Towards a Foucauldian Methodology in the Study of Autism: Issues of Archaeology,Genealogy, and Subjectification

The remarkable increase in diagnoses of autism has paralleled an increase in scientific research and turned the syndrome into a kind of a new ‘trend’ within psychiatric and developmental conditions of childhood. At the same time, discursive technologies, such as DSM‐IV, autobiographies, movies, fiction, etc., together with ‘educational’ interventions, such as TEACCH, PECS, Makaton, etc., seem to anticipate a form of an apparatus built around the condition named autism. Starting from this premise, the article proposes a new approach within autism studies, which treats the condition in Foucauldian terms and focuses on the emergence of the autistic subjectivity following Foucault's methodology of archaeology, genealogy, and modes of subjectification.     

Features of Modeling-Based Abductive Reasoning as a Disciplinary Practice of Inquiry in Earth Science

Science & Education - The purpose of this study was to investigate the features of modeling-based abductive reasoning as a disciplinary practice of inquiry in the domain of earth science. The...     

Impact of severity of autism and intervention time‐input on child outcomes: comparison across several early interventions

In this article, written by Phil Reed and Lisa Osborne, both from Swansea University, the impact of severity of autism, and the time‐input of the treatment programme, on the outcome effectiveness for four early interventions for individuals on the autism spectrum was explored. The four interventions studied were applied behaviour analysis (ABA), special nursery, an adapted portage intervention, and a local authority approach. Sixty‐six children (aged from two years six months to four years) were studied over nine months, in terms of their intellectual, educational and adaptive behavioural functioning. Children undergoing the ABA approach demonstrated greater gains in functioning (especially in educational functioning). There were differences in the way that autism severity and intervention time‐input impacted on the different early intervention programmes. For special nursery, portage and local authority approaches, the gains made by the children were inversely related to the severity of their autism and directly related to time‐input. In contrast, the converse was true for the ABA approach. These data are discussed with respect to their implications for choosing an intervention strategy for a child on the autism spectrum.     

Caregiving and Social Support: A Twenty-first Century Challenge for College Students

This study adopted a caregiving perspective to analyze college students’ supportive relationships (N=266). With respect to the provision of care, female caregivers engaged in more difficult types of hands-on support than male caregivers, and data suggested that college caregivers are differently challenged by the life stage of the person for whom they provide care. With respect to students’ reception of social support, both main and interaction effects were found for sex, care giving status, and locus of control. Discussion focuses on the developmental nature of caregiving skills, social support reciprocity, and implications of these findings for public policy and human communication research.     

Student-generated questioning activity in second language courses using a customized personal response system: a case study

This case study reports on the implementation of student-generated questioning using a customized personal response system (PRS) by two groups of students in second language (L2) courses at a university in the United States. This study aimed to understand more about instructor and student experience with student-generated questioning for promoting student interaction in the L2 classroom, and sources for investigation included class observation, instructor interview, student survey, and pre/post-test. The results of this study indicated that the classroom interaction could be fostered through student-generated questioning with the support of PRS in L2 courses. In addition, there was a significant difference in students’ achievement between the pre- and post-test. The results are consistent with the findings of previous studies that student-generated questioning fosters collaborative interactions and increases frequency of student engagement. The results also suggest that the adoption of student-generate questioning with a technology support may result in promoting classroom interactions where the students are able to practice the target language through conversation with an instructor and peers.     

Pedagogy through the pearl metaphor: teaching as a process of ongoing refinement

Using the analytical tools of broadening, burrowing and storying and restorying, this narrative inquiry examines a middle school teachers’ knowledge of her pedagogical practices through the strand of pearls’ metaphor that she employs to explain her teaching to herself, a beginning teacher whom she mentors and ourselves as researchers. Throughout the discussion, careful attention is paid to the pearl metaphor’s emergent, novel qualities and how the metaphor is held and expressed in the teacher’s unfurling practice. In the final analysis, four significant themes are unpacked: (1) the image of teacher as curriculum maker; (2) the idea of pearls, non-pearls and yellowed pearls; and (3) the concept of metaphors and the nature of metaphorical truth. Finally, a discussion of the veracity of the strand of pearls as way to understand teaching practice concludes the article.     

Comparison of the effects of mainstream and special school on National Curriculum outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorder: an archive‐based analysis

The literature dealing with the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream schools has increased over recent years, propelled by the argument that it will improve the quality of life, educational performance and social development of ‘included’ children. This area of research is currently an important one for the development of policy and practice. The literature on inclusion dealing with the inclusion of children with ASD is limited, so the implementation of inclusion has preceded research. The current study investigated whether children in mainstream placements show enhanced performance, relative to those in specialist provisions. The study used a combination of primary and secondary data analysis to explore the impact of inclusion on children with ASD in four authorities in the south east of England. The results suggest that mainstream children have no greater academic success than children in specialist provision. The study suggests that a number of specific provisions are involved in promoting success, such as Speech and Language Therapy, and the impact of Learning Support Assistants, and these are also reviewed and discussed.