What about WhatsApp? A review of educational research involving disability and WhatsApp

Abstract

This paper explores research associated with WhatsApp, to see if there are lessons to be learned about the use of WhatsApp in educational settings. The research emerged from the researcher’s experiences as a parent of a child with various labels, including Down syndrome, and his experiences with WhatsApp. The background is a long period of investment in information technology which has not brought the anticipated returns. Alongside this lack of progress is a clear digital divide for disabled learners and an ongoing lack of expertise amongst teachers. Data for this study was collected through a systematic search of the literature, and analysed thematically through open-coding and constant comparison. Only 8 studies met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, despite these being broad in nature, and many of these studies were outside school and involved an adult population. Evidently WhatsApp has the potential to be an accessible and useful pedagogic tool, but there is very little guidance or research to inform the practice of class teachers and to influence the decisions of policy makers. As a parent and experienced academic, the researcher felt surprise at trying to understand something that was conspicuous by its absence. The lack of consideration of this issue raises fundamental questions about how we draw boundaries around the possible and the practical, providing an insight into how institutional discrimination can arise and be sustained.