“Lost in the System”: Australian Primary School Teacher Perspectives on ADHD Inclusion, a Bioecological, Qualitative Study

Abstract

Flynn Vamos, Melanie Porter and Sami Lu

In Australia, students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are marginalised learners who often face barriers to school participation that can compromise long-term social, academic, and mental-health outcomes. ADHD diagnostic criteria specify symptom onset before age 12 years, making primary school a critical period for recognition and support. Teachers’ professional judgment is, therefore, central to identifying attentional and behavioural difficulties, initiating referrals, and mitigating risk. Despite national commitments to inclusion, ADHD remains insufficiently recognised in disability frameworks, making support difficult to access and placing greater pressure on teachers to respond without adequate resources. This study aimed to: (1) clarify how current inclusion policy is experienced in classroom practice and (2) identify the supports that teachers view as necessary for the inclusion of these students. Semi- structured interviews were conducted with six primary teachers from mainstream and special educational settings across New South Wales, representing independent, Catholic, and public sectors. A critical realist stance and the bioecological person-process-context-time model guided an interpretative phenomenological analysis [1]. Three superordinate themes were identified: (1) ADHD inclusion’s blind spot, where teachers described ADHD as simultaneously invisible and excluded from policy; (2) systemic constraints and pedagogical gaps, highlighting unmet training needs and systemic barriers; and (3) meaningful change through relationships, collaboration, and lived experience, demonstrating how these factors may enable inclusion. This is the first Australian study to qualitatively explore primary teacher perspectives on ADHD. Findings expose the gap between policy aspiration and classroom reality, providing evidence for explicit ADHD policy recognition, accessible and ADHD-specific teacher training, and system-wide collaboration to achieve sustainable and meaningful inclusion for students with ADHD in Australian classrooms.

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