Voices Through Art: Co-Creating the School Daze Comic for and with Autistic Young People to Support Educational Transitions

Abstract

Educational transitions between schools can be very challenging for autistic children and young people. Research tends to focus on the views of families and teachers which means that children’s voices are often marginalised despite them having valuable knowledge that could improve transition practices and experiences. ‘Voices through Art’ was an innovative project involving researchers, educators, a graphic artist, and neurodivergent lived experiences. Together we co-created a transition support resource – the School Daze comic – to enable insights and conversations about transitions. This project contributes to the amplification of autistic voices as agentic knowers of the sources of difficulty and supports in their educational transitions. This was achieved through several methods including small-scale research projects and project-specific workshops where students worked on character development, storylines, and other imagery for the comic. The output is the School Daze comic which tells the story of the lead character – Lee Mouse – as they start at a new secondary school. The stories include the first day at school and the anxieties associated with that, finding safe spaces and supportive teachers, making friends through shared interests, and settling into school life. School Daze was positively reviewed by students and education and related professionals, suggesting that this could be a valuable transition resource. We share it here to encourage wider dissemination and use in research and practice.