‘What supports us to be our best selves at High School?’: Neurodivergent young people’s insights into inclusive practice and reflections on participatory research

Introduction: Inclusive practice in schools is championed through Scottish policy, with most young people with additional support needs being educated in mainstream provisions (Audit Scotland, 2025). There is limited literature on using strengths-based approaches and meaningfully involving young people to understand what supports their inclusion in the Scottish education context (NAIT, 2021; Petersson-Bloom & Holmqvist, 2022). The current research aimed to address these gaps by utilising a participatory design, with secondary aged young people in mainstream education, to understand what supports them to be their best selves at school. A secondary aim being to evaluate and reflect on the use participatory research methods. Methods: The authors upskilled six young co-researchers to collaborate in: shaping the project’s research question; methods of data collection; undertaking data collection; thematic analysis and dissemination stages. Interviews and podcasts exploring what had worked to support young people’s secondary experience, led by both neurotypical professionals and neurodivergent co-researchers, were collaboratively recorded and thematically analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2019) methodology. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the participatory research process. Results and implications for practice: Co-researchers’ experiences of secondary school could be grouped under three main themes and several subthemes therein. Features such as Social Supports, Wellbeing Supports, and a helpful Adult Approach were named as critical protective factors for sustainable inclusion in secondary school. Authors reflections on the participatory design of the research are shared, including the degrees to which young people were involved throughout the project, barriers to meaningful participation and factors which support co-production.