How can I work participatively with carers to improve the education of social work students?

 

Presented at Cumbria University Doctoral Colloquium, 10^th July 2014 http://youtu.be/wXQ4svpW2aI

 

Abstract

 

I have been working participatively with carers to improve education for social work students for nine years. Within this context, this paper explores the generation of living theories of care giving (Hutchison, 2013) using a values based approach which enables carers to tell and use their stories to give social work students a deep learning of what it is like to be a carer and what carers need from social workers to improve their lives.

 

The research uses a living theory methodology Whitehead (1989, 2008). We tell our stories and encourage students to develop a values based practice which respects and empathises with carers to improve our learning, the learning of the students and the learning framework for social work students. As a group we want the social work students to understand there is no single story (Adichie, 2009) of caring. We are influenced by Dadds’ and Hart’s (2001) ideas on ‘methodological inventiveness’ which stresses the importance of generating our own methodologies for exploring the implications of our questions. We are also influenced by creating a participative reality (Heron, 1996) where power is balanced between everyone in the learning process.

 

As individuals seeking to live our values of care-giving this paper provides a unique analytic framework which includes the clarification and communication of our individual expressions of ‘care-giving’, with digital visual data and empathetic resonance (Huxtable 2009).

 

Our research findings have shown the social work students learning is improved through the participation of carers. More subtly a deeper learning is evident which finds learning occurs for the carers involved, the Carers’ Centre and the learning of the lecturers at the university. The method of carers being in charge of the planning, delivery and evaluation of this learning is evidence of a participative reality (Heron, 1996) being lived in practice.

 

Key Words

 

Carer, care-giver, social work education, living theory, participation

 

Introduction

I have worked to encourage carer participation in social work education for nine years. I began in my role as Young Carers Manager developing young carer participation. I left my role as Young Carers Manger in 2009 and moved to a different charity as Chief Executive of the local Carers’ Centre which at the time worked with only adult carers. When I started in my new role carers were involved but only to tell their story, the rest was led by a member of staff at the Centre. This had been becoming more carers led with carers taking more of a lead but in 2012 there was a gap in capacity to take this work on in the staff so I decided to work with a group of adult carers as I had done with young carers to continue to develop participative approach to social work learning. I made it explicit to the group of carers that this was part of my research to improve my practice. My goal being to research my own learning, the learning of others and the learning of social formations and to work participatively to design sessions that were collaborative rather than led by me as the professional at the Carers’ Centre. My role was more complex, as a staff member I wanted my role to be more of an enabling role, ensuring the logistics were organised such as parking permits, expenses, food and drinks. However, I also participated as a carer of my mum with mental health and drug issues. I also wanted the other carers to be free to plan and lead the sessions telling me what to do in them rather than me taking the lead and telling them what to do. I also wanted my role to enable us to research our practice and reflect on what we were doing, how to improve it and how to make public our learning. This paper is part of that process.

 

Why use a living theory methodology?

 

Dadds’ and Hart’s (2001) ideas on ‘methodological inventiveness’ stresses the importance of generating our own methodologies for exploring the implications of our questions. ‘A living theory is an explanation produced by an individual for their educational influence in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formation in which they live and work.’ Whitehead (2008) pg 104. The purpose of this paper and my research is to provide an explanation in these three areas.

 

1. Influence in my own learning

 

During this work I have been using reflection cycles to improve my own learning. At each session we review what we have done and I think about how I can improve what I am doing in this process. This has helped me to learn about my role as facilitator but also as a carer within the group and how to balance and be open and honest about both my roles.

 

2. In the learning of others

 

This project has gathered feedback to help me see what influence we are having as a group on the learning of the social work students. However, it has also been about our learning as a group of carers and how we can improve what we are doing with the students and our feedback has helped staff at the university learn how best to support and facilitate our work.

 

3.  In the learning of the social formations in which they live and work

 

We have influenced the learning of the social work department at the university about how to be more inclusive of carers, how to treat carers on an equal footing and the importance of staff participating in planning sessions and providing their expertise to the carers involved. I think this has led to a more effective teaching programme.

 

The Carers’ Centre is constantly learning how to more effectively facilitate the participation of carers to make a difference in the social formations they live and work in and within the Carers’ Centre as its own social formation.

 

Why have carers participation in social work education?

