Daily Practice, Group Instruction, and Valued Outcomes: Japanese and Australian case studies of Special Educators Teaching Children with ASD

Abstract

Special educators in Japan and Australia, as in other countries, confront everyday challenges in teaching children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in their classrooms. The unique needs of individual children with ASD add to the complexity of specialist teaching in small classes of children for high needs. Special educators in both countries teach these children life skills that are foundational needs for successful social inclusion. They also engage in professional development to improve their teaching. However, there is little research about what these special educators actually do to teach children with ASD in their classrooms. The focus of this descriptive two-case inquiry was extensive term-long fieldwork in a qualitative cross-cultural case study comprising two single cases of three special educators in Japan and Australia. These special educators were interviewed three times across a term about their everyday practice, group teaching for children with ASD, and valued outcomes of their group instruction, respectively. Direct observations of class lessons and professional meetings, ongoing teacher reflections about weekly progress, document reviews, and interviews with other stakeholders accompanied the three semistructured interviews across a term. Researcher reflections throughout fieldwork also documented methodological adjustments to information gathering and data coding for analysis in each case. While some cross-cultural adjustments were anticipated, others emerged during the inquiry process.