REFLEXIVE THEMATIC ANALYSIS (RTA) AS A QUALITATIVE METHOD FOR UNPACKING DISABILITY PERCEPTION IN GEOSCIENCE

A long history of academic harm has pushed many marginalized groups from academia, and the geosciences are no exception to this trend. It is crucial to envision and create more inclusive science environments, ones which critically interrogate the language and systems that uphold this harm. It's especially crucial to enact this change in our geoscience classrooms, where anti-deficit and anti-ableist pedagogical frameworks can be employed. This work focuses on the use of reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) as a qualitative method that can allow us to interrogate these systems of harm, by directly scrutinizing the narratives which people use to make meaning of marginalized people, specifically disabled and neurodivergent people. Disabled people are among those further marginalized by these systems of academic harm. Reflexive thematic analysis can be used to listen directly to our undergraduate geoscience students, whether disabled or as-yet-non-disabled, to unpack their conceptualization of terms such as accessibility and disability in science media and other science-based contexts. RTA can be used to analyze text-based reflections that undergraduate student respondents make on issues that affect marginalized populations, including disabled people. By applying theoretical frameworks such as critical disability theory, methods such as universal design for learning, and a critical realist ontology, geoscience researchers can tune in to the ways our students make meaning around disability as deficit, science knowledge as privilege, and accessibility as "ease of access" rather than "possibility for a resource to be accessed". We can also assess narratives that demonstrate students can change how they think about disability and neurodivergence in science, especially after students practice the frameworks and methods mentioned above. Positioning ourselves at the intersection of geoscience education research and Big Q Qualitative research, through the use of RTA, is a promising mix of skills that can help us, as geoscience education practitioners, analyze and ultimately deconstruct the harmful barriers that we and our students face in academia.