When coping is not inclusion: Practitioner assessment narratives and the sustainability of autistic participation in mainstream schools

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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Wheeler, M. (2026). When coping is not inclusion: Practitioner assessment narratives and the sustainability of autistic participation in mainstream schools. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 26(4), Article e70160. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.70160

Publication date: 18 Aug 2026 Added to AutiHub: 26 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Marc Wheeler *

Abstract

Abstract Inclusive education is often evaluated through visible indicators such as classroom engagement, behaviour, attendance and academic participation. For autistic learners, however, visible functioning may not fully reflect the accessibility of the educational environment or the regulatory effort required to sustain participation. This paper examines a purposively selected set of cases in which autistic learners were described as coping or participating in mainstream education while assessment documentation also recorded evidence of strain, environmental dependence or difficulty sustaining participation across contexts and time. Drawing on qualitative analysis of nine anonymised practitioner assessment narratives integrating school and family perspectives, the study explores how participation was represented within real‐world assessment documentation. Reflexive thematic analysis identified recurring patterns in which participation depended on environmental structuring, behavioural adaptation, adult mediation and sustained self‐regulation. Home‐school divergence, post‐school exhaustion and increased difficulty during transitions suggested that participation was often environmentally contingent rather than inherently secure. The study develops a distinction between observable participation and sustainable participation, arguing that inclusive environments should be evaluated not only by whether autistic learners appear to cope, but by how participation is achieved, what it costs and whether it can be sustained over time.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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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: 27 Oct 2026 09:28.

Cited references
49
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
7 / 49 (14.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 49 (2.0%)
References with detected author names
48 / 49 (98.0%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
0
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
158
From DOI or external metadata
158
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
89 / 158 (56.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 69 / 158 (43.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
15 / 158 (9.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 15 / 89 (16.9%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 124 (10.5%).
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