04. Inclusive Education
Paper
Diversity in Education- Autism According to the Pupils, Caregivers and Education Professionals
Mathilda Tassinari Rogalin1, Gian Piero Turchi2, Luisa Orrù2
1Uppsala university, Sweden; 2Padova university, Italy
Presenting Author: Tassinari Rogalin, Mathilda
This paper aims to describe how pupils, caregivers and education professionals make sense of ‘a pupil with autism’, the implications that follow for the pedagogical agenda and, in a broader sense, the idea of the person with autism as diverse or different. This paper presents the results of a study involving 23 pupils with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, 18 education professionals (teachers, head teachers, members of the Pupil Health Team), and 22 caregivers.
The research was located in two special educational settings in Sweden and applies a methodology of text analysis developed at the University of Padua, Italy, never previously applied in studies concerning pupils with psychiatric diagnoses.
The results show how the education professionals are working toward diversity, i.e. understanding the pupils as individuals and striving to incorporate the diagnosis as a part of the individual rather than the central aspect. However, the pupils themselves and the caregivers rather move toward understanding the diagnosis as central and the pupils as different from others. These results are relevant considering the idea of inclusion and diversity in school and the implications of understanding the person with autism as diverse or essentially different from other people, in school as well as later in life.
The research connects to several international/European discussions among which:
a) the possibility of working toward inclusion while also practicing differentiation in placement for certain groups of pupils;
b) how to achieve an educational trajectory that allows the pupils to realise their full potential;
c) how to move toward the aim of the pupils becoming active members of the broader society and
d) the implications of understanding the pupils (the person) with autism as diverse and different.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe research presented in the paper involves 23 pupil, 18 education professionals and 22 caregivers. The research involved a) a private upper secondary resource school with delimited reception, specifically profiled toward pupils with an autism spectrum diagnosis, and b) two special teaching classes, focused on pupils with an autism spectrum diagnosis, located within the premises of a public compulsory school. The data was generated through interviews ( with all pupils) and questionnaires with open ended questions (compiled by education professionals and caregivers).
The MADIT methodology focuses both on how ordinary language is used to configure sense of reality (the process) combined with what the participants say (the content) (Turchi & Orrù, 2014). Through the concept of ‘discursive repertory’ (DR) the answers of the participants were analysed by observing how ordinary language was used to construct sense as the participants answered the questions. For example, as the participants gives their point of view of what it means to be a pupil with an autism diagnosis, they sometimes do so by simply describing a person, with difficulties and strengths, without any moral or qualitative evaluation. Other times they make a distinction between pupils who have a diagnosis and pupils who do not have a diagnosis. In the first case, the DR is considered a Description and in the second case the DR is either a Contraposition or a Justification. The Description is a generative DR and opens up the possibilities of interaction and, as an implication, opens up the possibilities of who the pupil with autism can be. The Contraposition and the Justification are stabilising DRs and thus stabilise the modalities inside of which the pupils, caregivers and education professionals interact.
In the analysis, all the answers of each participant group are analysed and the outcome is a distribution in percentages of the different DRs that form the answers.
MADIT is usually used to evaluate a situation in order to prepare interventions to render the modalities of interaction more or less stable, should it be deemed as useful or beneficial (in this case of the pupils). MADIT has been priorly applied in a variety of settings but never before concerning the education of pupils who have been diagnosed with ASD.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe results show how the pedagogical professionals attempt to include the pupils with autism in the broader community of pupils, seeing them first and foremost as individuals. This direction is that of ‘diversity’ where no pupil is the same as another, but they all belong to the same community. This result is shown in the distribution of the DR Description among the answers of the education professionals (37%). However, in the answers given by the pupils themselves and the caregivers, the portion of the DR Description is lower (12% and 11% respectively). Instead, we find a higher distribution of stabilising DRs such as Justification (27% among the pupils’ answers) and Contraposition. These DRs direct the process of sense making toward an understanding of the pupil with autism as different from other pupils, because of the diagnosis. This direction is that of ‘difference’ where the group of pupils with autism belong to their own community rather than the general community of pupils. Neither direction is necessarily ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but differ in terms of their implications.
