Qualified educationalist and special education teacher

Main areas of work:

Autism and inclusion, diagnostic judgment processes of teachers

Research Projekt:

FuN-Kolleg DiaKom, TP 9: Teachers' Subjective Theories about Autism and Learning (TEAL) 

Prof. Dr Andreas Köpfer (PH Freiburg) & Prof. Dr Jörg Wittwer (University of Freiburg)

Project description: DiaKom, subproject 9: Teachers' Subjective Theories about Autism and Learning (TEAL)

In our project, we investigated teachers' subjective theories about the relationship between autism and academic performance and how these affect diagnostic judgment. First, subjective theories of 16 primary school teachers regarding the connection between autism and academic performance were reconstructed in an exploratory sub-study, since primary school in particular can be regarded as an biographical anchor point from which children start their educational career. We were able to show that teachers have developed different subjective theories about the relationship between autism and academic performance, which incorporate attitudes and implicit theories of personality (Restayn et al., 2022). To examine how subjective theories affect diagnostic judgement in school-based teaching-learning settings with children on the autism spectrum, and to determine which judgement processes can be inferred, an experimental-correlative sub-study with N=114 prospective teachers was conducted. Building on studies in the field of medical diagnostics, the study examined whether the model of theory-based categorisation is suitable for predicting the diagnostic judgement of (prospective) teachers and whether Type 1 judgement processes are involved.

Published

Restayn, A., Köpfer, A. & Wittwer, J. (2022a). The 'autistic body' - empirical perspectives regarding ability expectations in schools. In Journal of Disability Studies, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.15203/ZDS_2022_2.05

Restayn, A., Köpfer, A. & Wittwer, J. (2022b). On "beginner autistics", "social illiterates" and "border children" - The category 'autism' from the perspective of primary school teachers. In T. Müller, C. Ratz, R. Stein & C. Lüke (Eds.), Special education - between decategorisation and recategorisation (pp. 240-250). Publisher Julius Klinkhardt.

Restayn, A.-M., Moore, A., & Köpfer, A. (2024). Autism, Body and Space: How teachers' ability expectations performatively shape and contain the autistic body in school spaces. Journal of Inclusion, 19(2), 37-55. https://www.inklusion-online.net/index.php/inklusion-online/article/view/740

Forthcoming

Restayn, A., Moore, A. & Köpfer, A. (2025). Assigned Territories - On the Nexus of Diagnosing and Distancing in Inclusive Schools through Goffman’s lens. In: E. Done (Ed.): Theorising Exclusionary Pressures in Education - Why Inclusion Becomes Exclusion. Palgrave.

Restayn, A., Wittwer, J., & Köpfer, A. (2025). Teachers' lay theories about autism and academic performance and their impact on diagnostic judgement. Autism.

Publications on the qualitative sub-study

As part of the qualitative sub-study, the subjective (and thus action-guiding) theories of primary school teachers about the connection between autism and academic performance were collected. The subjective theories were reconstructed on the basis of problem-centred interviews with 16 primary school teachers who had already taught a child on the autism spectrum. Data collection and analysis followed Constructivist Grounded Theory. After initial open coding processes, Disability Studies‘ concept of Ableism was used as a sensitising concept and a working heuristic was developed using QDA software, which served to systematise and focus subsequent interviews. The reconstructed subjective theories were condensed into a typology based on similarities and differences (Restayn et al., 2022b). As part of a secondary analysis, the interplay of normality and deviation in relation to academic ability expectations against the background of compulsory 'able-bodiedness' was examined, and how teachers' expectations of abilities and (learning) behaviour relationally form bodily images of ‘autism’. For this purpose, perspectives from Critical (and Queer) Disability Studies and Critical Autism Studies were employed (Restayn et al., 2022a). In addition, the way autism is dealt with in schools in terms of (spatial) participation was examined and the interview data was analysed with regard to the research question of which spatial arrangements are caused by teachers' representations of 'autistic bodies' in schools. The results were discussed with reference to the sociological theories of Norbert Elias' work on the civilising process and Pierre Bourdieu's understanding of space and body (Restayn et al., 2024) and were theorised in a following paper using Goffman's theory as a critical lens to discuss the relationship between autism spectrum and distancing in schools and classrooms.

Restayn et al. (2022a)

In this article, we use empirical material to explore how teachers' expectations of abilities and (learning) behaviour relationally form bodily images of ‘autism’.  We show that primary school teachers construct an 'autistic' physicality in the counter-horizon based on ability expectations of the supposedly 'normal', i.e. capable, pupil. Expectations of ability, e.g. regarding the pupils' pace of work or social conventions, are physically connoted and show orientations towards an implicit (apparent) normality, in that the physically (and mentally) capable subject is declared to be the unquestioned norm. In order to discuss the results, theoretical proposals from Critical (and Queer) Disability Studies and Critical Autism Studies are used and the question of a changed reading of non-normative bodies is raised with recourse to New Materialisms.

