First-hand experiences of autistic students about teacher autonomy support, structure, and involvement: A video-stimulated recall (interview) study

Opportunities for children and adolescents to share their views in society and research remain scarce, especially in terms of their first-hand learning experiences. This problem extends to autism research, where the voices of autistic people are under-represented. Therefore, this study investigated the classroom experiences of autistic students in mainstream secondary schools in the Netherlands and Mexico, focusing on their perceptions of teachers’ autonomy-support, structure, involvement and classroom interactions. Using video-stimulated recall (VSR) interviews, we recorded 13 students’ thoughts and emotional reactions while viewing two of their videotaped lessons. The data were analyzed qualitatively using both deductive and inductive approaches to provide a narrative of the aspects that autistic students reported affected their learning. Autistic learners had varied reactions to autonomy support, but they all valued different types of structure provided by their teachers, which increased their confidence in achieving goals (i.e. completing a task) and provided a sense of mastery. In particular, fear of making mistakes, especially due to negative reactions from classmates, was a recurring problem for autistic students. Teachers who were approachable, understanding and supportive made a significant difference for these students. Finally, autistic participants relied on both the teacher and peer interactions to gain clarity on tasks and move forward. Our findings highlight fundamental issues that all secondary school teachers could consider in their daily practice. We propose that VSR method can serve as a solid basis for conducting interviews with autistic youth and move towards a more inclusive approach in autism research.