Deconstructing early childhood educators' perspectives on inclusion for young children labeled with autism spectrum disorders

The research reported here is based upon a critical qualitative study with six Early Childhood Educators (ECE) who had the experience of providing care and education to young children labeled with ASD in preschool/daycare classrooms. Three main research questions guided this study, including: What are the participants’ perspectives on inclusion? What factors are influential in their perspectives on inclusion? How do these perspectives on inclusion inform their practices? Six active interviews with the participants were conducted. Each interview was co-constructed by the research participant and the researcher through the interview dialogue as an interactional event. Theoretical thematic analysis, informed by Derridian deconstruction embedded in a social constructive epistemology, was employed to analyze the resulting interview transcripts. After each transcript had been analyzed, four meta-themes were identified across the transcripts to highlight the participants’ perspectives on inclusion: acceptance as advocacy, agency as conformity, othering as vulnerability, and knowledge as expertise. These meta-themes are mutually constitutive of what appears to be a highly constrained Discourse of inclusion. Implications for education, along with limitations of this study and ideas for future research, are addressed in the conclusion. Education, Faculty ofGraduat