This article develops the concept and provides an illustrative portrait of teachers’ care-based resistance practices in the context of neoliberal school reform. Data presented come from a critical ethnographic study of policy enactment in an urban high school experiencing high levels of school reform.

This commentary aims to advance the professional conversation around the need for greater acceptance and authentic inclusion for children with autism. I consider the emerging scholarly literature on the controversial concept of neurodiversity, which seeks to reframe autism as a positive neurological variation, and critically assess the concept’s potential as a framework for informing educational policy and community practice. In doing so, I challenge current models of inclusion in the field of special education, which tend to focus too little on changing the negative attitudes toward difference that often exist among the general education student population. Further, I call for new directions in community practice based on what I refer to as an ethos of authentic inclusion.