Sarah Donald

Autism, complex support needs, intellectual disability, language and communication, participatory methods, research culture, ethics, marginalised groups, Special Educational Needs

PhD in Psycholgy, MSc in Speech, language and communication in schools, PGCE in primary education, BA (Hons) Russian and History

I have extensive experience of working across the education sector, including senior teaching roles in mainstream primary schools, specialist SEN provisions and with initial teacher training providers in the HE sector. I have worked as a local authority specialist education advisor and am a long-standing school governor. 

My PhD thesis used participatory research methods to develop more accessible and inclusive research methods for autistic people with complex support needs. I am currently the Sheila Coates Foundation Research Fellow with the Autism Centre for Education Research working on a project exploring the impact of using sensory and safe spaces in mainstream secondary schools to support autistic learners.

I am particularly interested in participatory research approaches and have worked as a Research Associate on an NIHR Applied Research Collaboration project developing a co-production community of practice to improve diversity in applied health research. I was also recently awarded QR research funding to run a participatory project exploring young autistic people's experiences of education.