Participation in inclusive classrooms: Atypical displays of engagement and related categorization practices in interactions with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (PICA)

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Vivien Heller; Professorin Dr. Friederike Kern
• Subject Area: Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism ; General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 513978138

Since Germany’s agreement to the UN Disability Rights Convention, more children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (henceforth: ASD) are educated in inclusive schools. ASD is associated with problems in social interaction and communication as well as repetitive behaviour. Educational studies show that the participation of children with ASD is limited compared to their neurotypical peers and that the mere placement in inclusive educational settings does not guarantee their participation. So far, however, little is known about the interactive mechanisms that support or hinder participation of children with ASD. Drawing on reconstructive methods, the project develops a novel approach to gain comprehensive knowledge about the participation of children with ASD in interactions with different key actors – peers and teachers – in inclusive educational settings. For this purpose, the methodological approach combines Multimodal Interaction Analysis and Membership Categorization Analysis and makes use of analytical concepts that are essential for understanding participation. The focus will be on (a) displays of engagement, i.e. configurations of multimodal communicative signals with which participants continuously indicate changing degrees of their involvement in a shared activity, and which may be incongruent or atypical in children with ASD, and (b) related categorizations and ascriptions of interactional competence/willingness by different co-participants. Based on the videography of authentic interactions between ten children with ASD, their peers and teachers, the aim is thus to identify systematic patterns in the interplay between displays of engagement, social categorization practices and interactional trajectories. In this way, the study aims both to contribute to a better understanding of the interactional dynamics underlying participation in inclusive settings and to provide insights for the design of pedagogical measures to promote the participation of children with ASD.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants