264: How Schools Can Support Neurodivergent Teachers
The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast
Jennifer Gonzalez
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2025
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Neurodivergent educators, like those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other forms of cognitive diversity, are essential voices in our schools. They bring innovation, empathy, and authenticity. Yet they often work within systems that weren't built with them in mind, and this can make the job of teaching especially challenging. In this episode, we'll learn about the strengths neurodivergent teachers bring to the classroom and strategies that help them thrive from Emily Kircher-Morris, who is a mental health professional, neurodiversity advocate, and host of The Neurodiversity Podcast.
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Thanks to foundry10 and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read Kircher-Morris's article and a full transcript of our conversation, visit cultofpedagogy.com/neurodivergent-teachers.
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To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Jennifer Gonzalez, welcoming you to episode 264 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast. |
| 0:05.8 | In this episode, we'll explore ways we can support neurodivergent teachers. |
| 0:25.1 | I want to start this episode with a little disclaimer. |
| 0:31.7 | I've put the episode together to help other teachers, but I'm also kind of making it about me. |
| 0:39.0 | Earlier this year, I made a discovery about myself that couldn't have been more of a shock. I was talking with my best friend, Angela, like I have done almost every day for the last 10 years. And for some reason, |
| 0:45.0 | I can't remember now. She was looking at signs of ADHD in adult women who are often |
| 0:51.1 | undiagnosed. Without much hesitation, she said, Jen, I think you have ADHD. |
| 0:59.7 | My first thought was, no way. I've known a ton of people with ADHD, and I don't think I'm |
| 1:05.1 | anything like them. I don't think I'm any more disorganized than your average person. |
| 1:10.9 | I almost always meet deadlines. |
| 1:13.1 | I don't think anyone has ever described me as scattered, and I'm definitely not what you |
| 1:18.1 | would call hyperactive. |
| 1:20.9 | But then she started making a case for it. |
| 1:23.5 | Through our regular conversations, Angela had heard me say on an almost daily basis that I was |
| 1:28.9 | behind on things, on everything, all the time. |
| 1:32.6 | I got sick of hearing myself say it. |
| 1:35.4 | She had watched me start projects that took years to complete and ultimately abandoned many |
| 1:40.7 | more after years of saying I was going to get to them soon. When we talked about |
| 1:46.1 | our working styles, I'd always marveled at the way she was able to start a task, work on it for a |
| 1:51.9 | few hours, take a reasonable break, and then finish it more or less on time. Meanwhile, I would |
| 1:58.3 | have to set Pomodoro timers and give myself treats to finish even a percentage of a task. |
| 2:03.6 | As I did more reading on my own, I started to see that I had been busting my butt for years to compensate for my natural ADHD tendencies, |
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