The Listening Classroom: Professor and Cultural Change in Inclusion for Students on the Autism Spectrum

Erwin Robert Aguirre-Villalobos, Daniela Paz Godoy-Donoso, Lorena González-Otárola and María de los Ángeles Ferrer-Mavárez
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Erwin Robert Aguirre-Villalobos: Department of Planning and Territorial Ordering, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
Daniela Paz Godoy-Donoso: Department of Planning and Territorial Ordering, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
Lorena González-Otárola: Unidad de Mejoramiento Docente (UMD), Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
María de los Ángeles Ferrer-Mavárez: Department of Design, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: This article examines the role of university faculty as agents of institutional transformation in the inclusion of students on the autism spectrum in Chilean public higher education. Based on a case study from the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM) in Santiago, the research explores how faculty training in neurodiversity and inclusive pedagogy shapes attitudes and promotes cultural change within the university. The study adopts a critical qualitative methodology informed by Theory of Change (ToC), which was used to model the causal mechanisms linking staff training in neurodiversity, inclusive practices, and institutional change. Data were collected via focus groups and personal academic narratives from both staff and students, exploring the tensions between institutional inclusion discourses and lived pedagogical practices. Findings suggest that genuinely inclusive teaching occurs when difference is acknowledged and normalized, rather than treated as an exceptional or deficit‐based condition requiring management or special assistance. Training initiatives were found to improve communication, flexibility, and empathy, although structural barriers persist due to managerial cultures and the precarization of academic work. The study concludes that the inclusion of students on the autism spectrum requires more than mere institutional policy: It requires learning environments capable of acknowledging, understanding, and reframing differences as a transformative force toward genuinely inclusive higher education.

Keywords: autism spectrum; higher education; inclusive pedagogy; institutional transformation; neurodiversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11675

DOI: 10.17645/si.11675

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