Considering the agenda of the education professionals, should they successfully realise their aim of diversity, they could benefit from being supported in rendering their aims clearer and how to navigate toward them. It would be possible to imagine an intervention with the aim of supporting the education professionals. The efficiency of such an intervention could be evaluated through MADIT by comparing the DRs used by the involved professionals and pupils at t0 and t1.
ReferencesGuest, Elizabeth. 2020. “Autism from Different Points of View: Two Sides of the Same Coin.” Disability & Society 35 (1): 156–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2019.1596199.
Hjörne, Eva. 2016. “The Narrative of Special Education in Sweden: History and Trends in Policy and Practice.” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 37 (4): 540–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1073017.
Jones, Jennifer L., Kami L. Gallus, Kacey L. Viering, and Lauren M. Oseland. 2015. “‘Are You by Chance on the Spectrum?’ Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Making Sense of Their Diagnoses.” Disability & Society 30 (10): 1490–1504. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2015.1108902.
Mesa, Sue, and Lorna G. Hamilton. 2021. “‘We Are Different, That’s a Fact, but They Treat Us like We’re Different-Er’: Understandings of Autism and Adolescent Identity Development.” Advances in Autism ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-12-2020-0071.
Rafalovich, Adam. 2013. “Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder as the Medicalization of Childhood: Challenges from and for Sociology.” Sociology Compass 7 (5): 343–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12034
SFS 2010:800. Education Act. “Skollagen (Eng. Education Act).” Stockholm. Ministry of Education.
Turchi, Gian Piero, Marta Silvia Dalla Riva, Caterina Ciloni, Christian Moro, and Luisa Orrù. 2021. “The Interactive Management of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus: The Social Cohesion Index, a Methodological-Operational Proposal.” Frontiers in Psychology 12. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.559842.
Turchi, Gian Piero, and Luisa Orrù. 2014. Metodologia per l’analisi dei dati informatizzati testuali: fondamenti di teoria della misura per la scienza dialogica. Napoli: Edises.
Turchi, Gian Piero, Michele Romanelli, Federico Bonazza, and Anna Girardi. 2014a. “Discursive Configuration.” In Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, edited by Thomas Teo, 457–63. New York, NY: Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7.
Oliver, Michael. 2009. Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice. 2nd edition. Basingstoke, Hampshire England ; New York: Red Globe Press.
Olsson, Ingrid, and Claes Nilholm. 2022. “Inclusion of Pupils with Autism - a Research Overview.” European Journal of Special Needs Education.
Williams, Emma I., Kate Gleeson, and Bridget E. Jones. 2019. “How Pupils on the Autism Spectrum Make Sense of Themselves in the Context of Their Experiences in a Mainstream School Setting: A Qualitative Metasynthesis.” Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice 23 (1): 8–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361317723836.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
04. Inclusive Education
Paper
Multi-Perspective Research on the Interrelation Between Language, Socio-emotional Skills, and Parent-child Relationship on Academic Performance in Autism
Maïte Franco, Andreia Costa
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Presenting Author: Franco, Maïte
Children on the autism spectrum often struggle to complete their education in unspecialized schools, even when their intellectual abilities would suggest differently (Manti et al., 2011). We seek to identify which factors may contribute to the academic outcomes of autistic children. Social skills have been identified to significantly influence academic outcomes in neurotypical children (Meier et al., 2006) as well as in autistic children (Miller et al., 2017). However, this may be even more pertinent in autistic children as they tend to struggle with socio-emotional skills (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and to face social exclusion more often than their neurotypical peers (Humphrey & Lewis, 2008). Since children learn social skills for a major part in interaction with their parents (Ladd, 2005) and parents of autistic children were found to interact significantly less with their children than parents of neurotypical children (Costa et al., 2019), children on the autism spectrum may be exposed to an even more increased risk for academic underachievement. Meanwhile, the reduced interaction could relate to findings, stating that parents and especially mothers of autistic children have a higher incidence of negative psychological outcomes (depression, anxiety, emotional distress) than parents of neurotypical children (Mugno et al., 2007).
