Systematic review: Educational ecosystem for autistic students in mainstream schools

This research conducts a thorough examination of literature focused on factors influencing the educational journey of autistic students within mainstream schools, as reported by the students themselves or their parents and teachers.

Introduction

In Romania, the average number of students assigned to a single primary or secondary school teacher is 19.5, considerably higher than the EU average of 13.6 students. Teachers have limited time for individual students, disproportionately impacting students diagnosed with autism predominantly integrated into mainstream schools.

Method

The protocol for this review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) guidelines (Moher et al., 2015). Studies included in the current review were found through a search on the Web of Science between December 2023 and January 2024, based on eligibility criteria. The inclusion criteria were: mainstream schools and level of school (primary and secondary classes), teaching motivation, and parenting styles as independent variables and academic and social levels of autistic students measured in the class collective as dependent variables. We used as exclusion criteria: (1) special schools and other levels such as high school and university; (2) mixed diagnoses associated with autism (intellectual disability, Down syndrome, etc.); (3) articles that were limited regarding variables (such as therapeutic interventions/programs applied to the autistic students in schools and case studies).

Results

Following the removal of duplicates, articles were selected based on predetermined inclusion criteria. From the total retrieved, 159 articles were evaluated for eligibility.

Conclusion

This study aimed to provide a systematic review of the literature investigating the factors that support or are barriers to autistics students included in an educational process in mainstream schools. This study fills a gap  in the literature by consolidating insights from scholarly articles published over the last decade.