Emancipatory Research — Theory to Practice: It’s my Life………. It’s my Workplace

Kathy O’Grady, Denis Conlon, Teresa Tuite,Graham Shimmons and Adrian Costello , Mullingar Resource Centre Mullingar

The Mullingar Resource Centre is the day service setting for adults with intellectual disability from the greater Mullingar area. This facility presents opportunities for a wide range of social, recreational and vocational endeavours including:

Supported employment
Supported work
Training in work including carpentry, upholstery, horticulture etc.
Work enclaves in contract areas such as landscaping, cleaning and care taking
Lifelong learning opportunities in e.g. adult literacy, computer skills
Sonas
Rehabilitative training and more

Six of the attendees dubbing themselves the ‘Think Thank’, some of whom attended advocacy and self-advocacy groups received further education in research methodologies. Members of the group were particularly interested in emancipatory research and decided to survey their peers n = 54 on the physical environment. The survey “It’s my Life…. It’s my Workplace” was designed to elicit the views of the attendees about their physical work environment.

Questions contained in the lengthy survey, which utilised the Likert Scale and open and closed questions dealt with topics such as:

Hygiene in the bathrooms
Levels of noise
Use of protective clothing
Safety aspects of vehicles provided for transport
Attendees’ awareness of areas such as smoking areas, fire exits, recreation areas, etc.

The interview schedule was designed to elicit service user’s specific concerns and constructive suggestions for improvement. The ‘Think Thank’ who were instructed in interview techniques by a research psychologist agreed the theme of health and safety in the workplace. This shorter, Quality of Life questionnaire, was administered by the “Think Thank” not only to their 36 peers, but this time, the same instrument was administered to the 14 staff members in order to contrast responses. The survey revealed that 60% of staff reported that overall they were positive ‘all the time’ about the quality of their lives, and 35% reflected that ‘sometimes they were positive about the quality of their lives’. Similarly, 69% of service users were positive ‘all the time’ about their overall quality of life and thirteen per cent were ‘sometimes’ positive.But, the similarity between staff and service users responses to questions on Quality of Life were less striking, and more telling when it came to less subjective questions. For example, to the question; Do you have a key to where you live? 61% of service users responded ‘no’; they do not have a key to their place of residence! Whereas 100% virtually all staff have a key to where they reside. Sharp contrasts were also noted in questions relating to satisfaction in terms of pay, over 80% of service users stated they were dissatisfied with the pay they received, whereas only 50% of staff reported the same level of dissatisfaction regarding pay. When I questioned about the relative case whereby one makes friends of their own and entertains/socialises with friends of their own, again staff reported practically no difficulty in this regard. By contrast, the concept of freedom to socialise was reported as extremely limited for adults with intellectual disability.

In conclusion, subjective questions on Quality of Life such as ‘how much do you enjoy life? And, ‘do things in life make you feel happy? when presented to staff and adults with disabilities attending Mullingar Day services revealed similar positive views on their Quality of Life. When more concrete questions were posed to the two groups, such as ‘do you have a key to where you live? Or, ‘can you entertain a boy/girlfriend where you live’; sharp contrasts were noted in these Quality of Life measures. In summary, emancipatory research methodology was implemented in Mullingar Sector Day Services for adults with intellectual disability. This was accomplished through a focus group, with attendees (the ‘Think Thank’) who were taught the essentials of, for instance,

Constructing the interview schedule
Interview technique
Record keeping
How to draw conclusions from data etc…

Later, they were coached in power point preparation and presentation. The ‘Think Thank’ reported the benefits of emancipatory research as:

Educational
Therapeutic
Important but also as
Fun “we had a good laugh and it made us feel important too”

The six interviewees learned to use the interview schedule by piloting the instrument initially and role-play. Picture symbols were included in the interview schedule to provide a memory aid for those with literacy challenges. Some of the surveyors memorised the interview schedule, finding it easier than reading the questions to their peers. Fifty-two of the fifty-four attendees at the time agreed to be interviewed. The researchers presented their findings to their colleagues. As a consequence of this piece of emancipatory research, qualitative improvements have occurred to the service setting

Reduced time spent in transport effected by re-routing journeys
Physical improvements to the bathrooms
More attention to details such as use of safety clothing, safety belts and safety exits but perhaps more importantly
Changes in attitudes were evident across the board, prompting all service users of the setting to think about safety and ownership

The majority of the respondents reported this survey had a positive impact stating e.g. “this is the first time anyone ever asked me what I thought of the place”. The researchers themselves reported enhanced levels of self-esteem and the realisation that what they say and think can have a positive impact.

Phase II of this project on Quality of Life re-visited some of the topics relating to the environment but extended to seeking service users perceptions of qualitative aspects of their day programmes. The researches adapted Keith and Schlock’s Quality of Life Questionnaire creating a user-friendly version. By including people with intellectual disabilities in emancipatory research, a voice really can be given to the voiceless – the ‘researched upon’ become the ‘researchers on’. Emancipatory research is clearly an important first step towards empowering individuals to realise their potential to make a difference in their lives and lives of others.