'There's no way this kid's retarded': teachers' optimistic constructions of students' ability

Much can be learned about the experience of autism by listening to the voices of individuals so labelled. They describe their understanding of competence, living in a culture where autism is considered deviant, deficient and outside the range of 'normal' human experience. This paper utilises autobiographical accounts written by individuals who identify as autistic as a source of qualitative research data and specifically explores the ways in which these texts address issues of competence. Using narrative inquiry, it explores how individuals with autism, both adults and adolescents, describe their own notions of competence and, further, the instructional practices that support their ability to demonstrate their competence.

Section: Making Sense Of Competence: the Cultural Meaning Of 'Smart'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Disqualified in the human race: a close reading of the autobiographies of individuals identified as autistic

Ashby

Causton‐Theoharis

2009

“…For example, a teacher may refuse to check a student's academic work because in her opinion it is the coordinator's job, since she will do so in any case. Furthermore, all teachers should approach all students with thoughts and practices that would lead them to engage in meaningful academic opportunities with their peers (Kasa-Hendrickson 2005).…”

Section: Difficulty In Inclusion -Focusing On the Included Students Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Successes and difficulties in the individual inclusion of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the eyes of their coordinators

Eldar

Talmor

Wolf-Zukerman

2009

This study examined the inclusion of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in regular classes and analysed the factors related to its success and failure. Thirty-seven inclusion coordinators participated in the study and conveyed their view about their own experience. The qualitative methodology used in this study was comprised of regular bimonthly reports by the inclusion coordinators, a comprehensive report on one successful and one 'problematic' event of their student, and focused open interviews with the inclusion coordinators. Two general categories emerged for success and failure: the included student's functioning (behavioural, social, cognitive) and the inclusion environment (collaboration, attitude, organisational aspects). Two general categories emerged from the analysis of success and difficulty factors: the inclusion environment (didactic aspects, the environment's behaviour) and the student's functioning (personal/internal factors, social skills, stereotypical behaviour, student's individual abilities). Implications of these findings are discussed.

“…This interpretivist qualitative study draws on 'optimistic research' methods (Biklen 2005;Bogdan and Biklen 2007;Bogdan and Taylor 1989;Kasa-Hendrickson 2005) to explore the experiences of three students and their support teams in an inclusive suburban public high school in the northeast USA. The optimistic approach to qualitative research has proven particularly helpful in exploring the lives of individuals with disabilities in that it, 'involves the researcher deciding to look at situations that others have identified as "successful" and then learning from them' (Biklen 2005, 10).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The right path of equality’: supporting high school students with autism who type to communicate

Woodfield

Ashby

2015

The inclusion of students who type to communicate has been researched and strategies to accommodate such students have been recommended, but little information has been gathered about the students' perspectives and daily school lives. This study utilises classroom observations and qualitative interviewing to explore the experiences of three high school students who type to communicate and the systems in place to support them. The study privileges and focuses on the ways that their school personnel honour the voices of those students as contributors to the construction of the spaces they enter and ways in which their active participation is supported.