Supporting mainstream school staff in England to meet the needs and address educational inequalities in autistic girls

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Ward, M. & Powell, L. (2025). Supporting mainstream school staff in England to meet the needs and address educational inequalities in autistic girls. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2025.2560002

Journal or book title
International Journal of Inclusive Education
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Pages
1-17
Publication date: 25 Sep 2025 Added to AutiHub: 9 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Martha Ward
  2. L. Powell *

Abstract

Autistic girls often experience educational inequalities and inadequate support in schools that lead to poor educational, health and wellbeing outcomes. In response, education policy requires mainstream schools to adopt inclusive practices for children and young people (CYP) with special educational needs and disabilities, including autistic CYP, where possible. However, teachers report complex barriers to inclusive practice provision, including a lack of training and resources, mental health deterioration among CYP post-pandemic and a lack of how to support autistic girls to engage in mainstream education. This study adopted a neurodiversity approach to explore challenges that 17 mainstream school staff faced and provides recommendations for inclusive practices for autistic girls in mainstream schools. Three themes and one subtheme were developed through thematic analysis of interview and group interview data: (1) Ineffective and inconsistent training; (2) Time as a barrier (subtheme: Pastoral support demands and mental exhaustion); (3) Future training recommendations. Future research should explore how to tailor training to staff needs and the specific needs of ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ autistic girls. Recommendations will have practical significance in advancing understanding of action that must be taken in schools and by policymakers to achieve inclusive practices for autistic girls in mainstream education settings.

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: 3 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
64
With a DOI
41
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
22
5 / 64 (7.8%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
17 / 64 (26.6%)
References with detected author names
47 / 64 (73.4%)
Without detected author names
17
Without a structured title
17
Without a stable identifier
21
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
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
144
From DOI or external metadata
144
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
17
38 / 144 (26.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 106 / 144 (73.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
6 / 144 (4.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 6 / 38 (15.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 140 (3.6%).
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