The role of school communities 119can all be considered as influencers on the perceptions held by members of the
school community. For students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, their indi-
vidual attributes will also include those core competencies attributed to students
on the Autism spectrum: communication difficulties, idiosyncratic behaviours, a
unique sensory profile, and a marked impairment in social skills. These core com-
petencies combine to shape each individual and can have a marked impact upon
members of the school community, specifically the teacher, and the shaping of their
attitudes.
Regrettably, perceptions of and attitudes toward students with an Autism
Spectrum Disorder by members of the school community are often based on
students’ externalising behaviours, such as hitting, kicking, and self-stimulating
behaviours. Oftentimes, these presenting behaviours are the result of frustration
and anxiety. Due to a lack of understanding, these behaviours are often deemed
representative of the student and their perceived inability to conform to the schools
behavioural expectations. Brown, Odom and McConnell (2008) described the use
of appropriate behavioural strategies as essential to the display of social compe-
tence and fundamental to being socially included. The maintenance of less than
positive perceptions and attitudes toward the behaviour of students with an Autism
Spectrum Disorder serves to hinder student’s social engagement and interactions
with others and restrict their social inclusion in all aspects of school life.
The path toward social inclusion for students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
can be traced from its existence as a subset of the broader concept of inclusion
generally, through the educational setting via enrolment to the educational oppor-
tunities afforded by classroom teachers. Underpinning these opportunities of social
inclusion for students are the dynamic relationships between ‘key players’ in the
students’ educational environment. In this chapter, the active interactions between
these key players in the educational environment are examined within the frame-
work of bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2001).
Bioecological systems theory
Sociological research in the area of human development proposes: “Human beings
create the environments that shape the course of human development. Their
actions influence the multiple physical and cultural tiers of the ecology that shapes
them, and this agency makes humans active producers of their own development”
(Bronfenbrenner, 2005, p. xxvii). To embed this proposal in an educational context,
one could argue that the focus of the educational setting is the student, in this case a
student with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The actions of key participants, teachers,
students, peers, administrators, and the broader school community, both shape and
inform the multiple and unique environments that surround the student with Autism
Spectrum Disorder, and subsequently influence their human development.
Bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2001) recognises the unique
characteristics of the student and acknowledges the dynamic, bi-directional inter-
relations of a myriad of environmental influences from the systems surrounding