Furthermore, living in a multilingual environment, such as is increasingly the case worldwide but particularly in countries such as Luxembourg, while having impaired (pragmatic) language skills (Miller et al., 2017), autistic children may face additional challenges in social communication and academic achievement. Language barriers may impede their participation in class and understanding of academic content and thus hinder proper socialization and integration among their peers. The choice of language(s) could further influence children’s cognition since language was found to be tightly interrelated with cognitive concepts and the categorization of abstract information (Perlovsky, 2009a). For example, categorical perception of color in prelinguistic babies was found to be based in the right cerebral hemisphere. However, when starting language acquisition and learning of lexical color terminologies, categorical perception of color transitions, such that adults’ categorical perception of color is based in the left hemisphere, where language mechanisms are located (Franklin et al., 2008).
In addition, the degree of parents’ familiarity with the language used to interact with their autistic child was found to play a role in parents’ ability to feel comfortable, authentic, and free to express themselves (Franco et al., in preparation). Thus, the language used in autism families may affect the parent-child relationship, the overall family dynamic, and the mental health of family members (Jegatheesan, 2011). Language was also found to influence emotion expression abilities, such that languages have different levels of emotionality (Guttfreund 1990; Perlovsky, 2009b) and that our most intense emotions are often, and sometimes instinctively, expressed in our mother tongue (Zentella, 1997). In line with this previous research, the present study investigates the interrelation between autistic children’s language, socio-emotional skills, parent-child relationship, and academic outcomes.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe study is in the final phase of data collection and as of today includes 15 autistic children and 10 age- and gender-matched neurotypical peers attending mainstream elementary schools in Luxembourg. For each child, one of their parents and their class teacher participated as well. Children were tested with a battery of different psychological tests regarding their cognitive abilities (i.e. IQ, attention, visual processing, and inhibition) and were asked to watch a sad movie clip (extract from the movie The Lion King (1994), dying scene of the father), during which the researchers assess the children’s heart rate using a wrist-worn heart rate monitor, a structured interview, and the self-assessment manikin for emotional valence. Thereupon, an educational video clip (extract from the German television program Sendung mit der Maus by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln), available in the language of academic instruction of the child (German, French, or English), and questions about the clip’s content were used to assess the children’s memory abilities. At last, the children reported on their perception of their social integration at school. Parents answered questions about the family’s socio-demographics, their child’s ASD diagnosis, substance intake, and language skills. They then completed questionnaires on their child’s socio-emotional skills, their general behavior, their perceived inclusion at school, their parent-child relationship, and their own mental health. Teachers reported on the children’s language proficiency and academic achievement and informed as well about children’s socio-emotional skills, their general behavior, their perceived inclusion at school, and their teacher-child relationship.
The data of this study is to be analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 28 (IBM Corporation, 2021). Correlational, moderational/mediational, and regression analyses will be run for the interrelations of language, cognition, socio-emotional skills, and parent-child relationships. Regressions will be run following the theoretical background and correlational findings. For the difference between the data of autistic children and neurotypical children, analyses of variances are used to give a better insight regarding the main relations between their different abilities and their academic outcome and establish a general linear model, integrating the overall findings.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsWe expect that findings will show that children’s increased familiarity with the language of academic instruction positively relates to better academic outcomes and that the use of additional languages does either not or positively relate to their academic outcomes. We hypothesize that autistic children who use suppression, as compared to those who use reappraisal, have poorer subsequent performance in a cognition task. Meanwhile, this relation could moderate the general relation between cognitive skills and academic outcomes. We hypothesize that impairment of children’s socio-emotional skills negatively relates to children’s perception of inclusion in the academic environment and their academic outcomes. We further expect to find that impaired parent mental health may have an impact on children’s academic outcomes. Children’s impaired socio-emotional skills are further expected to negatively correlate with the parent's mental health and the parent-child relationship. Parents’ and children’s familiarity with the language used at home is expected to influence parents’ mental health and the parent-child relationship, and thus subsequently expected to influence children’s socio-emotional skills.
The findings of this study will be used for a better understanding of autistic children’s needs for support in the academic environment and guidance of (all) families living in a multilingual setting.
ReferencesAmerican Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Costa, A. P., Steffgen, G., & Vögele, C. (2019). The role of alexithymia in parent child interaction and in the emotional ability of children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 12(3), 458 468. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2061
Franco M., Steffgen, G., & Costa, A.P. (in preparation). Social skills in multilingual children with autism.
