ABSTRACT

Roughly 1 in 59 children in the United States is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a rate that has more than doubled during the last 10 years. As students with autism increasingly pursue higher education, college educators must understand these students’ experiences and actively address issues that affect their college outcomes. This paper draws from interviews with autistic students who have had widely varying experiences and outcomes in higher education. Using an iterative analytic strategy that combined elements of grounded theory, multiple case study, and constant comparative approaches, researchers developed a series of propositions that were subsequently deconstructed and reconstituted as a conceptual model. The resultant conceptual model not only provides a descriptive portrait of how these students experienced interactions with their postsecondary institutions but also outlines specific ways in which tensions between the student and institution manifest as acute problems that students were often able to recognize, sometimes able to reframe, and occasionally able to resolve. The “3R” model can be used to help students and their institutions anticipate, address, and overcome challenges in ways that improve college experiences and outcomes for students on the autism spectrum.

摘要

在美国，大约每59名儿童中就有1名被诊断出患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD），这一比率在过去10年中翻了一番还多。随着自闭症学生日益接受高等教育，大学教育者必须了解这些学生的经历，并积极解决影响其大学成绩的问题。本文来自对自闭症学生的访谈，他们在高等教育中经历了不同的经历和成果。研究人员使用一种迭代分析策略，将扎根理论，多个案例研究和恒定的比较方法相结合，从而开发出一系列命题，这些命题随后被解构并重构为概念模型。由此产生的概念模型不仅提供了这些学生如何经历与中学后教育机构互动的描述性肖像，而且概述了学生与机构之间的紧张关系表现为学生通常能够意识到，有时能够重新构成的严重问题的具体方式。偶尔能够解决。“ 3R”模型可用于帮助学生及其所在机构预测，应对和克服挑战，从而改善自闭症谱系学生的大学体验和学习成果。