Sarah Parsons is joint guest editor with Professor Connie Kasari from UCLA, of a special issue for the journal Autism, which has now been published. The special issue on ‘school-based research of autism spectrum disorders’ discusses the methodological challenges, but also necessity, of conducting more autism research with children in their school settings. The special issue also includes some examples of interesting and effective research with children in schools, showing what is possible when we place schools at the centre of what we do.
The editorial for the article by Sarah and Connie can be downloaded for free here and emphasises the need for researchers to commit to carrying out more research in school settings since:
Schools may be the perfect laboratory as nearly all children go to school; therefore, conducting research in school settings can increase research samples of children to include those who are traditionally underserved, under-represented and under-resourced.
Sarah also has a paper in the special issue, co-written with other researchers and also teachers, discussing their research partnership as a way of strengthening links between autism practice and research. The paper ‘Bridging the research and practice gap in autism: The importance of creating research partnerships with schools’ discusses the Pan-London Autism Schools Network – Research (PLASN-R) Advisory group and the potential this model of collaboration may offer for schools and researchers. As the paper notes:
PLASN-R has demonstrated a productive and novel working relationship, with a research partnership being formed with schools that provide education for almost 700 children. To any funder, the scale and potential impact of research outputs from PLASN-R is attractive and now the “pilot” stage of PLASN-R has been completed there is time for reflection before considering how to provide sustainable support for this initiative.
This initiative, and the paper, represents a good example of the importance of working in collaboration which is one of the key features of the work of members of the SJIE research centre.
