Exploring the educational experiences of autistic young people accessing an autism specific classroom in a mainstream secondary school in Northern Ireland

It also aimed to understand how their experiences related to their school and teachers’ current practice/provision and support for pupils in ASCs. A social constructionist epistemological stance was adopted where the school was the ‘case’, and qualitative research methods were employed across three phases of the study.

The first involved semi-structured interviews with 11 autistic YP (aged 11-15 years) using participatory tools and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The second phase involved directive content analysis of school level documents then used to construct a contextual framework diagram mapping YP’s experiences and school provision/support. The final phase involved a focus group with teaching staff, using the framework diagram, to stimulate reflection and discussion on how YP’s experiences related to current practice, provision, and support in school.