A mixed-methods exploration of the relationship between public stigmatisation of Tourette’s and teachers’ perspectives of Tourette’s

About the Project

Tourette’s Syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder involving involuntary multiple motor or phonic tics (Cavanna et al, 2009). It is often associated with swearing, but this facet – known as coprolalia – is estimated to be present in only 10% of Tourettic people (Tourette’s Action, 2025).

Tourette’s is highly stigmatised: from award-winning jokes ridiculing Tourette’s (Malli and Forrester-Jones, 2025), to vacant and baroque stares from the public (Malli and Forrester-Jones, 2025), to being a parliamentary insult by British Prime Minister, David Cameron (“like having someone with Tourette's sitting opposite you”) (Press Association, 2012). Tourette’s is often the butt of jokes and rarely seen as more than just swearing. This project’s supervisor, Dr Dan Whittaker, has personal experience of this stigma as a Tourettic researcher (Jones and Phoenix-Kane, 2025) and its impact on a personal level.

However, while the above indicates a steady stream of Tourette’s stigma in the media, positive representations of Tourette’s in public discourse – and more worryingly – in official policy and clinical guidelines are much rarer. This ‘structural stigmatism’ – sadly evident in education – (Malli and Martindale, 2025) is an area that warrants greater attention in research.

This project would seek to address this issue. It is anticipated that the study may include a desk-based examination of secondary data sources, such as media reports, grey literature (including blog posts and white papers), and social media content to explore the public discourses of Tourette’s. This may be combined with primary data gathered from teachers and trainee teachers using a range of qualitative methods.

This study will not only contribute to our understanding of the relationship between Tourette’s discourses in public discourse and how such structural stigmatism is represented in teachers’ and trainee teachers’ views but will also lead to the identification of implications and recommendations for policy and practice.

Supervisory Team

• Director of Studies: Professor Alison Kington
• Supervisor: Dr Dan Whittaker
• Research Group: Social Psychology of Education