Experiences of Pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and School Provision during the Transitions between Educational Phases in Ireland

Author(s):

Yu Zhao(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES E 08, Special Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-22

15:30-17:00

Room:

OB-E0.01

Chair:

Javier Diez-Palomar

Contribution

In recent decades, the achievement of ‘Education for All’ (UNESCO, 1990) movement has enabled discussions of the theory and practice of the implementation of inclusive education in many countries. The EFA Assessment (2000) indicated that in worldwide the progress had been made towards the goals which were set in World Conference on EFA, Jomtien in 1990. Enabling children and young people with special educational needs to be included and participated in mainstream schools, and to be achieving full involvement in schooling has become essential in education systems in most countries all over the world. Like many other countries, policy making and establishing legislation has focused on ensuring the implementation of inclusive education in Ireland (Shevlin and Rose, 2008). A Special Education Review Committee was established by the Department of Education and Science for examining the existing special education provision and making recommendations. The most important issue that the SERC report (1993) emphasized was the provision of adequate resourcing for pupils with disabilities and/or special educational needs. After that there have been major changes in disability policy in Ireland. The Education Act (1998) was the first time in Irish education system to have a statutory framework for operating and continuing the development of publicly funded schools; and was the foundation of achieving Education for All in Ireland by putting emphasis on ensuring provision for persons with disabilities or other special educational needs (Oireachtas, 1998). The Equal Status Act (2000) could be the guarantee for promoting Education for All, by offering equal opportunity for each child with disabilities or special educational needs being included and educated within mainstream schools in Ireland (Oireachtas, 2000). In addition, the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act (2004) can be seen as a significant milestone in education legislation provision for persons with SEN (Oireachtas, 2004). This Act focuses on making further provision for supporting children with SEN, and particularly, The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was established under the EPSEN Act (2004), with the aim to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs, with particular emphasis on children.

A considerable increase in the number of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been reported (Brugha et al., 2012; and NAS, 2015) in recent decades.The number of pupils with ASD being educated in mainstream schools is increasing (Emam and Farrell, 2009). The Report of the Task Force on Autism (DES, 2001) embodied key policies and practices on educational provision for children with ASD in Ireland. DES (2008) reported there were 129 special schools catering for pupils with 14 categories of SEN, and there were just 6 special schools in Ireland for pupils with ASD. Over the last number of years, significant progress has been made in ensuring that sufficient places are available for children with autism who require a special class setting (DES, 2001). Autism units/classes attached within mainstream schools and school provision for facilitating children with ASD in mainstream schools have increased dramatically since 2001 (NCSE Annual Report 2005-2014). Significant progress in supporting children with autism being included in mainstream schools has been achieving, but recommendations are suggested for fulfilling the areas including: training for teaching staff; school provision for supporting children with autism; liaison with families and transition plan for children with ASD (NCSE, 2009).

This paper is investigating learning experiences and school provision for children with ASD in mainstream schools in Ireland. Developments of educational policies and school provision for facilitating autistic children’s need will be explored and how the educational contribution has been helping autistic children and their families will also be illustrated.

Method

This paper is investigating learning experiences and school provision for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) during the transition from primary to secondary education in mainstream schools in Ireland. Research methods including case study (Yin, 2014 and Bassey, 1999), semi-structured interviews (Gilham, 2000 and Wallilam, 2011), document scrutiny (Bennett, 2003) and literature review (Wallilam, 2011) will be utilized for collecting data and for answering the research questions (Cohen et al., 2011; Robson, 2011 and Bell, 2005). Four case study students will be followed up from the final year of their primary school to the first year of their post-primary school. The use of triangulation of sources aimed to investigate individual autistic child’s learning experiences and school provision for supporting those children in mainstream schools (Rothbauer, 2008 & Bogdan and Biklen, 2006). Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with the autistic students, their parents and the support staff in the school twice, before and after their transition for exploring support staff’s perspectives in including children with special educational needs, and enabling parents and children to raise their voices. Review of the literature of policy making and research studies in educational area will lay out the structure of school provision for supporting children with special educational needs in Ireland, especially for those children with autism. School document scrutiny will identify and explore how schools follow the educational policy to facilitate all children’s needs; and to investigate the situation of implementing inclusive education in Ireland for supporting children with special educational needs, especially for those children with autism in practice. Data from interviews and document scrutiny will reflect the practice in real world by comparing with the policy made by the government, and the gap in between will be identified finally. Data will be analysed by using Thematic Analysis (Guest, 2012 and Saldana, 2009). First level codes will be created and reduced into reasonable number by reading through the interview transcription firstly, and themes will be emerging from the codes. By adapting Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecology System Model, every individual pupil with ASD will be put into the centre of the case as the micro level; in-class support, school provision, peer support and parents’ involvement can be seen as the Meso level, which will impact pupil’s development. The interaction between the two levels will be examined mainly in this study to identify what promotes and inhibits autistic pupils’ development in mainstream schools.

