Breaking Barriers and Fostering Neurodiversity Awareness in Elementary Education through Inclusive Children's Literature

Teachers are essential in ensuring children and society are aware of neurodiversity by actively incorporating inclusive children's literature into their classroom activities to promote understanding and acceptance of neurodiverse individuals. Integrating such literature may enhance children's awareness and acceptance of neurodiverse individuals. Many teachers encounter barriers to promoting neurodiversity awareness through this medium. This paper draws upon Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (1962) to analyze teachers' perceptions and beliefs concerning neurodiversity and their practices for using children's literature to promote neurodiversity awareness. This qualitative research study investigated the barriers teachers face in promoting neurodiversity awareness. Data collection involved semi-structured face-to-face interviews with eight K-2 grade teachers. A thematic analysis was used for interpretation. The findings indicate inadequate teacher knowledge and understanding, lack of collaborative professional development, and limited access to appropriate educational resources are significant barriers to promoting neurodiversity awareness in classroom activities through inclusive children's literature.