EDU6 Project: Plan for Dissertation Viva - Autism in Schools

This document outlines a student's viva plan for their dissertation, focusing on the perspectives of teachers in special schools regarding what mainstream schools can learn from them in supporting children with autism. The plan includes a research question, a reading list with annotations of relevant texts, and a rationale explaining the subject's importance. The student proposes using qualitative research methods, specifically participant-observation and unstructured interviews, to gather data from educators, parents, and stakeholders in both special and mainstream schools in the UK. The plan also details the research setting, access procedures, participant selection, and a timeline for completing various stages of the dissertation. Ethical considerations, including potential biases and participant privacy, are also addressed. The student has read the BERA Guidelines and has attached an ethics form and consent letters.

EDU_6_PRJ: Plan for viva
The viva is an opportunity to sit and discuss your plans with your dissertation supervisor. Use this form to support
your viva discussion. You must complete the viva before starting your practical research.
Research question What are the perspectives of teachers in a special school on what mainstream
schools should learn from them on supporting children with autism?
Reading list – identify three texts relating to your research question and briefly describe the relevant content
Full reference (Harvard
LSBU)
Annotation – concise description of relevant content (you could
use bullet points)
Text 1 Iadarola, S.,
Hetherington, S.,
Clinton, C., Dean, M.,
Reisinger, E., Huynh, L.,
Locke, J., Conn, K.,
Heinert, S., Kataoka, S.
and Harwood, R., 2015.
Services for children
with autism spectrum
disorder in three, large
urban school districts:
Perspectives of parents
and
educators. Autism, 19(6),
pp.694-703.
 Educators have expressed significant level of frustration
with school-centric administration and more specifically
with the absence of district support for resources in
special schools.
 Additionally, issues have also been raised regarding
having adequate number of team members to
accomplish the needs of students with autism.
 The teacher-assistant association itself is of several
layers. These layers comprise of teachers who assist
paraprofessionals along with educators with better
education credentials and paraprofessionals who
typically belong to racial or ethnic backgrounds similar to
that of the students.
 These approaches will help paraprofessionals to relate
more with students with ASD.
 Thus, educators’ perspective has identified the
importance of cultural shift in schools in order to
augment the level of acceptance and inclusion of
children with autism.
 Hence, with novel inclusion mandates, the elevating
numbers of children with autism will possibly exacerbate
the tension of obtaining inclusive education.
Text 2 Roberts, J. and Simpson,
K., 2016. A review of
research into
stakeholder perspectives
on inclusion of students
with autism in
mainstream
schools. International
Journal of Inclusive
Education, 20(10),
pp.1084-1096.
 Educators in the U.K and the U.S have expressed positive
approaches regarding supporting children with autism
through inclusion in educational provisions.
 In the perspective of educators, sensitivity of inclusive
practice has been linked to the consideration of inclusion
as related to integration.
 This support the approach of involving child with autism
by underlining the adjustment of the learning setting in
order to attain needs of all children by drawing
contradiction to integration when the child is expected
to regulate its nature with the established environment.
 In the view of educators, inclusion essentially provides
children with autism the scope to involve themselves in
greater number of academic tasks.
 Moreover, application of class-wide approaches of
addressing behaviour as well as social concerns will
benefit all students.
 Studies have mentioned that general educators

necessitate more collegial support for engaging children
with autism in comparison to other students with
disabilities.
Text 3 Kauffman, J.M.,
Anastasiou, D., Badar, J.,
Travers, J.C. and Wiley,
A.L., 2016. Inclusive
education moving
forward. In General and
special education
inclusion in an age of
change: Roles of
professionals
involved (pp. 153-178).
Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
 Inclusive special education takes into account the
priority for children with special needs must have full
accessibility to curricula which are suitable for them all
through their education.
 Inclusive special education accepts the existing reality in
mainstream educational institutions which many
educators fail to offer knowledge to children with special
educational needs. This is due to inadequate endeavour
on teaching children with special needs in their training
as well as scanty resources.
 Thus, mainstream schools should consider chief
component of inclusive special education which is the
provision of effectual and current training and support
for class educators.
 However, with elevated levels of training and support,
superior mainstream classroom educators will attain
greater confidence as well as competence in order to
teach children with excessive range of special needs.
Inclusive special education has considered while the
majority of children with special needs can be effectively
educated in mainstream classes.
Rationale – Why is
this subject of
interest to you? Why
is this subject
relevant more
widely?
 Although majority of educators support a rights-based approach towards inclusion
in principle and support education of all children in mainstream classroom, there
can be witnessed tensions amongst educators specifically linked to provision of
autism-specific adjustments or autism specific staff training (Keen, Webster and
Ridley 2016).
 This approach is considered to be possibly exclusionary as perceived by the rights-
based inclusionists. Authors by drawing relevance to former studies have claimed
that there can be identified many supporting needs-based perspective and show
greater inclination in supporting children with autism.
 Children with autism are engaged into mainstream class settings, whereby
educators and parents express concern with substantial numbers of cases in areas
which is ineffective for children with autism and schools.
 The research question draws great significance in current academic domain as
educators’ professional knowledge and understanding of autism and
implementation of effective strategies have been identified by students, parents
along with educators as vital factors of influencing the success of inclusive practice.
 Developing effectual collaborative association with external services is important for
engaging children with ASD. Former study mention ways in which mainstream
schools must develop multiagency conventions and systems for accessing additional
advice as well as support as required. Direct access to therapeutic section related to
speech and language therapy (SALT) besides occupational therapy serve high
decisiveness in particular being progressively integrated within mainstream school
facility (Bond and Hebron 2016).

