Title:
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Dyslexia in higher education : exploring lecturers' perspectives of dylexia, dyslexic students and support strategies
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Without the awareness and understanding of the academic staff who come in contact
with students with dyslexia, no HEI can be said to be making satisfactory provision
for such students" (Singleton et a1.1999, p. 50). Following the introduction of the
Special Education Needs Report (2001-2) much has been achieved regarding the
provision of dyslexia support in higher education in the U.K. However, academic
staff themselves remain largely unaware about dyslexia and how best to support
dyslexic students (Borland and lames, 1999; Tinklin et al., 2004; Mortimore and
Crozier, 2006; Holloway, 2001; Goode, 2007). The finding is supported mainly by
research which focuses on the disabled students' perspective within the context of
general disability there are hardly studies seeking lecturers' views specifically about
dyslexia. The aim of this research was, therefore, to find the extent to which lecturers
conceptualised their own understanding of dyslexia, dyslexic students and support in a
university context.
To achieve the above aim, lecturers' views were underpinned by Bricman et al. (1982)
theoretical framework of help and coping. Based upon these authors' 'theory of
attribution to responsibility of both the cause and solution of the problem' the
framework is organised under four distinct help/support modalities, known as Moral,
Enlightenment, Medical and Compensatory.
Utilising a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach, the research was conducted in
four stages. In the first stage, using in-depth interviews, data obtained were utilised to
generate a research questionnaire for the main study. The interview findings revealed
that lecturers were orientated predominantly towards two of Bricman et al. four
help/support modalities, namely the Compensatory and Medical models. This is
consistent with the Difference and the Deficits paradigms of dyslexia (West, 1997).
In the main phase of the study (stages 2 and 3), quantitative findings fro a
questionnaire revealed that lecturers associated almost equally with the Medical and
Compensatory models in respect of their views of dyslexic students and approach to
support. However, they did not associate quite so readily in their own role and that of dyslexic students in the support strategy. Specifically, lecturers did not only prefer to
take a 'subordinate' role but had an expectation that dyslexic students should take
ownership of their own support responsibility. This finding is consistent with the
Compensatory model. Additionally, results showed that lecturers were limited in their
understanding of dyslexia and ability to support dyslexic students.
Since a quantitative study of this nature does not provide rich explanations of why
lecturers held the views they did, the fourth phase of the research used a semi-structured
interview designed to elaborate on some of the questionnaire findings. The
data, not only added to the earlier findings but also identified some previously
undiscovered factors that impinged on lecturers' support behaviour.
To conclude, lecturers' general lack of dyslexia awareness, coupled with the way that
they conceptualised dyslexic students showed serious implications for their approach
to students' support. Most importantly, the researcher argues that while lecturers'
expectation of their own role and that of dyslexic students may be helpful in
supporting the more capable and independent students they may not be quite so
helpful in supporting those students requiring a more immediate and direct form of
dyslexia support.
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