 

As I have worked developing carer participation carers have wanted social work students to understand there is no single story of caring (Adichie, 2009). In order to achieve this carers need to participate and tell their own stories which are all different. The danger of someone telling carers stories for them is that the message is oversimplified and students come away thinking one size fits all carers. However this project was interested in living the principles of participation in reality where power is balanced between everyone in the learning process not just as a token to the subject (Heron, 1996).

 

This paper is building on the work done in the SCIE report Carers as Partners (CaPs) in social work education, (Taylor et al., 2009). We are in agreement that the benefit of carer involvement is ‘the value to practice of learning from direct engagement with carer experience’.pg xi. However rather than provide a list of recommendations as the SCIE report does this paper is adding to the literature in terms of a living theory of learning that gives explanations for our learning, the learning of others and the learning of social formations. As individuals seeking to live our values of caring this paper provides a unique analytic framework which includes the clarification and communication of our individual expressions of ‘caring’, with digital visual data and empathetic resonance (Huxtable 2009). This paper explores the generation of living theories of caring (Hutchison, 2013). The paper uses a values based approach which enables carers to tell and use their stories to give social work students a deep learning (Barret, 2006) of what it is like to be a carer and what carers need from social workers to improve their lives.

 

Why is Social Work Education important to me?

 

My research comes from an ethno-autographical perspective (Kremer, 2003) to tell my own story grounded in socio-cultural factors that have affected me and enable carers to tell their stories through the research. As a result I’m grounding this paper in why social work education is important to me. I was born to a German/Polish mother and English/Scots/African father and was placed on a child at risk register. After two short term foster placements I was placed into long term care at the age of three and half. I would see a social worker at least once every 3 months sometimes more often. I was an analytical child and when my long term social worker left when I was about 9 years old I would analyse how good I thought my social workers were. I would judge them on whether they spoke directly to me, whether they were interested in what I had to say and whether they listened to me. There was a large variation and some were excellent and some were very poor. Some stayed longer than others, however, how good they were was not based on how long they stayed but the skills and perceptiveness they showed.

 

As a young person in care I recognised the value of my participation and at about the age of 12 not long after the Convention of the Rights of the Child had been accepted I was given a leaflet which explained my right to participate. This affirmed my view that I was important and people needed to listen to my views. When I was in sixth form I became a co-opted member of my local social services and was very vocal about my experiences in care which whilst very smooth and positive compared to many children in care still highlighted the huge impact being in care has and the huge responsibility of councillors as corporate parents. I felt empowered by this role and this stuck with me into my professional experience that it is the people we seek to benefit that we must empower to have their voice heard and to make a difference. It is my responsibility, now I am a professional and society puts me in a position of power, to give the power to those I seek to benefit. They have the understanding and ability to make a powerful difference they just need the places to have their voices heard unlocked by the professionals who hold the keys to the doors of those who need to hear their voices.

 

As an adult I am also a carer for my mum which gives me a different perspective for wanting to improve social work practice as I recognise the importance of social workers listening to my views in relation the care of my mum. Living-theory takes the approach of asking questions ‘how can I improve my practice?’ There are always improvements social workers can make and by listening to carers they can make these in a way that benefits carers. As a leader of a Carers’ Centre I often hear carers telling me that services are not meeting the needs of them or their families and that they are not being listened to which drives me to want to improve social work practice.

 

All of these experiences in my ethno-autobiography have built my value of participation and is the reason I think it is important for carers to fully participate in social work education.

 

Young Carers Participation

 

I began being involved in social work education at the University of Bath in 2003 when I was in the role of Young Carers Manager. Young Carers subject to a growing body of research (Becker et al, 2000; 2004; 2008; Fives et al, 2013), my interest was to enable young carers not only to tell their stories but to influence the practice of social workers by becoming part of the degree course teaching social work students.

 

This is not what happened to begin with, I started by acting in a traditional teaching role where I would stand at the front of the students and ‘teach’ them about young carers. By working alongside the University we developed a participative approach of young carers educating the students enabling the young carers to come to the university and run a workshop with the students. Participative in the sense Heron and Reason (1997) put forward ‘to experience anything is to participate in it, and to participate is both to mould and to encounter’ (p. 278). Both the young carers and I were moulding the education of social work students and encountering the level of study necessary to be a social work student. I was aware that the process enabled an encounter for the young carers to become comfortable in a university setting as can be seen in Image 1. I was able to use this experience to encourage the young carers ambitions.

