What Autistic-Led Theories Mean for Education

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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Murray, F. & Friedman, S. (2025). What Autistic-Led Theories Mean for Education. In Applications and Practices for Empowering Neurodivergent Learners (pp. 1-24). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3373-4445-4.ch001

Publication date: 25 Jul 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Book chapter Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Fergus Murray *
  2. Samantha Friedman

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore current practice in initial teacher education across the UK as it pertains to the information taught about autism and other forms of neurodivergence. We make clear connections between autistic-led theories, including neurodiversity, monotropism, and double empathy problem, and classroom practice, to demonstrate how a deeper understanding of autism through these lenses can better equip teachers to support and effectively relate to their autistic students. While we focus primarily on autism, these theories can and should transform classroom practice more broadly - not just for autistic learners, but also for other neurodivergent, disabled, and minoritised students. We also explore alternative educational approaches, and how they might work with the insights yielded by these theories. Teachers might wish to adopt elements of these practices in their own classrooms when they better understand the connections to autistic-led theory.

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 11:55.

Cited references
48
With a DOI
48
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
18 / 48 (37.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 48 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
48 / 48 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
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
150
From DOI or external metadata
150
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
93 / 150 (62.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 57 / 150 (38.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
29 / 150 (19.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 29 / 93 (31.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 23 / 131 (17.6%).
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