Investigating the implicit and explicit attitudes of primary school educators in Scotland towards autistic children

Abstract

Autistic children are frequently taught in mainstream schools, and in Scotland, policy aims for inclusion. This study investigated Scottish educators’ implicit and explicit attitudes towards autistic children and aimed to understand the relationships between attitudes, knowledge and experience. Seventy primary school educators working in Scotland took part. Participants completed a Single-Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) to assess implicit attitudes. They also completed two explicit attitude measures (openness to autism and cognitive attitudes), and measures of knowledge and level of contact. Overall, participants held positive attitudes in explicit attitude measures. Around half had positive implicit attitudes, but a quarter had either neutral or negative implicit attitudes. There were correlations between explicit attitudes, age and years of experience, with older, more experienced staff having more negative attitudes. Younger educators with less experience may have more positive attitudes, perhaps reflecting societal changes in perceptions of autism. In regression analyses, greater autism knowledge predicted more positive cognitive attitudes towards autistic children, suggesting that targeting knowledge may improve attitudes. Scotland’s policies may have the potential to support the effective inclusion of autistic pupils in schools.