Neurodiversity in Education: Shame, Teaching & Transformation

Join Panoramic Associates for two insightful online talks exploring neurodiversity, wellbeing and professional practice. The event forms part of a wider series led by the EP Equity, Diversity and Intersectionality Network Group, led by Nazim Bhuiyan, bringing together expert voices to explore important topics and experiences across education and professional practice.

Teresa Clark will present The Neuroscience of Shame: From Survival to Transformation, exploring the impact of shame and the journey towards positive change. Kalpa Ghelani and Jamie Whelan will present My Teaching Was Never the Problem: Professional Teaching Practice Through the Experiences of Neurodivergent Trainee Teachers, examining professional teaching practice through the lived experiences of neurodivergent trainee teachers.

The Details

Date: Wednesday 14th October
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Location: Microsoft Teams (link shared after registering)
Who: Education professionals
Registration: Sign up to secure your free spot

The Talks

Together, these two online talks explore the impact of our environments and experiences on wellbeing, identity, belonging and professional practice, offering insight into how greater understanding can create more inclusive and supportive spaces.

The Neuroscience of Shame: From Survival to Transformation

Led by Teresa Clark, this talk explores how shame can influence the brain, nervous system, behaviour and performance. Blending psychology and neuroscience, Teresa examines how patterns such as perfectionism, people-pleasing, burnout and self-criticism can develop as protective survival responses.

The session will explore:

• The science of shame: Understand how shame and the need to belong can influence our thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
• Survival patterns: Recognise responses including fight, flight, freeze and fawn, and how repeated patterns can become automatic.
• Stress, perfectionism and burnout: Explore some of the hidden protective patterns that can drive pressure, self-criticism and disconnection.
• Neuroplasticity and change: Discover how learned patterns are not fixed and how awareness can help create new responses.
• Moving from protection to choice: Learn practical, evidence-based approaches to pause, regulate and respond with greater awareness.

My Teaching Was Never the Problem: Professional Teaching Practice Through the Experiences of Neurodivergent Trainee Teachers

Led by Kalpa Ghelani and Jamie Whelan, this talk explores the experiences of neurodivergent trainee teachers during professional teaching practice, considering how the environments surrounding trainees can influence their experiences of inclusion, belonging and professional legitimacy.

The session will explore:

• Neurodivergent trainee experiences: Understand professional teaching practice through the experiences of neurodivergent trainee teachers.
• Mentoring and support: Consider the role mentoring can play in shaping trainees’ professional experiences.
• Institutional practices: Explore how organisational structures and expectations can affect inclusion and belonging.
• Expectations of professionalism: Examine how ideas around what it means to be a ‘professional’ can shape experiences of professional legitimacy.
• Moving beyond deficit thinking: Consider how professional learning environments can move away from viewing neurodivergence as an individual deficit and instead recognise and support cognitive diversity.