Students With ASD in Mainstream Primary Education Settings: Teachers' Experiences in Western Australian Classrooms

Abstract

The shift to inclusive education within Australia has resulted in increasing numbers of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) being placed in mainstream educational settings. This move has created new demands on teachers who are not necessarily trained to meet the challenge. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop an understanding of how 12 Western Australian primary school (K–7) teachers adapted to the challenge of having a student with ASD in their mainstream classroom. Using an interpretivist framework, data from semistructured interviews revealed that teachers perceived a need to first recognise and accept the challenges associated with having a student with ASD in their mainstream classroom before they could move to accessing avenues of support. The implications of this finding are discussed.

Attitudes of Australian primary school teachers towards the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders

“…It is therefore reassuring that the results of the current study suggest that this sample of Australian primary school teachers possess positive attitudes towards the inclusion of students with ASD in mainstream education. Nonetheless, numerous studies have highlighted the importance of increased specialist training for teachers to support effective inclusion and in improving teachers' efficacy in dealing with students with ASD, which would suggest that training and experience still play important roles in the formation of teachers' attitudes overall (Busby, Ingram, Bowron, et al, 2012;Coman, Alessandri, Gutierrez, et al, 2013;Ferraioli and Harris, 2011;Hay and Winn, 2005;Lindsay, Proulx, Thomson, et al, 2013;Park, & Chitiyo, 2011;Roberts, Keane, and Clark, 2008;Soto-Chodiman, Pooley, Cohen, et al, 2012;Syriopoulou-Delli, Cassimos, Tripsianis, et al, 2012). Due to the large body of evidence suggesting attitudes were linked to experience and training, the question of the influence of policy and legislation was not raised in this study, as such the focus remained on the length of experience and the number of ASD-specific training courses attended by teachers.…”

A review of research into stakeholder perspectives on inclusion of students with autism in mainstream schools

“…The social communication characteristics of students with autism were perceived as having a significant impact on the teacher-student and student-peer relationship in primary (Gray and Donnelly 2013) and secondary schools (Hedges et al 2014;Saggers, Hwang, and Mercer 2011). Teachers found the need to ensure instructions and class communications were clear and unambiguous inhibited typical teacher-student interaction (Emam and Farrell 2009;Hay and Winn 2005;Soto-Chodiman, Pooley, and Taylor 2012). Adapting mode of communication was viewed as time-consuming and led to frustration and resentment for some teachers (Emam and Farrell 2009).…”

South Korean elementary school teachers’ experiences of inclusive education concerning students with a multicultural background

“…This study discovered that many SMBs had issues in common, both at school and at home. The issues that arise in the education of SMBs were previously observed by a number of international research studies: academic underachievement (Bondy, Peguero, and Johnson 2017;Castles 2009;Martinez-Taboada et al 2017); language difficulty (Kang 2015;Obondo, Lahdenperä, and Sandevärn 2016;Sinkkonen and Kyttälä 2014;Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco 2009); importance of parental collaboration in IE (Angelides and Hajisoteriou 2013;Hamaidi, Homidi, and Reyes 2012;Lee and Low 2013;Soto-Chodiman et al 2012); and emotional difficulties and social isolation (Cherng 2015;Malsbary 2014;Plenty and Jonsson 2017). However, the difference in perceptions of SMBs' difficulties between the teachers in this study and teachers in other international studies, was quite striking.…”