A socio-political approach on autistic students’ sense of belonging in higher education

Abstract

Although an unprecedented number of autistic students are entering higher education, research focusing on their sense of belonging is scarce. Autistic students' sense of belonging can be jeopardized due to the students' encounters with a network of social expectations, activities, responses and biased attitudes. Using a participatory approach, our objective was to examine autistic university students' perceptions about their sense of belonging whilst at university. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 12 autistic university students and graduates from the Netherlands. Data were analysed using theory-guided content analysis and elaborative coding approaches. Findings indicate that autistic students' sense of belonging is multi-dimensional, fluid, and located within affective, spatial, temporal, social and political contexts. Our findings offer a novel and theoretically robust framework to conceptualise and further understand the sense of belonging. Important practical implications are also given.

Politicising inclusive learning environments: how to foster belonging and challenge ableism?

“…We critically contest psychological and individualistic approaches to 'belonging'. Such approaches infer a technico-scientific standpoint that sees belonging as a construct that can be measured, fostered and controlled (Pesonen et al, 2020). HE studies often focus on policies and interventions for promoting belonging of underrepresented student groups 'at risk' of not belonging (O'Keeffe, 2013).…”

“…Vaccaro et al (2015) have called for a multidimensional understanding of the belonging of disabled students in HE. To answer their call, we take a socio-political approach to disabled students' belonging (Pesonen et al, 2020). While we recognise the situated, sociomaterial aspect of belonging (Gravett & Ajjawi, 2021), above all, our approach is humanistic.…”

“…Research has shown that inaccessible learning environments (in terms of physical, perceptual, and socio-emotional accessibility) can cause disabled students to drop out of courses and even from HE (García-González et al, 2020;McKinney & Swartz, 2020). Yet while the barriers to learning for disabled students have been studied extensively in HE, until recently, the aspect of belonging has been understudied (Pesonen et al, 2020). Recent studies have advocated for learning environment design to support the belonging of all students; this idea has supplemented large campus-wide development programmes for belonging by promoting the importance of pedagogical design (Lahdenperä & Nieminen, 2020).…”

“…While the importance of belongingness is recognised, 'little has been written about how it can be used as a teaching philosophy in itself' (Levin et al, 2019, p. 72). Furthermore, inaccessible teaching practices might lead to exclusion for disabled students (Pesonen et al, 2020): Might it be more desirable for disabled students not to belong in the learning environments?…”

“…Moreover, our study is situated in a context in which teaching culture has been radically developed, offering an encouraging base for analysing inclusive practices. We have taken a socio-political approach, widening the earlier theoretical understanding of belonging in HE (Liasidou, 2014;Pesonen et al, 2020). As Slee (2019) argued, the ethical quest for inclusion 'in the age of exclusion' has to be a radical one, as HE is not a vacuum but both renews and strengthens the broader societal discourses of ableism and exclusion.…”