023). Two blind researchers, Bulk and Collins’ (2003, p. 1) work resonates with me where they declare that insider research is a ‘situated, fluctuating, and “felt” experience’ because it can be challenging in unforeseen ways due to its personal nature and the lived experience of both the participant and the researcher. Obstacles are for me being too invested and keeping a professional stance in interviews and guarding against voicing personal views in the interviews. It is natural to want to talk to someone about a shared obstacle or strength but due to my interviewer role I must maintain the focus on the interviewee and their views on their experience; this is in line with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, which is a driver in my research design.

I do not think I have yet overcome any of the obstacles but rather have reframed them as opportunities. The opportunities are being part of a community, having an insider view, and the motivation that comes from working in research which has personal interest and relevance. This view of looking at the other side of the coin has helped me to approach the EdD journey with more confidence and determination. The EdD journey and the progression which for me was very slow, and up to this point full of detours, would not have been possible without the exceptional learning environment in which I find myself with support from fellow students, supervisors, lecturers and the university student services.

References

Anobile, G., Bartoli, M., Masi, G., Tacchi, A., & Tinelli, F. (2022). Math difficulties in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not originate from the visual number sense. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.949391

Bukamal, H. (2022). Deconstructing insider–outsider researcher positionality. British Journal of Special Education, 49(3), 327–349. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8578.12426   

Bulk, L., & Collins, B. (2023). Blurry lines: Reflections on ‘insider’ research. Qualitative Inquiry, 30(7), 568–576. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231188048  

Burnard, P., Dragovic, T., Ottewell, K., & Lim, W. M. (2018). Voicing the professional doctorate and the researching professional’s identity: Theorizing the EdD’s uniqueness. London Review of Education, 16(1), 40–55. https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.16.1.05

Fleming, J. (2018). Recognizing and resolving the challenges of being an insider researcher in work-integrated learning. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 19(3), 311. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329356638_Recognizing_and_resolving_the_challenges_of_being_an_insider_researcher_in_work-integrated_learning

Owens, K., & Yates, S. (2022). Characteristics of the learners. In Y.P. Xin, R. Tzur, & H. Thouless (Eds.), Enabling mathematics learning of struggling students (pp. 19–46). Springer.