Sub-Theme 2.1: The need for increased Autism knowledge

3.4.2.1.a Evidence according to the individual interviews

All participants deemed it important for teachers, teacher assistants, parents and the community and health sector to gain more knowledge on autism. Although this sub-theme has a wide scope, it underpins the core foundation of autism professional development and contributes to successful teacher instruction and appropriate engagement with children on the autism spectrum in society, which promotes their social inclusion.

Teachers’ need to acquire more autism knowledge through self-study, initial in-service training and advanced autism PD activities arose from the findings. In response to the interview question pertaining to the skills, knowledge, experiences, attitudes and behaviours a teacher needs to develop in order to perform the required tasks, participant 2 maintained that education is most important. “One needs to know all of what you can know about autism” (P2, p. 5, 26). Participant 2 maintained that one needed to stay on top of what is pertinent towards autism today through self-study. She described how she engages in self-study to acquire more autism knowledge and better ways to teach:

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It’s the same for me, I feel that I am constantly reading about autism, constantly finding out what is a better way, ‘cause it changes and there are better things out there. And I think it’s important that you stay

on top of that (P2, p. 5, 27-33).

In addition to indicating a personal need to learn more about new research done in the autism field (P2, p. 6, 25) on a daily basis (P1, p. 5, 19-32), participant 2 highlighted that all professionals working in the autism field need to have access to new autism research (P2, p. 8, 6- 8). Participant 3 voiced her need to acquire more autism knowledge through initial in-service training (P3, p. 5, 19), whilst participant 5 conveyed a general desire to know more about autism (P5, p. 8, 49-50; P5, p. 13, 22). Participant 4 requested more advanced autism knowledge to be conveyed through PD sessions in order to address the problems teachers face more effectively (P4, p. 7, 9-11). Participant 4 felt that a challenging aspect of her role is not knowing what exactly is available to use as interventions in the classroom (P4, p. 3, 1-5). The teachers’ opinions resonate with needs analysis studies in New Zealand that emphasise the need for autism professional development ranging from autism awareness to more advanced autism knowledge (New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2016). The provision of these professional activities will satisfy teachers’ need for good professional development, which fulfils the values of safety in order to increase work adjustment and therefore job satisfaction.

The participants also felt it important for teacher assistants and parents to gain increased knowledge of autism. Teacher assistants would benefit from increased knowledge of autism through a better understanding for the reasons behind teachers’ behavioural management policies, since it differs so vastly from that of neurotypical learners (P1, 7, 17-19). Participant 1 urged parents to gain more autism knowledge for three reasons. Firstly, to understand their child’s adapted school curriculum; secondly, to assist parents in helping their children gain access to schools in the community (P1, 15, 32-34) and lastly, to assist parents to recognise and identify ASD symptoms in order to enable early diagnosis (P1, p. 4, 36).

Participant 3 also considered it necessary to educate the parents, but also for the community to have better autism awareness, recognise autism symptoms and to support parents who have

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children diagnosed with autism (P3, p. 21, 26-37). These findings are consistent with South African research on parental knowledge of disabilities. Parents lacked information regarding their child’s disabilities, abilities or the best education for them (Human Rights Watch, 2015).

Pertaining to the community gaining more autism knowledge, concerns regarding community stigma were revealed in participant 1’s response:

You still have parents, you know, arriving crying ‘cause their child had a meltdown in the shops and the

people were perhaps rude, you know? (P3, p. 21, 39-41)

Or a child goes, you know, who is sensory seeking perhaps the touch of a person's hair and touches a

stranger reacts maybe, you know, aggressively or violently when they, you know, potentially wouldn't

have if they had a little more understanding (P3, p. 21, 45-56; p. 22, 1).

Participant 3’s concerns relate to the public’s level of awareness, knowledge and stigma surrounding autism.

Lukwe (2016) ascribed stigma about autism to a lack of knowledge and cultural misconceptions in South Africa. Participant 1 advocated private and government schools to collaborate and provide the community health sector with more knowledge on autism in order to assist medical health professional to recognise autism in hospitals (P1, p. 15, 42-45). Participant 1 maintained that children diagnosed with autism suffer in hospitals due to a lack of autism awareness of hospital staff (P1, p. 16, 5-7). The Department of Social Development (2015) validates participant 1’s concerns and reported on the urgent need for disability rights awareness amongst medical staff in South Africa (Department of Social Development, 2015). It has been emphasised in research that it is imperative that health care professionals need to be trained in autism awareness (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK), 2013). Furthermore, similar to Northern Ireland’s autism strategy and action plan devised by the Department of Health, Social Service and Public Safety (2013), South African government initiatives need to include autism related policies throughout government departments in order to improve collaboration between the health, education and social sector so that the needs of learners with ASD and their families can be met (Bond et al., 2015).