Franklin, A., Drivonikou, G. V., Bevis, L., Davie, I. R. L., Kay, P., & Regier, T. (2008). Categorical perception of color is lateralized to the right hemisphere in infants, but to the left hemisphere in adults. PNAS, 105(9), 3221–3225. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0712286105
Guttfreund, D. G. (1990). Effects of language usage on the emotional experience of Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58(5), 604–607. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.58.5.604
Humphrey, N., & Lewis, S. (2008). Make me normal' The views and experiences of pupils on the autistic spectrum in mainstream secondary schools. Autism, 12(1), 23-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361307085267
IBM Corporation (2021). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 28.0.1.1. IBM Corp.
Jegatheesan, B. (2011). Multilingual development in children with autism: Perspectives of South Asian Muslim immigrant parents on raising a child with a communicative disorder in multilingual contexts. Bilingual Research Journal, 34(2), 185 200. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2011.597824
Ladd, G.W. (2005). Children’s peer relations and social competence: A century of progress. Yale University Press.
Manti, E., Scholte, E. M., & Van Berckelaer-Onnes, I. A. (2011). Development of children with autism spectrum disorders in special needs education schools in the Netherlands: a three-year follow-up study. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 26(4), 411-427. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2011.597172
Meier, C. R., DiPerna, J. C., & Oster, M. M. (2006). Importance of social skills in the elementary grades. Education and treatment of children, 409–419. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42899893
Miller, L. E., Burke, J. D., Troyb, E., Knoch, K., Herlihy, L. E., & Fein, D. A. (2017). Preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in autism spectrum disorder. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 31(2), 382-403. https://doi.org/10.1080/13854046.2016.1225665
Mugno, D., Ruta, L., D'Arrigo, V. G., & Mazzone, L. (2007). Impairment of quality of life in parents of children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorder. Health and quality of life outcomes, 5, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-5-22
Perlovsky, L. I. (2009a). Language and cognition. Neural Networks, 22(3), 247-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2009.03.007
Perlovsky, L. I. (2009b). Language and emotions: emotional Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Neural Networks, 22(5-6), 518-526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2009.06.034
Zentella, A. (1997). Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
04. Inclusive Education
Paper
Teachers’ perceptions on Inclusive Education for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Cyprus.
Nefi Charalambous Darden
University of Northampton, UK
Presenting Author: Charalambous Darden, Nefi
This research study investigates the views and attitudes of Cypriot teachers towards the inclusive education policy of pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The purpose of this research is to conduct a formative assessment regarding teachers’ views on the education of children with ASD, the training of these teachers on the topic of inclusive education and their satisfaction with the implementation of inclusive education. The sample of the study consists of primary school teachers, who teach in three schools with Special Education Units (SEU) and three schools without SEUs, in the Limassol district. The research had two phases. They initially completed a questionnaire and then interviews were undertaken, based on the data derived from the questionnaires.
The educational system in Cyprus is highly centralized with policies and funding, administration and pedagogy centrally developed by the government (Symeonidou, 2002). The existing legislation is a major step towards the integration of children with disabilities in mainstream schools and the alignment of the Cypriot education system with international practice (Angelides, Vrasida and Charalambous, 2004). However, there are still some important ideological controversies that concern the rhetoric of integration and the implementation of segregating practices (Liasidou, 2007a). Numerous researchers stress the importance of the exploration of teachers’ professional background and their attitudes and beliefs regarding inclusive education, for the successful adoption of an inclusive approach to education, as they are the eventual implementers of integration or inclusive practices (Symenidou and Phtiaka, 2009).
The literature review led me identify that the issue of the inclusive education of pupils with special needs in Cyprus, particularly children with ASD, in mainstream education has been addressed only from a legal-administration and organizational aspect. The educational and emotional aspects of the issue have not been addressed for far by the scholarly literature, lacking research and empirical data. Furthermore, it has not addressed, in any consistent way, the link between the problems that impact children with ASD and the creation of an inclusive educational environment especially for them. Most of the research in Cyprus school set up to this day comprised of data collected for special needs in general, inclusion for children with disabilities or perceptions on inclusive education of children with disabilities, and none for ASD specifically. This has led to the need for further investigation of teachers’ perceptions regarding inclusive education of children with ASD, and the present research study.
