Harnessing the Power of Lived Expertise: Evaluating a Majority Autistic-Led Autism Sabbatical Program

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Ellenberg, A., Batkin, D., Elliott, M., West, S., Shore, S., Kofner, B., Cutler, M., Ashraf, A., Dorelien, A. M., Balogun, L., Matias, M., & Gillespie-Lynch, K. (2026). Harnessing the Power of Lived Expertise: Evaluating a Majority Autistic-Led Autism Sabbatical Program. Adult Learning, 37(3), 221-233. https://doi.org/10.1177/10451595261464588

Publication date: 16 Jul 2026 Added to AutiHub: 18 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
12
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 12 (8.3%)
  1. Atara Ellenberg
  2. Daniel Batkin
  3. Mikaela Elliott
  4. Summer West
  1. Stephen Shore
  2. Bella Kofner *
  3. Madisen Cutler
  4. Ashna Ashraf
  1. Anna Marie Dorelien
  2. Laila Balogun
  3. Martha Matias
  4. Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

Abstract

Does Autistic-led instruction influence adult learners’ knowledge and beliefs? A neurodiverse team, including instructor-facilitators and educator-students in a year-long autism sabbatical program, evaluated the primarily Autistic-led program. Four Autistic instructor-facilitators shared what they believed worked well in their teaching, challenges they experienced, how they addressed feedback, and recommendations for the future. We used content analysis to examine potential shifts in 24 student-educators’ beliefs, knowledge, and intended teaching practices, coding their open-ended responses to surveys administered at three points across the program. Findings suggest that Autistic-led instruction promoted meaningful perspective shifts among both instructor-facilitators and educator-students, including increasing focus on meaningful, hands-on learning opportunities among instructor-facilitators and greater respect for Autistic stimming, communication, and interests among educator-students. Educator-students shared that the program taught them to be more flexible and student-centered. Some indicated that they planned to teach their students self-advocacy skills to empower students to spark changes that will make classrooms more equitable and inclusive for all. Some planned to advocate for systems changes themselves, including by teaching their colleagues how to adopt more neurodiversity-affirmative practices. Some Autistic instructor-facilitators and some educator-students described Autistic instructors as key agents of perspective transformations. Others indicated that qualities that make someone a strong educator, like flexibility and responsiveness, may be orthogonal to autism. Tangible outcomes of the program include educator-students’ portfolios which include concrete tools such as innovative assignments that have been refined through ongoing dialogue between instructor-facilitators and educator-students.

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: 20 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
44
With a DOI
30
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
14
10 / 44 (22.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 44 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
44 / 44 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
14
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
122
From DOI or external metadata
122
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
71 / 122 (58.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 51 / 122 (41.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
22 / 122 (18.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 22 / 71 (31.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 19 / 111 (17.1%).
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