Incivility in higher education: challenges of inclusion for neurodiverse students with traumatic brain injury in Ireland
Shiels, Teresa, Kenny, NeilORCID: 0000-0002-2340-6586, Shiels, Roy and Mannix-McNamara, PatriciaORCID: 0000-0002-3011-0177
(2021)
Incivility in higher education: challenges of inclusion for neurodiverse students with traumatic brain injury in Ireland.
Societies, 11
(2).
pp. 60-75.
ISSN 2075-4698
This paper explores the lived experience of incivility for neurodiverse students with
traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Ireland. The higher education (HE) environment can be challenging
for students with TBI. Incivility is common in higher education, and students with disabilities such
as TBI are often marginalized within academia, making them more vulnerable to incivility. For this
paper, data are drawn from the first author’s autoethnographic study, and is supplemented with
semi-structured interviews from a sample of HE seven students also with TBI. Results revealed that
participants’ experiences of incivility were common and were linked to the organizational culture
of higher education. Our experiences point to a need for better responsiveness when interactions
are frequently uncivil, despite there being policies that recognize diversity and equality. This is the
first paper of its kind to explore this particular experience in Ireland and the purpose of this paper
is to raise awareness of the challenges of neurodiverse students and how they are exacerbated by
organizational and interpersonal incivility
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
incivility; students with traumatic brain injury; higher education; power