The topic I wish to focus on for my teaching intervention is the experience of autistic students and in particular female students. I have chosen autism as it’s a topic I am particularly interested in and one where I believe small changes can make a big difference to the student experience. I was inspired by a podcast by Roger Saunders called the L&T Chat Show (2024) in which Hannah Breslin talks about her experience of teaching as a person with autism. Hannah does a brilliant job of describing some of the challenges she faces and talks about how small changes (eg. the option to have the lights dimmed in the classroom) can make a really big difference to her ability to stay focussed. She also discusses how every neurodivergent person’s experiences will be unique but that there are often common threads, for example, sensory issues to contend with. I would like to look at this topic through the lens of the female experience as the majority of my students are female (usually upwards of 75%) and academic research suggests that autistic females are more likely to use strategies to mask autistic features than males (Cook et al. 2021).

I was also inspired by Oliver’s (1990) desciption of disability a long-term social state” rather than a medical state which locates the problem with the individual when in reality it is society at large which needs to change. There has also been a lot written about how this ‘social model of disability’ has evolved over the past 30 years which I look forward to digesting as my research continues.

In terms of my own positionality, I am a neurotypical lecturer on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise (CSM) with an undergraduate degree in Psychology completed in 2002 which included the topic of neurodiversity. The course I currently teach on is delivered largely online and paired with Hong Kong University so I also have typically 25 students in Hong Kong alongside the UK cohort. My unit also includes an intensive 3-day face-to-face teaching weekend at Central Saint Martins. I plan to focus on the in-person element of the course for my intervention.

Bibliography

Cook,J.,Hull, L., Crane, L. & Mandy, W. (2021). Camouflaging in an everyday social context: An interpersonal recall study

Oliver, M. (1990). The Individual and Social Models of Disability.

Oliver, M. (2013). The Social Model of Disability 30 years on. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773

Saunders, R (2024). ‘Hannah Breslin on Teaching with Autism’ – L & T Chat Show. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2JHL7BsC3RiqOY3Sstiv7Y?si=3bwpoDzkR6eSAtQVM5yVhw (Accessed on 20/03/24).