 Thus, it is important to put importance on educators developing the inter-personal
competences for effectual consultation and collaboration which incorporates
counselling as well as decisiveness skills along with essential skills required for
mentoring, development and expediting the progress of educators as well as
parents of children with autism.
Proposed research
methods:
How do you intend to
gather the data that
will enable you to
answer your research
question?
Why?
 Qualitative research is known as a scientific method of study for collecting non-
numerical information. This type of methodology is important for the study as it will
provide more flexible approach to the research (Noble and Smith 2015).
 However, if useful information is not being gathered, this study can quickly
acclimatise questions or any other variable in order to improve the already gathered
responses.
 On the contrary, qualitative research tends to leave certain contextual
understandings and underline implications as well as experiences.
 The research methodology will be participant-observation and unstructured
interview for data collection.
 During the data collection, researcher will interact with the participants for directly
collecting data (Brinkmann and Kvale 2015).
 Additionally, qualitative research will help in learning inner experiences of
participants.
 It will provide more opportunities for gathering vital information related to the
subject rather than being restrained to limited as well as self-fulfilling viewpoint.
Setting:
Where do you intend
to carry out the
practical research?
How will you get
access?
Who will be your
participants?
 The practical research will be conducted in 2 special education school and 3
mainstream schools in the UK.
 Permission will be asked from the head of school administration to conduct research
study. Additionally, information on research methodology will be incorporated in
the permission letter along with number of participants needed for data collection.
The approval letter will mention regulations of keeping the study confidential and
anonymous. Furthermore, assurance to the school administrators will be given
regarding non-payment of the research by school administration or head.
 Educators, Parents and Stakeholders (UK Autism Community) will be participants for
the study.
Plan – refer to the
Guidance/Framework
for dissertation:
Write the proposed completion dates for each of the following:
Literature review
(draft)
Date:February’2020
Methodology (draft) Date:March’2020
Practical research Date:April’2020
Findings/results
(draft)
Date:June’2020
Completed draft Date: July’2020
Ethics Complete the following sections and bring documents 1 and 2 with you to your viva
BERA Guidelines
(2018)
I have read the BERA Guidelines (2018) and the Guidance attached to the Ethics Form and
am prepared to answer questions about issues that might apply to my research – YES/NO
What specific ethical issues might arise with your research?
 Non-avoidance of bias while conducting research, data analysis and interpretation of
data can be ethical issue which might arise while conducting the research. Thus, it is
important to disclose personal or monetary interests which might pose challenges in
conducting the research.

 It is important to consider all psychological and social consequences which might
disrupt the level of confidentiality of participants. However, in order to safeguard
participants, they must inform on their privileges and rights and apply all relevant
methodological approaches.
 Participants might hesitate to report personal evidence due to the concern of
invasion of privacy. At this juncture, the researcher must respect their opinions.
1. Ethics form I have attached a completed ethics form – YES
2. Participant
information and
consent letters
(see the ethics
guidance provided)
I have attached the following information and consent letters(s):

References
Bond, C. and Hebron, J., 2016. Developing mainstream resource provision for pupils with autism spectrum disorder:
Staff perceptions and satisfaction. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 31(2), pp.250-263.
Brinkmann, S. and Kvale, S., 2015. Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (Vol. 3).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Keen, D., Webster, A. and Ridley, G., 2016. How well are children with autism spectrum disorder doing academically
at school? An overview of the literature. Autism, 20(3), pp.276-294.
Kenny, L., Hattersley, C., Molins, B., Buckley, C., Povey, C. and Pellicano, E., 2016. Which terms should be used to
describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism, 20(4), pp.442-462.
Noble, H. and Smith, J., 2015. Issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research. Evidence-based nursing, 18(2),
pp.34-35.