Therefore, main objective of the current study is to investigate teachers’ perceptions on Inclusive Education, explicitly for children with ASD, in Cyprus, the training of these on the topic of inclusive education and their satisfaction with the implementation of inclusive education.
Hence, for the purposes of this conference I will be presenting the outcomes from the second stage of my research study, consisting of the description and analysis of the data collected from a semi – structured interviews to the educational staff of six schools, of all positions and specializations.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe objective of the final study was to conduct an explanatory case study regarding teachers’ perceptions on the education of children with ASD, the training of these teachers on the topic of inclusive education and their satisfaction with the implementation of inclusive education. To carry out scientific research, a necessary prerequisite was the development of a specific methodology in which this research was conducted (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007).
The research questions of this study provide the basis for the methodological paradigm chosen. These were (the following):
1. What are the teachers’ views on the education of children with ASD?
2. What is the training of these teachers on the topic of inclusive education for pupils with ASD?
3. Are they satisfied with the implementation of inclusive education regarding pupils with ASD?
Two primary schools and one pre-primary school with SEUs and two primary schools and one pre-primary school without SEU’s in the Limassol district were chosen through random sampling. The teachers of these schools constituted the sample of the research study. A mixed methods approach was applied to the research study, resulting in two stages of data collection and analysis. The first stage was completed with the data collection from the questionnaire and the statistical analysis of this data. The analysis of the data collected from the questionnaire provided inconclusive findings, as many of the participants answered by not taking a position either of agreement or disagreement, choosing to remain on the middle ground of “neither agree or disagree”. This was interpreted as either an inability to make a choice because of lack of knowledge on the subject matter, the lack of understanding of the question or a safety strategy due to the fear of openly expressing one’s position because it may be a negative position, even though surveys are anonymous. In either case, the interview process provided the researcher with the opportunity to explore these questions in greater depth. The second qualitative stage of the research was deemed necessary for triangulation purposes to provide a means of validation of the research, by increasing the accuracy and offering valuable information to the researcher. This allows the research data to be analysed in accordance with the research questions and disagreements that arise between evidence from different research methods to be examined in relation to the theoretical framework (Flick, 2007; Gillham, 2000a).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsMy aim through the second stage of the research was to provide a qualitative explanation of the issues under examination. During the data collection and analysis of the first phase of the research, I analyzed the data and presented the findings from the questionnaire separately from the next phase, which were the analysis of interviews and presentation of the findings from this analysis.
The above involves the abandonment of the traditional distinction between the data collection phase and the data analysis phase and the adoption of a strategy based on iterative sampling and analysis, following Pidgeon’s (1996) recommendation that data analysis may (and should, ideally) continue as soon as satisfactory material is collected to work on (rather than waiting until a predefined data set has been found), and this in turn feeds back into the sampling of new data’.
The analysis of the semi-structured interviews in the second stage of the present research has revealed crucial and important information about the attitudes of teachers regarding the inclusion of children with ASD in general schools. These attitudes seem to directly influence the education practice, the emphasis and the quality of education that children with ASD receive. The results and conclusions raise questions and issues about the inclusive and segregation practices of children with ASD in general schools, the role and responsibility of teachers, administration and the Ministry itself.
The presentation of the results of the second phase of the research is what I will present at the conference.
ReferencesAngelides, P., Charalambous, C. & Vrasida, C. (2004). Reflections on policy and practice of inclusive education in pre-primary schools in Cyprus, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 18, (2), 211-223.
Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education. London: Routledge.
Flick, U. (2007). Managing Quality in Qualitative Research, The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit, SAGE Publications.
Gillham, B. (2000a). Case Study Research Methods, London: Continuum.
Liasidou, A. (2007a). Inclusive education policies and the feasibility of educational change: the case of Cyprus, International Studies in Sociology of Education, 17, (4), 329-347.
Pidgeon, N. & Henwood, K. (1996). Grounded theory: practical implementation. In John T.E. Richardson (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research methods for psychology and the social sciences (pp.86-101). Leicester: BPS Books.
Symeonidou, S. (2002). A critical consideration of current values on the education of disabled children, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 6, (3), 217-229.
Symeonidou, S. & Phtiaka, H. (2009). Using Teachers’ Prior Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs to Develop in-Service Teacher Education Courses for Inclusion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, (4), 543–550.
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