Family and school partnership to build homeplace and protect Black autistic joy

ABSTRACT

Researchers acknowledge how the experiences of Black autistic students and their families are virtually absent from educational research and research about autistic people. This chapter offers insights and perspectives from the parents of a Black autistic child, using hooks’ construct of homeplace to understand the need for safety in school spaces. Drawing on tenets of self-study and co-autoethnographic methodologies, the authors provide reflections and recommendations on the ways school personnel can help create homeplace to nurture and protect Black autistic joy through their singular and shared narratives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional resources

1. Jones, C. J. (Director). (2014). Autistic like me [Film]. ALM Productions.

 This documentary provides viewers with footage of a retreat for fathers of autistic people, facilitated by a licensed clinical psychologist. The content is genuine, raw, and insightful and offers viewers insights on these fathers’ hopes, fears, and aspirations for their autistic children in a world they know will marginalize them.

2. Hannon, L. V. (2016). To be young, gifted, and Black with autism [TedX Talk]. TedXCooperRiverWomen.

 This TedX talk delivered by Dr. LaChan Hannon provides viewers her insights about the ways schools are challenged to acknowledge the intersecting and converging identities of Black autistic students and their families.

3. Brown, L. X. Z., Ashkenazy, E., & Onaiwu, M. G. (Editors). (2017). All the weight of our dreams: On living racialized autism. Dragonbee Press.

 This anthology includes 61 writers and artists from 7 countries offering their lives, politics, and artistic expressions as Black, Brown, Latinx, Indigenous, Mixed-Race, and other racialized and people of color from many autistic communities provides readers.

4. Drame, E. R., Adams, T., Nolden, V., Nardi, J. (2020). The resistance, persistence, and resilience of Black families raising children with autism. Peter Lang Publishers.

 This text provides readers with a nuanced perspectives in the form of counternarratives of what Black families who have children with autism experience at the intersection of race, class, disability and gender. It intentionally centers the expertise of Black parents, challenging what is considered knowledge, whose knowledge counts, and how knowledge can be co-generated for learning, sharing and advocacy. The book speaks directly to Black parents on the autism journey.

5. Josey, J. (2013). Here’s what I want you to know. Xlibris Publishing.

 Here’s What I Want You To Know is a touching story of love and compassion that depicts the life and times of Jeremiah, an autistic child and, through him, all the world’s autistic children.