Learning Life Histories of Higher Education Students who are Dyslexic

David Pollak's DPhil project

- University of Sussex Institute of Education

Background

1. The number of students in the Higher Education system who are dyslexic is increasing rapidly. Nowadays, many state the fact when they apply for a place, and some younger students are arriving at University having had Statements of Special Educational Need issued for them while they were at school.
2. The B.D.A. recently held its 'Year of the Young Dyslexic Adult' to raise awareness, and there has been a small number of relevant publications, such as 'Adult Dyslexia' by McLoughlin et al., the B.D.A.'s 'Guide for Dyslexic Adults' and The Open University's 'Adult Students and Dyslexia' resource book.
3. A quiet debate about cognitive styles is also taking place. This may be said to have begun with Howard Gardner's 'Frames of Mind' and Linda Verlee William's' 'Teaching for the Two-sided Mind' (both in 1983); it was certainly given a provocative twist in 1992 by Thomas West's 'In the Mind's Eye', with its focus on what he calls 'visual thinkers and gifted people with learning difficulties'.
4. During the academic year 1994/5, about fifty Universities and Colleges ran HEFCE-funded special disability projects, and many of these included dyslexia support in their 'remit'. This exercise raised the profile of dyslexia at University level, and controversy arose over the number of dyslexic students claiming the Disabled Students' Allowance.
5. There is also a degree of controversy among academics, some of whom are sceptical as to the nature of dyslexia, while others are reluctant to provide concessions and extra support.
6. There is a need for staff development work to increase the ability of the academy to work with students who are dyslexic. At the same time, students need 'moral' as well as practical support. There is an abundance of literature about dyslexic children, and plenty of work on the neurology of dyslexia, but nothing about studying from the point of view of an adult.

What can be done about this?

1. An accessible answer is needed to the question: what is dyslexia and how does it affect students?
2. Work on 'selves' and 'lives' is an emergent area of qualitative research which is currently generating much interest and enthusiasm. There is now an established literature on oral history, or 'life history' work. This is easily adaptable to focus on a person's learning history, much as should be done when a student's needs are assessed.
3. I have therefore begun a series of 90-minute interviews with students at various English Universities, whom I am contacting via their learning support services. These unstructured conversations range over the student's entire educational history; I have a list of prompts, but have needed to use it very much so far.
4. The life history interview is a conversation between two adults, not an 'expert' testing a 'subject'. I will be using the NUD.IST qualitative research software package to look for patterns which link the interview material. But the work on the texts also involves collaboration, in that the students have the opportunity to edit what they have said and to develop it, if necessary over several meetings.

Research Questions

1. What do students who describe themselves as dyslexic tell us about their lives and work?
2. What patterns can be noted in the learning histories of such students?
3. What are the categories of phenomena which are being understood by students as constituting dyslexia?
4. What are the lessons of such phenomena or patterns for the academy?

Outcome

My research proposal was accepted in July 1995. At present, I am working on it part-time, but I hope to be full-time from July 1997, and to complete the work before the millennium!

Update - May 1998

I am now a lecturer in dyslexia studies at De Montfort University, Lincoln (since February this year). My DPhil project, having languished for a bit while I worked on a counselling Diploma, has now been taken over by De Montfort to the extent that they are sponsoring me. I am still registered at Sussex for it, and completion is scheduled for summer 2000.

This article is obviously very brief; if any reader would like more information, for example about methodology, I am happy to correspond.

  David Pollak             Telephone: 01522 567354 (home 01522  533478)
  98 Broughton Gardens
  Lincoln LN5 8SR           e-mail:dpollak@pavilion.co.uk
   
   
                           
                                             
 January 1996, updated May and September 1998.