Expected Outcomes

This qualitative research study is aiming to investigate: 1. What are the experiences faced by young people with autism spectrum disorders during transition between phases of education? 2. What are the school provisions for facilitating those children’s transition? 3. How do schools define and identify successful transition and those procedures adopted to support this process? There are many separate research studies of investigating the experiences of children with special educational needs during the transition between primary and secondary education (Rice et al., 2011; Spering and Rennie, 1996; Mackenzie et al., 2012 and Topping, 2011); and exploring the experiences of autistic children who are included and educated in the mainstream schools (Wing, 1993; Tutt et al., 2006; Baron-Cohen et al., 2009 and Emam and Farrell, 2009). However, there are quite a few research studies have been done for investigating the experiences for children with autism spectrum disorder during the transition between educational phases (Elizabeth and Topping, 2012; Dann, 2011; Stoner et al., 2007; and Mandy et al., 2015). Therefore, I hope this research would fulfil the knowledge in this area. I also hope the impact of this research will add more information in education field; assist the educational professionals provide more appropriate support for those children with autism; and help those children and their parents make the transitions smoothly. I believe that educational research will be able to play a supportive role in helping children and their families, and to make contribution into education.

References

Bassey, M., (1999), Case Study Research in Educational Settings, Buckingham: Open University Press Bennett, J., (2003), Evaluation Methods in Research, London: Continuum Bronfenbrenner, U., (1979), The ecology of human development: experiments by nature and design, Harvard College, USA Dann, R., (2011), ‘Secondary transition experiences for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASCs)’, Educational Psychology in Practice, 27(3), 293-312 Department of Education and Science (DES), (2001), The Report of the Task Force on Autism: Educational Provision and Support for Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Dublin: The Stationery Office Elizabeth, F. and Topping, K.J., (2012), ‘Anxiety Level in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder Making the Transition from Primary to Secondary School’, Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 47(2), 198-209 Emam, M. M., & Farrell, P., (2009), ‘Tensions experienced by teachers and their views of support for pupils with autism spectrum disorders in mainstream schools’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 24(4), 407-422 Gilham, B., (2000), The Research Interview, London: Continuum Guest, G., (2012), Applied thematic analysis. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Ireland, (1993), Department of Education, Report of the Special Education Review Committee, Dublin: The Stationery Office Ireland, (1998), Education Act, Dublin: The Stationery Office Mackenzie, E., McMaugh, A., and O’Sullivan, K.A., (2012), ‘Perceptions of primary to secondary school transitions: Challenges or threat?’, Issues in Educational Research, 22(3)298-314 Mandy, W., Murin, M., Baykaner, O., Staunton, S., Hellriegel, J., Anderson, S., & Skuse, D., (2015), ‘The transition from primary to secondary school in mainstream education for children with autism spectrum disorder’, Autism, 1362361314562616 National Council for Special Education, (2009), International Review of the Literature of Evidence of Best Practice Provision in the Education of Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Trim: NCSE Oireachtas, (2000), Equal Status Act. Dublin: The Stationary Office Oireachtas, (2004), Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN). Dublin: The Stationary Office Rice, F., Frederickson, N., & Seymour, J., (2011), Assessing pupil concerns about transition to secondary school. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(2), 244-263 Robson, C., (2011), Real World Research, 3rd Edition, New York: John Wiley Shevlin, M. and Rose, R., (2008), ‘Pupils as partners in education decision-making: responding to the legislation in England and Ireland’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 23(4): 423-430 Topping, K., (2011), ‘Primary-secondary transition: Differences between teachers’ and children’s perceptions’, Improving Schools, 14(3), 268-285 Walliman, N., (2010), Research methods: The basics, Routledge Yin, R., (2014), Case Study Research-Design and Methods 5th Ed, London: Sage

Author Information

Yu Zhao (presenting / submitting)

The University of Northampton, England, United Kingdom

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