The Autistic School Staff Project
Team
Dr Rebecca Wood (Lead)
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Professor Francesca Happé (Co-I)
Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre
King’s College London
Professor Laura Crane (Co-I)
Autism Centre for Education Research
University of Birmingham
Dr Damian Milton (Co-I)
Tizard Centre
University of Kent
Rabaha Arshad (RA)
School of Education
University of Glasgow
Abstract
The Autistic School Staff Project (ASSP) focuses on the experiences, needs and strengths of autistic teachers predominantly in the UK, with small studies in the US and Poland. Based on a neurodiversity paradigm and a disability rights perspective, we apply strengths-based understandings to the viewpoints of participants. Across the various phases on the project, we have included approximately 170 autistic school staff in our study, most of whom are teachers, while some have different educational roles such as support assistant, senior leader or visiting professional. By employing online surveys and in-depth interviews analysed via qualitative methods such as discourse analysis, thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis, we have been able to gain important insights into the barriers faced by autistic school staff, their particular aptitudes, and the benefits, real and potential, that they bring to schools. We have found that in particular, autistic teachers can play an important role in facilitating diversity and inclusion in schools. The final phase of the ASSP explores the attitudes of 115 parents in the UK towards autistic teachers, and we seek to ascertain whether their understandings can be harnessed to provide greater support for neurodivergent school staff and foster greater inclusivity in schools. Open access articles, reports, magazine publications, an e-booklet and webinars can be found on the Autistic School Staff Project website. We also have an edited book, Learning From Autistic Teachers: How to be a Neurodiversity-Inclusive School which contains chapters from autistic teachers in a range of roles. The ASSP was funded initially by the ESRC and subsequently by the John and Lorna Wing Foundation.
Keywords
autism; autistic teachers; inclusion; neurodiversity
Funder
- John and Lorna Wing Foundation
- ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship