Navigating Autistic Identity as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Implications for Inclusive Pedagogies in a Teaching Toolkit
This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.
About the autistic author markerGwyon, R. (2025). Navigating Autistic Identity as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Implications for Inclusive Pedagogies in a Teaching Toolkit. Houghton St Press. https://doi.org/10.82191/pp.109
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Authors
Abstract
While inclusivity and neurodivergence are increasingly discussed and advocated for in academia, there remains limited representation of autistic perspectives in Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) literature, particularly around identity development. In this essay, I reflect on my experiences as an autistic GTA and doctoral researcher in UK Higher Education (HE). Autism describes one range within the broader spectrum of neurodivergent experiences that diverge from dominant, or neurotypical, social conventions. This can have significant implications for autistic identities and life transitions, such as early-career academic journeys. Academia can be both exclusionary and enabling for autistic and other neurodivergent people: it can offer intellectual stimulation while also privileging normative communication and behaviours. In academia, GTAs have been described as occupying a liminal position between student and established scholar, involving identity changes and shifting self-understandings. Such identity evolution has equally been associated with agentic GTA identity development. Reflecting this latter idea, I discuss here how my self-awareness of my autistic and teacher identities has developed through two key GTA teaching experiences. I then propose a neurodivergent teaching toolkit stemming from these experiences, involving recommendations for more inclusive pedagogy. This essay contributes to conversations on more inclusive GTA practices and wider conversations in HE on inclusivity to highlight the value of neurodivergent perspectives in academic communities. I aim to support other scholars, neurodivergent and beyond, in navigating their identities, inclusive pedagogies, and those seeking to understand neurodivergent GTA experiences in academia.
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