Dr Sharon Smith is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, working within the Education Equity Initiative (EEI). Her research explores disability, inclusion, maternal advocacy, and the lived experiences of families of disabled children. As a mother of a disabled daughter, Sharon’s scholarship is grounded in lived experience, shaping her commitment to rights‑based reform and to research that attends closely to affect, relationality, and the ethical and political dimensions of representation.
Sharon completed her PhD in Education at the University of Birmingham in 2024, supported by BERA’s inaugural Doctoral Fellowship, awarded in recognition of the significance and potential impact of her research. Her doctoral research examined inclusion through the perspectives of mothers of disabled children, bringing together “conversation” as a methodological orientation with philosophical inquiry and creative methods to support dissemination. Her work foregrounds the emotional and ethical labour of maternal advocacy, the politics of risk and vulnerability, and the tensions between policy narratives and lived realities. She is particularly interested in how mothers’ experiential knowledge can challenge dominant discourses and illuminate the structural conditions that shape educational and social inequity.
Her broader research interests include the philosophy of education, postqualitative inquiry, critical disability studies, parental advocacy, participation, risk, and inclusion. Sharon’s work often engages with methodological innovation, including creative, arts‑based, and posthuman approaches, and she is committed to exploring the ethical challenges of representing lived experience within research, policy, and public discourse.
Sharon’s peer‑reviewed publications span disability studies, inclusive education, feminist and posthuman inquiry, and the philosophy of education. Her work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and publications. She also writes extensively for sector and practitioner audiences, contributing to BERA, Inclusion Now, Byline Times, and Special Needs Jungle, where she frequently examines the intersections of policy, practice and lived experience.
Alongside her academic work, Sharon holds several national roles that bridge research, policy, and practice. She is Co‑Director of Special Needs Jungle, a member of the SEN Policy Research Forum lead group, a member of the Twinkly advisory board for SEND and EAL, and a member (and former co‑chair) of the nasen/Whole School SEND Universal SEND Services advisory board. She also works part‑time as Policy and Parliamentary Lead at the Down’s Syndrome Association, contributing to national policy discussions, sector commentary, and rights‑based advocacy.
Across her work, Sharon is committed to collapsing the distance between research, policy, and lived experience, and to fostering more equitable, inclusive, and accountable systems for disabled children and their families.