Experienced education and career counsellor Sandy Morais reports on practical barriers in IFEN’s autism training courses. Despite relevant course offerings, unfavorable scheduling and limited accessibility make it difficult for many teachers to participate. Single parent teachers in particular struggle with weekend appointments.
Current Challenges in Teacher Training
The ifen (National Education Training Institute) offers fundamentally relevant courses, such as “Inclusive Technologies: Digital Tools and Strategies to Support Neurodiversity and DYS Disorders” or “Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children: Understanding and Acting (Cycles 1 and 2)”, however, these often prove difficult to access in practice.
The scheduling of these training sessions often doesn’t consider teachers’ real-life situations.
For example, participation in weekend courses is hardly possible for single parent teachers. Additionally, splitting longer training sessions across multiple dates significantly complicates participation, as they often conflict with regular teaching hours. This is clearly illustrated by the example of the twelve-hour training “Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children,” which is divided into four parts: two sessions fall on a Saturday, one on a Tuesday afternoon during regular teaching hours, and only the last session on Thursday afternoon would be feasible for me. Thus, interested teachers can often only utilize a fraction of the training.
Moreover, many offerings are restricted to specific school cycles, automatically excluding teachers from other levels.
Recommendations for Teacher Education
A fundamental improvement could be achieved by integrating autism topics into teacher education.
It is essential that prospective teachers gather comprehensive knowledge and practical experience in dealing with autistic students during their training period. This is particularly important as teachers without proper preparation are often overwhelmed when encountering undiagnosed autistic students.
Basic knowledge in this area, however, enables appropriate support and effective teaching.
Necessary Adjustments in Secondary Education
In secondary education, there is a particularly great need for mandatory training on neurodiversity for all teachers.
These training sessions should especially convey that neurodiversity is increasingly becoming part of our daily lives due to our modern lifestyle. It’s important to understand that this should not be a reason to exclude children or adults from society.
Often, such exclusions arise from ignorance and resulting fears. The more people without autism are informed about the topic, the better inclusive social coexistence can succeed.
These recommendations aim to better align the education system with the needs of neurodivergent students while better preparing teachers for their role in an inclusive education system.