Creating space for critical hope: a participatory arts-based approach to exploring hopes and fears with young people with SEND

This thesis explores the concept of critical hope as presented in the artworks of 21 young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from Rotherham, England. Originally developed in partnership with community organisation Genuine Partnerships, the research questions and methods used to investigate them were refined in collaboration with the young people themselves.
Critical hope is grounded in an acknowledgement of injustice, but creates space for imagining otherwise, leading to hopeful action. This thesis responds to Shelton’s 2019 call for a “cripping” of critical hope by inviting young people with SEND to share their imagined futures through art-making. Artworks suggested that participants had nuanced feelings about the future, which included acknowledgement of challenges, but also belief that their hopeful actions could make a difference to their own lives, their communities and their planet.
Alongside this theoretical exploration, I reflect on the use of creative and collaborative methods throughout the research process. Of the 21 participants, 11 chose to stay on as co-researchers, and their sensitive contributions demonstrated that young people with SEND can be data analysts and theorists through collaborative art making. I propose this as a methodological approach which could be applied in a range of contexts in future research.
The original findings of this research are therefore both theoretical and methodological: First, this research adds to the growing body of literature exploring critical hope by highlighting the place of critical hope in the lives and imagined futures of a group of young people with SEND. Second, it proposes that young people with SEND can act as leaders in research processes, including analysis, through the use of activities which create space for data analysis as a creative collaborative process.
My own reflective artworks illustrate my growth as a researcher during this three-year process.