Mobilisations of the intense interests of autistic children within special education classrooms.

The proposed interdisciplinary study speaks to the ECY's commitment to
attend to the societal challenge of Disability social justice in Education. The
proposed study's focus on mobilising autistic students' intense interests to
inform new inclusive practices speaks to the ECY pathway's commitment to
addressing inequalities in educational provision, access and attainment.
Rather than a barrier to learning, the proposed study seeks to
de-pathologise intense interests as key to students' worldmaking, and so
essential to a truly inclusive curriculum. Unlike extant research, which
primarily targets mainstream education settings, the proposed study aims
to explore the roles of intense interest in specialist settings. Its use of
filmmaking methods and proposal to work with multiple stakeholders (i.e.,
children, families, and teachers) speaks to the ECY's commitment to
engaging communities with arts-based methods. The proposed study's
intention to co-produce this research across these stakeholders speaks to
the ECY pathway's commitment to co-production (including learners and
teachers as co-researchers). The reflective Lesson Study approach
adopted in the study speaks to the ECY pathway's commitment to
co-producing research with teachers, while its intention to produce
Continual Professional Learning tools based on the research speaks to the
ECY's commitment to professional development for practitioners both in the
school and in the wider field of education.