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These participants’ comments imply that the current level of understanding of Autism in the South African communities is not adequate to promote the inclusion of learners with Autism in schools and in society. Yet, in the South African context, increased autism awareness is imperative for inclusion practices to be more successful (Gunn & Delafield-Butt, 2016).

3.4.2.1.b Evidence according to the focus group discussion and collages

Focus group 3 implied that you could never be knowledgeable enough in the field of autism, “I

think we need more training. You can never say that you are experienced with working with autistic kids (C3, FG3, p. 3, 4-5). Group 2 indicated the need for teachers to be life-long learners,

keeping up to date with new research and acquiring CPD (C2, FG2, p. 3, 1).

The need for parents to increase their knowledge of autism also became apparent. Focus group 3 advocated parents’ increased knowledge of autism:

I would like for them to be to learn more about autism, so that whatever we do in class, they can have an idea. Because most of them, they don't understand why are we teaching the lessons that we are teaching

(C3, FG3, p. 3, 27-35).

Group 3 desires parents to be trained in autism knowledge (C3, FG3, p. 4, 3) and be included in APD (C3, FG3, p. 4, 5-8) in order to understand the learning activities done in class. Group 3 explained when the lesson plans included daily activities of living for example, then the parents would understand the importance of it and not unreasonably expect their child to write numbers prematurely for their developmental level (C3, FG3, p. 3, 39-42). Parent PD has also been emphasised in research as important for the successful implementation of autism evidence-based practices (Roberts & Williams, 2016; Saggers, et al., 2016). Furthermore, group 3’s responses indicate a need for parents to be included in their child’s individual education planning (National Autism Center, 2009; Prior & Roberts, 2012) and to have more knowledge of autism, but also include views of barriers to effective collaboration, which will be discussed in sub-theme 3.1.

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3.4.2.2: Sub-theme 2.2: Perceived barriers to effective professional development

3.4.2.2.a Evidence according to the individual interviews

Participants raised concerns about the barriers that hinder their professional development. Two participants felt the repeating nature of interventions was a very frustrating process for them in that immediate rewards were not seen (P4, p. 2, 30-32), and it was discouraging to wait a long time for learners’ breakthroughs to happen (P3, p. 11, 44-46, P3, p. 12, 1-2). Furthermore, there is no benchmark to check yourself against as a teacher (P4, p. 2, 36-41). However, more participants were concerned about challenging learner behaviour and a lack of pre-service professional development.

Challenging learner behaviour. Challenging behaviour was referenced thirteen times between

three participants as a major barrier for their career development. In response to the researcher’s question: ‘What aspects of your current role is challenging for you?’, participants 3, 4 and 5 reported learner behaviour management as a challenging aspect of their role (P3, p. 6, 1-2; P4, p. 5, 39-40). Participant 5 expressed behavioural management as a very difficult and serious issue (P5, p. 11, 43). She also expressed her sense of helplessness when learners display tantrum behaviours (P5, p. 5, 7-18). It became apparent that having to deal with the daily challenges of learners’ behaviours has diminished the attractiveness of participant 5’s work role (P5, p. 2, 24- 34). Nonetheless, passion appears to be participant 5’s coping leverage when dealing with challenging behaviour. “It's so difficult, you have to be very passionate about what you are

doing” (P5, p. 12, 4). Participant five’s reference to ‘difficult’ may imply stress and resilience

challenges triggered by difficult behavioural management of learners (Gibbs & Miller, 2014).

Participant findings resonate with research findings that learners with autism are the most difficult learner group to manage behaviourally and is linked to high levels of stress for teachers

(Johnson, Burkett, Reinhold, & Bultas, 2016; Kokkinos & Davazoglou, 2009; Nistor and Chilin,

2013, as cited in Boujut et al., 2016; Syriopoulou-Delli, Cassimos, Tripsianis, &

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maintained that inappropriate learner behaviour might be a primary precursor of teacher burnout. Furthermore, displayed behaviours seen in learners with autism, such as aggression and self- injury, hinder learners’ learning and their safety (Sullivan & Bradshaw, 2012). Therefore, necessitating teachers to employ advanced behavioural strategies to manage learner behaviour. To compensate for these negative effects, teachers in the USA are provided with proactive intervention approaches to challenging behaviour, which is not only a priority focus in their adapted curriculum, but also a measure to assist teachers with their well-being (Lord & McGee, 2001). Therefore, considering how important participants’ well-being is to them according to theme 1, teaching teachers proactive behavioural strategies in South Africa will not only assist these teachers to manage their learners better, but also improve their well-being. Therefore, teachers need PD, which fulfils their environmental value of safety according to the TWA (Dawis, The Minnesota theory of work adjustment, 2005).

