Staff profile

Anna is a PhD student at Durham University School of Education. Her PhD attempts to use participatory methodology in a way that positions visually impaired children as knowledge producers. This research constitutes a natural progression from her professional background as Qualified Teacher of Children with a Vision Impairment and MA research (also undertaken at Durham) on facilitating collaborative practitioner research to promote inclusive education. Her PhD project also benefits from the support of collaborative partners, UK charity Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and Thomas Pocklington Trust. 

Anna is also:

- ESRC-funded via NINE DTP

- An affiliate member of the iHuman research collective

- A member of the UK Participatory Network (UKPRN)

- A member of the British Educational Research Association (BERA)

- A member of the British Sociological Association (BSA) 

• Participatory Action Research (PAR)
• Inclusive education
• Critical Disability Studies
• Co-production
• Special Educational Needs and Disability
• Initial Teacher Education
• Collaborative practitioner-led educational research

Chapter in book

• Pilson, A. (2020). Critical Disability Studies and Participatory Action Research: Antidotes to educational research's inherent 'othering'? In Interventions in Disabled Childhood Studies. Goodley, D., Runswick-Cole, K., & Liddiard, K. iHuman, University of Sheffield. 49-54.

Conference Paper

• Pilson, Anna (2019), Participation to Emancipation to Inclusion? Developing an active participatory research model with children with a visual impairment to promote educational inclusion, through improving teacher training provision on SEND, in Shao, Xin & Dobson, Emma eds, Imagining Better Education. Durham, England, Durham University, School of Education, Durham, England, 164-182.

Journal Article

• Rutter, Nikki, Hasan, Ecem, Pilson, Anna & Yeo, Emma (2023). “It’s the End of the PhD as We Know it, and We Feel Fine…Because Everything Is Fucked Anyway” Utilizing Feminist Collaborative Autoethnography to Navigate Global Crises. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 22.
• Olsen, Jason & Pilson, Anna (2022). Developing Understandings of Disability through a Constructivist Paradigm: Identifying, Overcoming (and Embedding) Crip-Dissonance. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 24(1): 15-28.
• Pilson, Anna (2022). ‘We’re on their side, aren’t we?’ Exploring Qualified Teacher of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (QTVI) views on the role of supporting the emotional well-being of visually impaired children. British Journal of Visual Impairment 40(2): 335-350.