Image 1. Photos of  Young Carers and Social Work Students in the University.

 

 

I described this in Henon’s (2009) book as ‘young carers (gave) feedback to enable social work students to learn more about the needs of young carers and how a good social work practice could evolve through listening to young carers voices. This process is leading the way within the professional development context and the increased understanding of delivery. It is a two way co-creative process young people get introduced to the level of study and care that social work students engage in their chosen fields and students get unique experience and insights into the experiences direct from young people themselves. This contextualises theory into direct practice and living educational theory.’ p. 28

 

I did this by working participatively with young carers enabling them to give examples of what they felt to be good and bad practice through a visual representation which I scribed in Image 2.

 

Image 2: Social Worker Good and Bad Practice Visual Representation.

 

 

I wrote in Henon’s (2009) book that the participation in the social work course ‘enabled young carers to share their expertise of caring for their relatives and to let social work students know how to provide a good service to young carers. Many of the young carers have had negative experiences of social workers when they have worked with their families. This enables young carers to encourage the next generation of social workers to work differently.’ (p. 29).

 

Adult Carers Participation

 

As with young carers, adult carers are subject to a growing body of research (Carers UK, 2004; 2007; 2011; 2013; Clarke and Riley, 2006;  Clifford et al 2011)  this paper develops the literature on carers influencing the practice of social workers by becoming part of the degree course teaching social work students. Over the last two academic years I was able to build on my participative approach I developed with young carers with adult carers. I Participated alongside the adult carers to lead a total of 6 direct sessions with first and second year social work students with 12 different carers or ex carers involved. I include myself in this number as I now care for my mum. The reason I was fostered was because she had schizophrenia and substance misuse issues. Now as an adult I am a carer for her, although I do not live with her, I am involved in her care planning, and I provide emotional and practical support for her. I am seen as part of the team with the assertive outreach team and we will work together to support my mum. The other carers had a variety of caring roles including care for their husband with dementia, child with autism, husband with MS, child with mental health issues and substance misuse issues, husband with parkinson’s and dementia, husband with mobility issues, mother with dementia, child with behavioural issues, mother with dementia, children and partner with learning difficulties and autism, parent with mental health and parent with heart condition.

 

The group has had a wide experience of caring and the group is made up of carers in their 30’s through to their 60’s, two men and 10 women, 11 predominantly white british and one Asian Indian. This makes the range of experiences diverse and what the group want from social workers diverse.

 

As well as the group of carers six staff members from the university have been involved with the group either to support them, have them lead one of their lessons or consult them.

 

Approximately 120 students have been involved in the sessions

 

What did we do and what was learnt?

 

Setting up the Group in 2012

 

In 2012 I contacted a group of carers who had expressed an interest in involvement activities to ask them to get involved. I emailed them making it explicit that the project would be over 7 sessions. The sessions would be to hear what the university does with social work students, plan, deliver and evaluate students readiness to practice through an assessment designed by the group. I also made it clear I would be writing up the project as part of my research into how to improve my practice and would like the group to be involved.

 

6 carers came forward to say they would be interested. Their responses included:

 

‘It all sounds very exciting and I am looking forward to working with you and the other carers.’

 

‘If you want me, I will be available.’

 

‘Sounds exciting! I would be very interested’

 

‘I am interested Sonia as long as someone picks me up let me know what you want for my imput and then i will help.’

 

These responses varied and I think show the difference in confidence of the carers. Some who were very excited I think were the carers who were feeling a bit more confident, these were carers who were in the work at the time and had a defined role outside of their caring role. The carers who needed more reassurance of their role and whether they were wanted had been out of work and caring 24/7. The planning sessions helped us to explore some of these issues around confidence and build up people to not just look to be told what to do but to be a collaborator and have an equal standing in the group.

 

Other responses were around the practical needs:

 

‘Will the sessions next year be on certain days and times of the week or is there some flexibility?’

 

‘Is this a voluntary or paid role and can we claim for any expenses such as mileage, parking etc...?’

 

‘Please remind them that I have an allergy to onions for the lunch.’

 

This led me to send out another email with all the practicalities. This included expenses the payment rate for involvement, the policy on this payment and there view if I had set it fairly. Informing lunch would be provided and that I would bring expenses forms with me. Transport, replacement care and parking permits were available if needed. I also set out where and when to meet

 

I include these practicalities in this paper because the detailed information was something that I needed to ensure was provided for the carers throughout the project for them to be able to participate effectively.

