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In this article, we explain how we took an "active" approach to focus group discussions with teachers in three South African schools. The topic of discussion was their views on the implementation of inclusive education. We shall also show how we sought feedback from the participants on their experiences of these discussions. In seeking this feedback, we were interested in seeing if they interpreted the sessions as being learning experiences--that is, as sessions that enabled the participants to learn from each other as well as from facilitators with a view to promoting mutual learning. We indicate how the participants chose to use the feedback opportunity to suggest that further processes should be put in place (by us) in the light of their expressed concerns. Finally, we outline how we took responsibility by creating a further forum for discussion with those who were regarded as having additional "actioning" power.

The mother's role in stimulating the child's intelligence is pivotal since she carries the pregnancy and the child spends more time with her than with the father in the first few years of life. The early years are crucial because it is the time for the child's rapid brain development. This paper examines the mother's role of care giving on children with intellectual disability in the early years. Qualitative focus group discussions were employed to collect data. Four focus group interviews. Two groups consisted of six participants and another two consisted of seven participants in each interviews. The findings revealed that not leading a healthy life may lead to children being born with intellectual disability. The mothers from a low socio-economic context thought that the child with intellectual disability was an excessive burden and craved that the child would die rather than live. They were not willing to consider treatment options unless the child would become completely normal. This paper recommends that the mothers as the only participants in this study limit the findings but provided first hand experiences connected to caregiving and children with intellectual disability. In addition, there is an implication that mothers of children with intellectual disabilities are at an obviously bigger risk of suffering from social disorder and dispossession as well as emotional suffering which can progress to severe depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we discuss the duoethnographical approach we adopted to extend/deepen our interpretations of ourselves as academic researchers attempting to practise engaged research with participants in the field. We take, as a starting point for our discussion, our engagements in various projects (not always together in the same research settings) in South Africa. We reflect specifically on our ways of co-researching prospects for advancing inclusive education with participants and stakeholders. In terms of South African policy, inclusive education implies that all learners-including those experiencing barriers to learning in various forms-should ideally be catered for in "mainstream" schools, unless barriers are too severe and require referral to "special" schools. Some of the barriers affecting learners' educational experiences are related to socioeconomic disadvantage. In the article we share the extended dialogues we have had with each other around the meaning(s) of research "engagement" in this context. We define our duoethnography as a process of thoughtful dialoguing around, and writing about, the development of co-researching practices between academic researchers and research participants, as we reconsider our ways of seeing such practices. At the same time, we reflect on our developing relationship as duoethnographers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]