Constructing Agency: The Mediation of School Experiences Through Multimedia Autobiography by Adolescents With Autism

• In Event: Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: The Complexities and Intersections of Dis/ability Identity in Political and Educational Contexts

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the ways in which adolescents with autism create agency for themselves by crafting autobiographical representations of their experiences. Using narrative analysis in a year-long research study in which the participants created multimedia autobiographical works, this article contributes to the small but growing number of studies that place the individuals themselves as experts about the experiences of having autism. The work examines how adolescents with autism negotiate and co-construct their identities when given the space and tools and authority to do so. It explores the ways in which students with autism represent their experiences in school and the purposes that can be served through narrative inquiry in this context.

Author

• Beth Myers, Syracuse University