Page - 106 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

112 J.Cullen productionresourcesarenotevenlydistributed, thennotallprosumervoiceswillbe heard (Ha&Yun,2014). Agood test, therefore, ofwhether the current drive towardsmakinghigher edu- cationstudentsmore ‘prosumerist’ leads to improved learningoutcomes iswhether higher education provides opportunities for disadvantaged students to play a full role in theco-productionofknowledge.Studentswithdisabilities arearguablybest placed to answer this question. The following sections of this chapter present the resultsof researchcarriedoutby theauthoron theextent towhichhighereducation institutions in theEUaresupporting theparticipationofstudentswithdisabilities in collaborative learning.5 7.4 ResearchContextand Methodology Themainobjectiveof the research reportedbelowwas toassess theextent towhich policiesandpracticesinhighereducationwithintheEUatnationalandtrans-national level enable disabled students to play an active role in collaborative learning. The methodologywasbasedon‘scientific realist review’ (Pawson,Greenhalgh,Harvey, &Walshe,2005).ThisanalysedpolicyandpracticeintheEUoverallandinaselected rangeofmemberstates:Greece, Italy,Slovenia,PolandandtheUK.AsPawsonputs it, doing a realist reviewentails ‘feeling yourway’ through the available literature tofindout how todo something thatmay involvemanydifferentways. Inpractice, the review startswith a search of the literature, covering both bibliographic (‘aca- demic’) databases and ‘grey literature’ (e.g. conference papers andonline sources) toidentifykeypoliciesandpracticesthatsupport theintegrationofdisabledstudents incollaborative learning.The longlist of itemsgeneratedby the searchprocesswas then narrowed down to a shortlist of relevantmaterial using ‘inclusion-exclusion’ criteria basedondomain relevance, target group relevance, geographical relevance andqualityof theevidenceon impactsprovided.Each itemin theshortlistwas then analysedusingacontent analysisprocedure (Stemler, 2001;Neuendorf, 2002). 7.5 ResearchResults Until theAmsterdamTreatyof1996, theEU’sapproachtodisabilitywasbasedona ‘medical’understandingandamedicalmodel.This supported theviewthatdisabil- itywas the result of physical ormental impairments that affect the individual. The 1996 treaty—particularlyArticle13—offeredanalternativeperspectiveondisabil- ity—the‘socialmodel’—that incorporated references to theeffectsofenvironment, culture and surroundings.AsubsequentCouncil ofEuropeDirective, also in1996, 5This research was partly supported by a grant from the European Commission’s ‘Tempus’ programme.