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Student Teachers' Positive Perceptions of Characteristics and Personality of People on the Autism Spectrum: “Challenging in a Positive Way”

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Abstract

This paper presents quantitative and qualitative findings from an interdisciplinary research project exploring student teachers' positive perceptions of people on the autism spectrum. The set of findings reported in this paper asked 704 student teachers from one university in England (n = 191), Finland (n = 251) and Sweden (n = 262) to write down the first three words they thought of to identify the characteristics of people on the autism spectrum. Data was analysed using a multi-layered, deductive co-rated coding approach. Through this approach repeated words were extracted as were negative and undetermined words, leaving only positive words. Examination of the positive words identified found differences in the manner student teachers focus on the positive characteristics of people on the autism spectrum as this is an understudied area of research. Finnish student teachers more frequently used language to describe the positive characteristics of people on the autism spectrum that reflected their perception of learning being their primary professional role. However, English and Swedish student teachers used language that showed they perceived their role as encompassing the social and emotional development of their pupils, with little reflection about the positive characteristics of people on the autism spectrum as learners.

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Notes

  1. Consulting with research and current views of academics and pupils with autism it was decided that for the purposes of this paper to use the language of ‘autism’ or ‘on the autism spectrum’ throughout to describe people diagnosed with this condition (Kenny et al, 2016) as no one term is universally accepted.

  2. Codes identified were: Student teachers’ perceptions about how others see people on the AS; student teachers’ perceptions of personality characteristics of people with autism; other cognitive abilities; high ability in specific areas / subjects; high ability; disability / SEN; school environments; interventions; support/ needs; impact on practice; teacher mindset; sensory needs; inclusion; exclusion; physical behaviour/needs; emotional behavioural needs; medical diagnosis; communication needs and differences; general communication.

  3. 4 sub-themes: ‘positive social skills,’ ‘learning factors,’ ‘positive personality characteristics’ and ‘emotions.’.

  4. Five highest words were included for England as ‘creative’ and ‘particular’ received the same number of mentions.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Mark T. Carew receives salary support from the Programme for Evidence to inform Disability Action project funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Kent, England, UK

    Sue Soan

  2. Department of Educational Studies, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (formerly Karlstad University, Sweden), Vormstuguvegen 2, 2624, Lillehammer, Norway

    Anne Lindblom

  3. University of Oulu (Formerly University of Eastern Finland), Research Unit of Logopedics, P.O. Box 1000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Katja Dindar

  4. School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus, P.O. Box 111, 80101, Joensuu, Finland

    Eija Kärnä

  5. International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

    Mark T. Carew

Authors
  1. Sue Soan
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  2. Anne Lindblom
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  3. Katja Dindar
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  4. Eija Kärnä
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Contributions

SS Formal Analysis, Visualisation, Investigating, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing. AL Project leader, Investigating, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing. KD Investigating, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing. EK Investigating, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing. MTC reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Sue Soan.

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Conflict of interest

None of the authors have any conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

Informed, written consent was obtained from all student teachers and was also carried out in accordance with regard to confidentiality and voluntary participation. Participants could withdraw at any time. All data will always be stored safely until the conclusion of the project and in line with the archiving laws of each nation. Professional guidelines and ethical codes of conduct for each nation involved applied (Swedish HSFR Codex, British BPS, BERA, 2011/2018, ‘Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research,’ Guidelines of the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity, 2012) and were adhered to.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Student teachers’ perceptions of social abilities and characteristics (Stage 2)

Student teachers’ perceptions of personality characteristics of people on the AS

Student teachers’ perceptions about how others might interpret people on the AS

SOCIAL/CONTACT DIFFICULTIES/A-UNSOCIAL Sociala/

kontakt svårigheter / a/osocial 29

Social issues 1

Social difficulties 4

epäsosiaalisuus 8

vuorovaikutusongelmat / sosiaaliset haasteet 24

tilannetajun vaikeus 1

NOT UNDERSTOOD/MISUNDERSTOOD/MISINTERPRETED/LACK OF INFORMATION

Oförstådd/

Missförstådd/

tolkad 4

Misunderstood 2

Misinterpreted 10

väärinymmärretty 1

tietämättömyys / tuntematon 2

DIFFICULTY UNDERSTANDING OTHER PEOPLE

Svårt förstå andra människor 1

PERSPECTIVE SOCIALLY

Own perspective 1

omat ajatukset / eri ajatus 2

SOCIAL LIMITATIONS

Social begränsad 1

FUNNY

Funny in a good way 1

DIFFICULTY WITH RELATIONSHIPS

Svårt med relationer 2

Forming Social Relationships 1

Relationships 4

Unable to form relationships 1

ANTI-SOCIAL

Anti-social 2

Poor social interaction 1

SOCIAL INTERPLAY/INTERACTION

Social samspel/

Interaction/samvaro 3

Social /skills, difficulties/relationships/

Interaction/ 41

sosiaaliset taidot / sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus 8

RUDE

Rude 1

DIFFICULTY IN READING FEELINGS

Svårt läsa av känslor 4

vaikea ymmärtää / osoittaa tunteita 3

SOLITARY

Solitary 1

yksinäinen / yksinäinen toiminta 7

SOCIAL COMPETENCE/LACK OF

Social kompetens/

brist på 4

BULLIED

kiusattu 1

  1. Key: italics—English; Bold—Finnish; Bolditalics—Swedish

Appendix 2: Tree Visualisation

figure a

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Soan, S., Lindblom, A., Dindar, K. et al. Student Teachers' Positive Perceptions of Characteristics and Personality of People on the Autism Spectrum: “Challenging in a Positive Way”. J Autism Dev Disord (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-023-06151-y

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