Listening Bodies, Cold Calls, and the Burden of Existing: #Neurodivergent Students' Perspectives on School

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Centering Neurodivergent Voices and Perspectives in Education

Abstract

This study explored neurodivergent TikTok creators’ P–20 educational experiences. Grounded in Neurodiversity Studies, the research centered neurodivergent perspectives as knowledge sources for reimagining educational design. One hundred public videos were collected and qualitatively analyzed through a five-stage inductive framework. Findings showed (1) creators experienced school as a site of emotional, cognitive, and relational harm across grades, (2) environmental, academic, and structural factors necessitated coping for some creators and survival for most, and (3) creators identified a lasting negative impact while locating failure within institutional neuronormativity. These collective narratives on neurodivergent students’ past and current experiences offer small and large-scale implications toward future co-constructed educational environments that intentionally support varied neurocognitive ways of being.

Author

• Dana Baker, Fairleigh Dickinson University