Social dimensions of learning – the experience of young adult students with Asperger syndrome at a supported IT education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to describe how young adults with Asperger syndrome experience an educational project called ‘the IT-track’. The methods used included participant observation and research interviews. The results were interpreted within the theoretical framework described by ‘Supported Education’ (SED). The most prominent experience among the students was social learning. Students describe that they gradually began to function better socially with others and developed various abilities, such as asking for help, and talking to groups.The teachers emerged in the interviews as the single most important source of support as they formed the basis of two key points of SED. Overall, studying at the IT-track resulted in the students extending their horizons of possibility by breaking away from their previous sense of isolation which was marked by idleness and loneliness. By participating at the IT-track, the students’ sense of participation and meaningfulness increased.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• Asperger syndrome
• social learning

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of the National Centre for Lifelong Learning at Jönköping University for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This article is part of a research project financed by Eksjö municipality.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Joel Hedegaard, Ph.D. in Education, is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Education and Communication (HLK) at Jönköping University in Sweden and part of the National Centre for Lifelong Learning (Encell) at HLK. In addition, Hedegaard is a member of the Special Education College at HLK and the Nordic Network for Research on Social Issues at School.

Martin Hugopi, Ph.D. in Applied Educational Science, is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Education and Communication (HLK) at Jönköping University in Sweden and part of the National Centre for Lifelong Learning (Encell) at HLK. In addition, Hugo is a member of the Special Education College at HLK, the Nordic Network for Research on Social Issues at School and the Nordic research network for relational pedagogy (NORP).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Eksjö kommun/County [grant number 14/49].