 

2012 First Session

 

Our first session was about understanding what the university wanted us to provide, what had been done before and what this group of carers wanted to do this time. There was a need to build up trust and understanding between the carers and the university staff (Shah, et al., 2003). This was not straightforward as the carers expectations were more than the university staff were able to provide in terms of time provided to support us. The university was outsourcing the teaching to the Carers’ Centre and their expectation was that we would provide the sessions and they would have limited input. This was something we had to negotiate throughout the project to get the balance in the input right.

 

Discrimination and Empowerment 2012

 

For the first session we were providing teaching on the second year course on empowerment and discrimination. During this teaching the students are out on a placement where they spend four months in a social work setting in practice, they come back once a week for the workshops on discrimination and empowerment. Our role was to make them think about the discrimination carers face in their role and what empowers them.

 

In order to plan what to do we looked at what had been done before. The carers were keen that the workshop was filled with them giving their experiences and the students had time to discuss what they had said and learn about the areas that carers face discrimination from real life stories. Five carers wanted to share their stories and asked the students to take notes on five areas of discrimination:

 

●     Employment

●     Finance

●     Health and wellbeing

●     Leisure and free time

●     Relationships with professionals/family

 

This session was very similar to the session the year before but with the carers wanted the focus to be their stories.

 

As a group we came up with what we wanted the students to understand by the end of the session:

 

Areas carers felt were important in the discussions:

 

●     Carers should be viewed in their own right not just in relation to the service user

●     Think whole family

 

Carers can face discrimination by:

 

●     Social workers having preconceived ideas of what a carer will do

●     Being marginalised and feeling devalued being an underclass/ socially excluded

●     Barriers of access e.g. due to behaviour, appearance, wheel chair, toileting arrangements of the cared for person

●     If the cared for lives at home people can assume you can cope

●     If the cared for person lives in the community people can assume you don’t care

●     Hidden costs of caring aren’t considered in assessments such as bailing out the cared for if they’ll lost/spent all their money

●     Assessments ignoring needs of finding information/support if financially well off

●     Benefits cancelling each other out

●     Reassessment leading to extra pressures of loss of benefits when it is unsuitable

●     Patient confidentiality being used to shut out carers

●     Lack of access and understanding of information 

 

The feedback from the students showed that the session had increased their learning particularly in the areas we wanted them to:

 

●     ‘Very useful in particular hearing stories from different caring roles realising even more how unique each situation is’

●     ‘Hearing personal stories brings real life to our workshops and learning. I will try and listen to people’s stories more in my practice’

●     ‘Involving carers in processes/care plans as they are a very important source of knowledge’

●     ‘I also intend to find other agencies who offer support for carers so I am able to give carers as much info as they need’

●      Taking time to research policies, benefits, carer rights to provide as much info as possible to carers if not being honest and signposting to appropriate agencies’

●     ‘ Help the carer be aware of any benefits or respite they can receive’

●     ‘ Value carers opinions – they know the service user best’

●     ‘When making an assessment for service users also include carers as their needs matter too’

●     ‘I will consider aspects of confidentiality and how I can better use this to support the carer as well as the service user’

●     ‘ Support respite for carers’

 

The comments gave us insight into what the students learnt and whether they gained understanding that would help them to better support carers.

 

Discrimination and Empowerment 2013

 

In 2013 we repeated this workshop in order to improve our practice we went back to the feedback the students gave us about how the session ran rather than on what they learnt. The students feedback was:

 

What went well and why

“personal stories were engaging and take into practice”

“focussed on empowerment”  “enjoyed hearing the stories”

“how to feels to be a carer – importance of being listened to, impact future practice of social work”

“insightful stories from carers – really appreciated sharing”

“gave us good ideas into how to empower”

“well set out and addressed both discrimination and empowerment separately and together”

“it was ok, however experience in subject area”

“helped in understanding experiences”

What didn’t go well and why

“could have ended on a more positive noted, with focus on positive ways social workers can empower”

“very structured and a lot to get in”  “too similar to session in year 1”

“felt that the worksheets didn’t fit with what was being talked about”

“missed a young carers perspective”  “new info”

“timing – felt as though some carers were cut short when telling their stories and that was a best bit”

What changes would you make and why

“maybe break up between carers stories to ask questions and discuss”

“more on empowerment”  “young carers perspectives”

“allow service-users to answer questions”

“what is a Carers Centre? What do you do? More detail”

“better time managed so didn’t feel pressured”

“less about stories/personal –more on practicalities of how we can be good social workers for you”

Anything else you want to add

“differentiate between adult and young carers”

“Thank you!!!”  “we need to be more resilient!”

