2024/07/16 by Yasmine Salisbury, Richard Foster, Richard W. Foster +3 · 5 citations
Engineering · Medicine · Social Sciences · #Disability Education and Employment #Disability Rights and Representation #Engineering #Engineering ethics #General partnership #Higher Education Practises and Engagement #Law #Medical education #Medicine #Pedagogy #Political science #Social work #Sociology #Work (physics)
paper · doi:10.1080/02615479.2024.2378915
published in Social Work Education 44(5), 1215-1230 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2024/07/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
To improve inclusion in one social work teaching department, a ‘Students-as-Partners’ project employed four social work students with lived experience of neurodiversity to work in partnership with staff on pedagogical design. The student partners’ role was to evaluate teaching and learning through neurodivergent lenses and co-design strategies to enhance provision. Higher education can often adopt an individualized, adaptive approach to difference , rather than a social approach to inclusion where whole courses and environments are designed with neurotypical and neurodivergent learners in mind. ‘Neurodiversity’ offers social work education a constructive new paradigm for understanding learning experiences and for considering individuals’ strengths alongside challenges . Using a reflective, critical storytelling approach , this article weaves published research findings with the experiences of three student partners and one staff partner, to reflect on and analyze a Students-as-Partners neurodiversity pilot. We conclude that educational designs which actively include the perspectives and ideas of neurodivergent students can deepen understanding of individual challenges and strengths and facilitate the co-creation of more inclusive teaching and assessment strategies.