Educational discourse and the autistic student: an inside-out approach

The educational challenges faced by people with a diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) are well documented (Sainsbury, 2000; Jones 2002; Frith 2003; Jones et al., 2008). Despite many years of research into Autism however, little evidence has been collated on the discourses of autistic people themselves regarding educational practices. The purpose of this research project is to examine the autistic ‘voice’ in educational discourse, using social constructivist ontology and to provide rich and detailed data on how autistic people construct their own educational narratives and how their lives are shaped by dominant discourses from the non-autistic viewpoint, leading to the following research questions:

How do people with a diagnosis of ASC and their carers construct their experiences of educational practice?

Is there an apparent conflict of interests between the discourses of different stakeholders?

This project would employ a range of interpretive methodologies to illuminate the situated narratives of autistic people and their carers with regards to education. The project will take an emancipatory and critical stance, in the sense that autistic people can be said to be a socially marginalised group who have struggled (both biologically and socially) to express their own views regarding educational practice. The project also takes an ‘insider’ view, in the sense that the researcher has a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, is a parent of a severely affected child and whose career background is in education. These insights into how people with a diagnosis of ASC experience education may provide practical working models for improvements in their education as well as generating ideas for further research questions to be addressed.