 

We used this feedback to plan the next session. As a result we had less people telling their story and planned in a question and answer session so the students had time to ask us as carers questions that they had. We were also careful to make sure rather than telling our general stories which they would have heard in the first year we told specific stories of an incident we had experienced being empowered or discriminated in. We also included a video to see if we could include young carers in the future so they didn’t miss school to be involved. Our learning was increased by the students feedback as well as the students learning which was again very high from this session. In this session the feedback gives the impression the students gained a more detailed understanding of the ways carers can be empowered or discriminated:

 

‘ A lot of the discrimination came from the relationships from professionals’

‘Lack of communication between the services’

‘If the carer was acknowledged it was empowering if they weren’t it was discriminating’

‘Carers have a lack of power they are always waiting for other people to make the decisions’

‘A lot of fighting for the person you care for’

‘Not being recognised as a carer can be really hard even though you know the person you care for best’

‘Ethical dilemmas as a carer e.g. taking car keys away which is disempowering for the cared for but need to balance keeping people safe’

 

The students in 2013 gave feedback that we did improve in many of the areas the students suggested for improvement in 2012:

 

‘Good question panel’

‘Questions really positive and interesting’

‘Greater awareness of what Carers’ Centre can provide’

‘Crib sheets were really useful way of splitting up and identifying the issues and support’

 

As carers we then reflected on the feedback from the students to help our learning:

 

Our Review was:

 

●     Video – did work but had less impact. Could make it more impactful by having more preparation

●     Can face discrimination by family members as well there may be different views and can disempower the primary carer to make decisions. Judgements family can make can make it hard to make decisions – social workers can support carers to make best decisions for them despite pressure from the cared for person

●     Key to understand all carers are different and can’t have one way to support but needs to be personalised

●     Each story shows that one way doesn’t work and every carer needs to be listened to understand what they want.

●     The feedback from the students shows that we got most of these key points across and that we need to have a better camera and space to get the video ready. It may be worth considering having the video at someone’s home so the students can gain an insight into the caring role in a way they couldn’t in the classroom. This would add value to having the video.

 

As a result of this feedback the areas to work on for next year are:

 

●     Making the video better

●     More on employment and finance

●     More on managing being a parent and a carer

●     Young Carers Perspective

 

This shows evidence of our ongoing learning in the process as well as the learning of the students.

 

Student Assessment 2013

 

As well as teaching the second year students we also taught and assessed first year students. As a group of carers we collaborated in the design of the assessment. The group decided to assess the students by doing a role play of a social worker evidencing good and bad practice with a carer. We then decided to ask the students to think about the skills or lack of skills that the social workers in the role play showed. The list we came up with that we felt was important for a social worker to show were:

 

Empathy, Good communication skills, eye contact, body language, active listening, prepared to learn and reflect, non-judgemental, discernment.

 

Carers volunteered to be involved in the role play either as themselves trying to tell the social worker about their caring situation or as a social worker showing good practice or poor practice. This reminded me of the visual representation young carers had developed four years before.

 

Afterwards the students met with a carer in group and had a group discussion. Each student then came back to talk to the carer one to one and the carer would feedback whether they felt the student had picked up the key points and give any suggestions for improvements. The carer would then write their feedback on a feedback sheet to be given to the student as part of their portfolio for their studies.

 

Our feedback as carers from 2013 was:

 

●     Students were lovely and great

●     felt uplifted and inspired that the next generation have good values. Pleased they have come in wanting to do the best they can. Want to make sure they remember what they feel now

●     Felt rushed and a missed opportunity not to make more of the exercise.

●     Room wasn’t suitable

●     Didn’t get the write up time

●      Didn’t know what was achieved by the individual part that wasn’t achieved in the group.

●     Forms weren’t very useful.

●     Would be better to have a longer group discussion

●     Need more preparation from the university – need training to do an assessment

 

Ideas for improvement:

 

●     felt it would be more appropriate to call it a feedback session

●     Student self-assesses using the form and then have a discussion with the carer who can  comment on the form

●     Have longer so it’s not so rushed

 

 

We realised at this point that the small group was too small when we needed to assess 40 students.