Lack of pre-service professional development: Findings indicated that a lack in participants’ pre-

service PD had a direct impact on their sense of preparedness to teach learners on the autism spectrum (P3, P4 & P5). Participant 3 who studied an Honours degree in learning support commented:

There was no training at all. It was maybe a paragraph that they touched on Autism in my learning

support major of my course when I did my degree in education (P3, p. 4, 45-46; p. 5 1-2).

Participant 4, who holds a teacher certification in conjunction with a double bachelor’s degree in Child Psychology and Social Work, indicated that no formal degree prepares you for the complex differentiation found in autism classrooms or behaviour strategies that one needs.

It doesn't matter what degree you do prepares you for such differentiation in a classroom or such behavioural strategies that you need. You are sitting with children that are and biting you, children that are sort of abusing you. There's nothing prepares you for what you're going to encounter and that makes it

hard (P4, p. 3, 35-37).

Participant 2 also highlighted the unpreparedness one experiences when encountering a learner who is having an autism-related meltdown:

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that is having a meltdown, you have no idea what a meltdown is (P2, p. 6, 44-46).

This response accentuates the importance of including a hands-on component in pre-service professional development or it could explain why autism-related skills can only be effectively learnt whilst on the job. Participant 3 explained this correlation:

Well, the thing is when working with autism you can't really study a degree in autism, so the majority of the

skills that you need on the job, I learnt on the job (P3, p. 4, 15-16).

She called for a graduate programme that is specifically designed for teachers of learners with autism, which has a medical focus of a quarter weight of the degree (P3, p. 4, 21-23). The necessity for such a degree was apparent in the high levels of stress and impaired coping skills she initially experience at the start of her teaching service:

Initially it was very difficult to cope and there was a lot of stress that I had to work through in the beginning while I was learning how to use the sign language of Makaton and learning about the

sensory system and how to work in harmony with the therapists and learning about speech (P3, p. 4,

17-20).

Similar to these findings, research from the USA indicate that teachers receive insufficient pre- service professional development to educate learners on the autism spectrum (AutismSociety, 2015; Brock et al., 2014; Morrier, Hess, & Heflin, 2011; Scheuermann et al., 2003). This corresponds with UK special needs teacher training as part of a teacher graduate degree that is too generalised and not adequately in-depth (The National Autistic Society, 2016).

3.4.2.3: Sub-theme 2.3: The need for varied professional development

3.4.2.3.a Evidence according to the individual interviews

This theme relates to participants’ need to engage in a variety of autism-specific professional development (PD) activities provided through different modes of delivery as described by participant 4:

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Access to training, access to courses, being exposed to different types of intervention courses, different types of the best practices out there, being exposed to other schools how they do things, visiting other

schools, external training providers, uhm, yah, that would help a lot (P4, p. 4, 34-37) resonates with

recent research (Saggers, et al., 2016).

In relation to the question, ‘What would need to change in your working environment in order

for you to be more satisfied in terms of your career development?’, participant 2 conveyed her

appreciation with the current and past in-service training, but would like to see different types of training according to teacher requests (P2, p .4, 26-27). For participant 2 it was important that management not only offer new learning opportunities for teachers, but also actively listen to teachers and take their perspectives into account which will facilitate a more need-satisfying work climate for them (Olafsen, Halvari, Forest, & Deci, 2015). Main findings in this sub-theme include the need for initial in-service and hands-on practice, self-study, external training, performance feedback and teacher assistant professional development.

The need for initial in-service PD and hands-on practice: The need for initial in-service training

stems from the unpreparedness the participants experienced at the start of their teaching career. This sense of unpreparedness appears to be linked to a deficient practical component in their pre- service PD (See sub-theme 2.2). To compensate for this lack of autism specialisation in pre- service PD, hands-on training is how teachers learn the best, “There is really no sort of

guidebook for autism when you study it, so you learn a lot on the job” (P3, p. 2, 4-5). In response

to the questions, ‘How would you develop abilities that will make you even more successful your role in your opinion?’ Participant 4 also emphasised hands-on training as the best way to learn:

I think just...hands on training, people, just learning from people that have done it before. That's the best way to learn, so I think that's the only way you can develop yourself and the abilities that you need. Because learning it in theory and from books is one thing, but then learning it and seeing it from someone

who's done it before is worth a whole lot more (P4, p. 7, 35-40).