Restayn et al. (2022b)

In this article, we show that teachers have developed different subjective theories on the relationship between autism and academic performance, which can be condensed into a typology and which incorporate attitudes and implicit theories of personality, i.e. implicit assumptions about the changeability of personal characteristics. In addition to expectations of school performance, further ability expectations can be reconstructed, for example in the areas of working behaviour or regulation of emotions, which are raised in relation to a 'normal' pupil. When knowledge about autism is scarce, there is a tendency to underestimate the abilities and prognosis of a child with an autism diagnosis and to use the category of autism less in the sense of a practice-guiding, pedagogical set of knowledge and more in the sense of a medically justified legitimisation of action. There are also ableist attribution processes, such as the denial of abilities in the area of social conventions. With regard to the professionalisation of teachers, we argued for the development of a pedagogical category of 'autism' that incorporates knowledge from accompanying disciplines without reproducing a pathologising disorder perspective.

Restayn et al. (2024)

In this article, we address the question of how 'autism' is dealt with in and by schools and focus in particular on the claim to (spatial) participation. On the basis of empirical material, we analyse how teachers' expectations of abilities and (learning) behaviour are incorporated and relationally form bodily images of ‘autism’ contrasting the ‘normal’ child in and through school spaces. We discuss our findings with reference to Norbert Elias’ works on the process of civilization and Pierre Bourdieu’s understanding of space and the body. We show how, in highly regulated educational organisations such as schools, the “unruly autistic body” is shaped in relation to spatially prefigured behavioural expectations and how a perceived lack of the ‘right (neurotypical) bodily hexis’ of autistic students lead to spatial exclusion and a withdrawal of academic expectations. Turning back to the educational discourse on autism, we propose a paradigm shift regarding teachers’ diagnostic practices.

Restayn et al. (2025)

This article discusses the 'educational space' of schools against the background of the claim to inclusive education. In doing so, reference is made to a theoretically underdetermined phenomenon that has been discussed for some time in the specialist discourse on inclusive education and which Slee (2011) refers to as the "repetition of exclusion": The perpetuation of practices of separation and segregation of schools despite claims of shared learning. Based on Erving Goffman's approach to social interaction, processes of creating spaces will be worked out using the example of the diagnosis of autism, which can provide insights into the above-mentioned problems. In previous work (e.g. Restayn et al., 2024), we have shown how the 'recalcitrant autistic body' is shaped in relation to spatially prefigured behavioural expectations and how a perceived lack of the 'correct' (neurotypical) body hexis in autistic students leads to spatial exclusion and a withdrawal from school performance expectations. Here we discuss the relationship between autism spectrum and disengagement in schools and classrooms using Goffman's theory as a critical lens.

Publications on the the quantitative sub-study

Restayn et al. (2024/2025)

In this article, we report the results of our experimental-correlative study on the influence of subjective theories on the assessment of autistic students.  We build on our exploratory sub-study (Restayn et al., 2022b), in which we were able to show that teachers have developed different subjective theories about the relationship between autism and academic performance, which incorporate attitudes and implicit personality theories, i.e. implicit assumptions about the changeability of personal characteristics. We were interested in whether beliefs about autism affect diagnostic judgement, as this could potentially lead to autistic students being disadvantaged. To this end, we drew on studies from the field of medical diagnostics, in which it was shown that both laypersons and experienced clinicians used their respective subjective theories as a basis for diagnostic decisions and that intuitive type 1 judgement processes are involved. This was demonstrated by measuring reading times. We wanted to test whether the model of theory-based categorisation is also suitable for making predictions about diagnostic judgements in the field of educational diagnostics. To this end, we induced theories on autism and learning in N=114 prospective teachers and presented them with case vignettes on fictitious pupils in which we experimentally manipulated the so-called causal coherence, i.e. the fit between the induced theory and the pupil behaviour described in the vignette, in three different ways. In order to find out which cognitive processes are involved in the judgement, we recorded reading times. We surveyed attitudes towards inclusive schooling for autistic pupils and implicit personality theories using a questionnaire. Our expectation was that the participants would activate the induced knowledge during reading and quickly recognise inconsistencies, which would lead to longer reading times and that this effect of causal incoherence would predict the subsequent diagnostic judgement. We hypothesised that implicit personality theory moderates the strength of the effect. We also wanted to find out whether the attitude towards school inclusion of autistic pupils affects the diagnostic judgement. We discuss the results of the study in the research context of diagnostic judgement processes and against the background of teacher training in the field of diagnostic competencies.