 

Student Assessment 2014

 

In 2014 we decided we needed to recruit more carers to help with the assessments and that it was also a good time to grow the group and share the learning with a new group of carers or ex carers interested in improving social work teaching and learning. This only partially worked as some carers from 2013 dropped out at this point either due to work commitments, caring commitments or for a break.

 

In 2014 we followed up the session instead of an introduction to social work session. This worked well as we got feedback from the students that they had benefitted and learnt from the assessment. We were also able to take questions that came up from the session and did an extended question and answer session which helped focuss on what the students were interested in learning.

 

The feedback from the assessments included:

 

●     Role play was very effective showing how to communicate with carers as people

●     Lessons learnt in role play were transferred to the group discussions with students mindful of how they interact with each other.

●     Empathy and active listening make carers feel supported and able to talk more openly to the Social Worker

●     Paraphrasing a good skill to develop to show and aid understanding of the carer’s situation

●     Asking  relevant questions helps build rapport and a better understanding

●     The situation the carer is describing is only a snapshot and the social worker needs to see the bigger picture and the unsaid issues

●     All carers are different and don’t need or want the same things

●     Good body language can make a big difference

●     Social workers need to remain professional and supportive giving their undivided attention to the carer

 

Our feedback from this final session was:

 

●     Timing of sessions can be a bit short but can’t be more than 3 hours so need to prioritise

●     Thought we could have less time on the day in a life of a carer and more time for the question time.

●     Questions – theme the questions and have them distributed beforehand so we can decide who wants to answer which ones

●     Have a three week break between assessment and review sessions.

●     Send the pdf of the latest newsletter and use that on the screen for the Carers’ Centre bit

●     Found the students feedback very useful

●     Need to be aware there is emotion

 

This shows we are still reflecting and learning to improve our practice for the next academic year. Our plan is to open this project up to more carers again next year and for a new staff member to take it on and continue the model of learning and reflection. The session had been very emotional and a number of carers had found themselves in tears. Whilst they felt a bit embarrassed about crying in public we all felt the session had been very successful and that emotion is part of caring and something social work students need to be able to cope with.

 

What it has meant for the carers involved in their own words?

 

‘I have found being involved in the social work student teaching project a cathartic experience, a space to share, where what I am saying might actually make a difference to the experience of future carers. I found it interesting to reflect on my experiences and how to put them across without sounding like I have "an axe to grind" or going into too much detail and making the audience feel uncomfortable. I tried to stay objective and not to sound like a know it all.

 

I feel the involvement of carers is vital as their voices so often go unheard in health and social care. This is a real opportunity to change the culture of social work at a fundamental level. The Health and Social Care Act promotes "the patient voice" being heard and this work is doing exactly that. I feel hearing carers' real experiences bring the students' learning to life, and that it gives them real scenarios on which to hook the learning and to help make sense of theories and concepts. It's also useful for seeing the complexities of real life situations.

 

When talking about my situation I felt the familiar guilt that I am betraying the people I care for by talking about them, but I also know if I didn't have the space to let off steam and talk about experiences in a safe confidential space I wouldn't be able to continue being a carer.’

 

These are powerful responses and show the complexities of carer participation. Whilst there is a push from the government for more carer participation my research shows this needs to be provided with attention to:

• the practical needs to enable carers to take part,
• the emotional needs of carers as the process is carthartic and can cause mixed emotions
• supporting carers to get the balance right around giving their experiences whilst not having an axe to grind

 

Conclusion

 

As a practitioner researcher I have worked participatively with carers to improve the education of social work students over the last nine years. I have found that the more carers are in charge of what happens and the more I focus on myself as a carer rather than my professional role the more the education to the social work students improves. However, the significance goes beyond just the students learning, as carers we have learnt more about how to influence others through our stories and experiences and use them in a transformative process rather than our stories remaining private stories often of tragedy or difficulty. We have learnt to improve the provision of the university and have an influence on the learning and understanding of carer participation for the staff. I feel this provides learning that is transferrable to other disciplines and settings giving a wider significance that can lead to learning from carers for other social formations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Adichie, C., N. (2009) The danger of a single story. TEDGlobal 2009. http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html (accessed 5th August 2013).

 

Barrett, H. (2006). Researching and Evaluating Digital Storytelling as a Deep Learning Tool. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (pp. 647-654)

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