Participant 3 indicated the need for more advanced initial PD to compensate for deficit pre- service autism PD as revealed in her response when she was asked how she needed to shift

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That was a huge thing when I initially started working. There is really no sort of guidebook for autism when you study it, so you learn a lot on the job. Yah, I would have liked just like a little bit more support with some of the behaviours I was seeing or if I had a little bit more training from like a medical perspective on the sensory system, so I could work more closely with the therapist, occupational therapist

or speech therapist from the very beginning, that would have been very helpful (P3, p. 2, 4-9).

Emerging findings confirmed that hands-on training is the best way to learn both initially at the start of one’s career, but also on a continuing basis. Thus, including a practical component during autism PD for teachers is very important (Morrier, Hess, & Heflin, 2011) in order to fulfil their need for safety in their workplace and assist them with good work adjustment according to the TWA (Dawis, The Minnesota theory of work adjustment, 2005).

The need to self-study: Although participants come across as resourceful in seeking their own

PD (Morrier, Hess, & Heflin, 2011), the importance of and the need for all professionals working in the autism field to take more responsibility for their own professional growth was emphasised. Participant 3 explained that using the wrong strategies with learners with ASD could make learners’ lives very difficult (P3, p. 6, 35-45). Participant 1 indicated that by reading up on new autism research everyday would help her grow professionally and improve her abilities to be successful in her role (P1, p. 5, 19-32). Participant 4 indicated that she is already doing PD in her own time (P4, p. 6, 39). However, participant 4’s need to develop herself professionally is related to a lack of access to effective PD. Participant 4 mentioned that the barriers involved in accessing external overseas training in one’s own personal capacity, costly external training, organizational cost constraints and not knowing exactly how to get trained in the myriad of interventions available, hinder her effective PD (P4, p. 3, 4-6). She described solutions such as taking time off work to be trained in all the different autism interventions as not a viable option and one’s employer can only go that far in training staff, which is very challenging for her (P4, p. 3, 4-6). For practical reasons, participant 4 indicated that she could do some self-study and get a little in-service training, which makes comprehensive PD challenging for her (P4, p. 3, 7-10). Teachers should be able to take responsibility for their own continuing PD and identify their own PD needs (DoE & SACE, 2008).

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The need for external training. Participants expressed the need to engage in external PD

activities such as receiving training from local autism experts like Maggie Golding (P2, p. 6, 23- 24), exposure to outside practices including school visits (P4, p. 4, 34-37; P4, p. 8, 12), regular workshops in early childhood development (P1, p. 12, 15-17), external training and conferences (P4, p. 8,13), international school visits (P3, p. 20, 32-35), international autism experts visiting the school (P3, p. 16, 40-42; P:4, p. 5, 3-6), learning from countries with advanced development in autism research (P3, p. 21, 15-18) and international training with autism experts (P3, p. 20, 36- 37; P4, p. 5, 3-6). Participants desired to be exposed to and partake in international PD in countries that have expertise in autism research (P1, p. 5, 36-42; P3, p. 21, 9-10) and specialised autism curricula (P3, p. 20, 41-42). Overall, participants 1, 2, 3, and 4 certainly felt that their career development would greatly benefit from international and external exposure.

Hands-on practice: The need for hands-on practice was evident in participant 5’s response to the

question, ‘How satisfied are you on a scale from zero to 10 in your job?’ This teacher felt that the increased autism knowledge and experience she acquired on the job has contributed to her sense of achievement in her role and her high job satisfaction rating of 7 out of 10 (P5, p. 7, 40- 50; p. 8, 1-7). Similarly, participant 1 with no prior teaching experience in the autism field, nor a graduate degree, felt that the on-the-job training she received has helped her a lot and contributed to her increased sense of self-efficacy in her ability to teach learners with Autism (P1, p. 3, 34- 38) (Bevan-Brown, et al., 2012; Jennett et al., 2003; Siu & Ho, 2010). This is in accordance with Strong (2014) and Saggers et al., (2016) who suggested that teachers need hands-on experiences in order to learn comprehensively about teaching learners on the spectrum. The value of hands- on training and experience in autism education is a valuable asset in the South African context in