Autistic educators’ views and experiences of inclusion and exclusion: How workplace culture shapes belonging

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Spiegler, J., Arhin-Acquaah, K. I., Hamilton, C., Timmerman, A., Romualdez, A. M., & Pellicano, E. (2025). Autistic educators’ views and experiences of inclusion and exclusion: How workplace culture shapes belonging. Neurodiversity, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/27546330251406910

Publication date: 1 Dec 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
6
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 6 (33.3%)
  1. Jessica Spiegler
  2. Kathelene Iagrossi Arhin-Acquaah
  3. Charlie Hamilton *
  1. Amanda Timmerman *
  2. Anna Melissa Romualdez
  3. Elizabeth Pellicano

Abstract

For autistic people in employment, the education sector is a popular field in which to work. Given the barriers that autistic people often face when disclosing autism and seeking workplace adjustments, understanding what creates an inclusive workplace without the need to seek adjustments is important for supporting equitable employment. In this autistic-led and co-produced study, 14 autistic educators working in schools in the United Kingdom wrote online diary entries over one month detailing their ongoing experiences of inclusion and exclusion at work. Thirteen of these respondents were subsequently interviewed about their experiences and, together, the data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis with an inductive approach. Autistic educators reported facing ongoing exclusion in the school workplace, with their inclusion often dependent on the highly variable individual views of colleagues, stigma about autism and systems of poor communication. Encouragingly, however, some educators reported working in predominantly inclusive schools where their professional expertise was valued. These school cultures were described by participants as non-hierarchical, where autistic educators had control and autonomy over their roles and environments, which created a culture of inclusion for all staff and students regardless of whether they were autistic.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 07:50.

Cited references
60
With a DOI
43
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
17
14 / 60 (23.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
10 / 60 (16.7%)
References with detected author names
50 / 60 (83.3%)
Without detected author names
10
Without a structured title
9
Without a stable identifier
17
References with raw author names still to review
9
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
153
From DOI or external metadata
153
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
14
98 / 153 (64.1%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 55 / 153 (35.9%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
26 / 153 (17.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 26 / 98 (26.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 21 / 132 (15.9%).
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