Understanding the intersectional experiences of autistic trans and non-binary students in educational settings fosters inclusive and supportive environments. Research indicates a significant portion of the autistic community and the trans and non-binary communities in Ireland feel excluded within educational contexts. This study investigates and foregrounds the lived educational experiences of autistic trans and non-binary students in the Republic of Ireland (RoI). Positioned within a qualitative phenomenological participatory paradigm, four participants who are autistic and gender-diverse were recruited to participate in the study. In depth semi-structured interviews explored participants’ experiences. Data collection, interpretation and analysis were guided by an anti-oppressive framework, which centred IPA and concepts from CAS, Queer Theory (QT) and intersectionality. This framework supported the exploration of the complex dynamics of culture, power, identity, inclusion, exclusion, belonging, and flourishing which shaped participants’ experiences within school environments.

The study’s findings underscore the importance of recognising and challenging the ableist and transphobic norms that underpin the structures, policies and practices of education contexts. Comprehensive changes at all three levels are needed to ensure that students feel safe, supported, visible, included, and respected in these contexts.

This study contributes to educational discourse by amplifying the voices of trans and non-binary autistic people and reporting their experiences within educational contexts. Participants in sharing their experiences provide important insights into how educational contexts can be made more equitable, inclusive, and supportive. Recommendations from the study include robust anti-bullying policies with a specific focus on transphobia and ableism, curricular changes to increase the visibility of both trans and autistic identity, the provision of training for management, staff and peers and a commitment to move away from tokenistic approaches and meaningfully include student voice. This study serves as a foundational step toward greater understanding, and inclusivity of autistic trans and non-binary people in educational contexts.

Research aim: A pilot study which aimed to develop and evaluate a ‘decolonise yourself’ toolkit for supporting social psychologists to reflect on their research and teaching, considering a decolonizing perspective, will be presented.

Theoretical framework: Decolonising the curriculum and pedagogy has been a key priority for higher education, in recent years, in several countries around the world. Various resources have been created with suggestions from indigenous scholars for Western-oriented and colonialised -minded colleagues and institutions. However, some research has shown resistance and unease among academics to decolonialise their research and teaching practices. One form of resistance might coincide with ‘dominionization’, such as ‘the entrenched ownership of expertise that maintains westernised academic privilege over decolonisation efforts’. Other academics might be willing to decolonise their work but might feel insecure regarding the effectiveness of their efforts and the quality of the outcomes.

Regarding the specific context of psychology some reflection has emerged within community, clinical and school psychology, while self-reflection on teaching practices in social psychology in relation to decolonisation are still needed.

Methods: A self-decolonising toolkit was developed from material collected interviewing ten social psychologists from, and educated in, indigenous and colonised academic environments. The self-decolonising toolkit was then developed and assessed by ten academics teaching social psychology in higher education in Western countries.

Findings: the self-colonising toolkit helped to reflect on one's own teaching practice in social psychology and focus on specific short-term and broader long-term objectives to decolonise the curriculum. Further studies should explore the self-decolonising toolkit’s longitudinal effects and its adaptability to other disciplines.

Relevance to the conference theme and specific strand: self-decolonisation of academics is an important step to decolonise the curriculum in higher education. This study is relevant for the ‘curriculum design for equitable teaching’ and ‘equity and inclusion in teacher education’ conference strands.

Research has long demonstrated that Black people’s experiences with state-run schooling in Canada are racializing and antiblack (Black Learners Advisory Committee 1994; Lewis 1992; Williams 1997). Yet there is a long tradition of Black communities advocating for the transformation of public schooling and implementing community-based programs to complement, supplement, and sometimes challenge, state schooling.

This paper presents preliminary findings from a funded research project, asking: “How have Black community supplementary educational initiatives (BCSEs) exercised agency and resistance in addressing schooling issues?,” and meeting the related objective to produce a critical account of the political visions informing BCSE programs, attending to gender, class, and local context.

The paper uses a Black Studies framework, which identifies contemporary antiblackness as the “afterlife of slavery” inherent to Western nation-states and as casting Black communities outside of Western constructions of the Human (Hartman, 2007; Wynter, 2003). It also, importantly, considers the fugitive, sometimes contradictory, ways that Black communities forge BlackLife amid this antiblack weather (Harney & Moten, 2013; Sharpe, 2016; Walcott & Abdillahi, 2019). It uses a Critical Discourse Analysis of in-depth interviews with BCSE organizers.

Preliminary findings address the discursive formations through which BCSE leaders, who are 1^st to 1.5 generation immigrants in a small Canadian city, understand their BCSE initiatives. I explore how participants’ narratives embrace both Black liberal and radical imaginations, while also weaving in and out of dominant readings of Black students’ realities, constructing them against the experiences of longer-standing Black communities in nearby megacities.

This paper aligns with the conference theme, questioning what it means to support student learning with equitable teaching practices, and envisioning options not limited to the antiblack Western nation-state and its institutions. It engages directly with the strand around reconciling tensions for a new social contract in education by examining the contradictions within BCSE work.