Students with Reading and Writing difficulties and Their Possibility for Participation in Higher Education in Sweden

Author(s):

Marianne Björn Milrad(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 06 A, Inclusion and Diversity in Higher Education Settings

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

15:30-17:00

Room:

FFL - Aula 22

Chair:

Jani Petri Ursin

Contribution

The data presented in this paper is the same data that I presented in my Ph D thesis.The thesis was written in Swedish.

The overall aim with the work accounted for in my doctoral thesis was to illuminate the prerequisites for participation for Swedish students with dyslexia in higher education, and to analyse if support, and the information about support offered by higher-education institutions, are accessible to these students. The following questions have guided my work:

•   What measures are taken in higher education to ensure accessibility and participation for Swedish students with dyslexia?
•   What tensions, as defined within cultural-historical activity theory may be found in the higher education activities in relation to students with dyslexia?
•   How do students with dyslexia regard the support offered?

Dyslexia is a disability that involves difficulties with written text (Lyon, Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2003), which can be said to be the essence of higher education. My assumption therefore, was that the possibility for these students to complete their education on an equal footing with their peers was limited. Due to scarcity within Swedish research concerning the interaction between students with dyslexia and higher-education institutions, I saw a need to further explore this area.

The theoretical framework of my work was the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). CHAT is based on the works of Vygotsky and Leontiev (e.g. Vygotskij, 1934; Leontiev, 1977), and has been further developed by Engeström (1987), among others. I have approached CHAT through the work of Engeström, especially by using his triangle model that can be used to represent human activity (see Engeström, 1987), to analyse my result.

CHAT can, according to Engeström (2001), be summarized in five principles::
• an activity system is the unit of analysis,
• it has historicity,
• it has multi-voicedness,
• it views contradictions as sources of change and development, and
• it has the potential for expansive transformation.

These principles have guided my production and subsequent processing of the
empirical data. Even though this is a Swedish study, I believe that the question of participation for students with dyslexia within Higher Educaton, is universal and of great interest to many countries.

Method

Due to lack of previous Swedish research, I made an explorative, descriptive study. By going through political and public documents I wanted to depict the historical development in higher education, of students with disabilities in general, and students with dyslexia in particular. The survey was used as a background for understanding the current situation. Then, to answer my research questions, I wanted to listen to some of the voices within the higher-education institutions. In order to do this, I sent a questionnaire to all co-ordinators for students with disabilities at Swedish higher-education institutions; I conducted focus-group interviews with university teachers, and made individual interviews with students with dyslexia. The data were analysed within a CHAT activity system (Engeström, 1987) were the actions within the activity system focused on giving students with dyslexia education. The actions were conducted in various communities of practice or working spheres (González & Mark, 2004). The working spheres of coordinators for students with disabilities and for university teachers were first analysed as separate sub activities. In the final analysis and discussion, the subsystems were placed in the main activity system.

Expected Outcomes

The analysing was made with CHAT. The following is part of the result from the collected data. The historical survey showed a development regarding students with dyslexia in higher education, were they went from being totally absent in the beginning of the 20th century to being more and more visible in public documents, and at the beginning of the new millennium, it was decreed that higher-education institutions should work actively to diversify the student population. The interviews with university teachers showed that the teachers believed that they treated students with disabilities in a professional manner, but emphasised that they can only give consideration to students who notify them of their disability. The teachers did not find dyslexia to be a problem for studies at university level. The interviews with students with dyslexia showed that for some of them, part of their difficulties were due to the fact that they did not get a proper diagnosis and adequate support until they were adolescents or adults. Some of the students were using, or had at least tested, assistive technology. They mostly appreciated receiving the course literature as audio-books.

References

Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by Expanding: An Activity - Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research. Helsinki: Orienta Konsultit. Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work. 14(1): 133-156. Engeström, Y. (2008). Enriching activity theory without shortcuts. Interacting with Computers. 20(2): 256-259 González, V.M.& Mark, G. (2004). "Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness": managing multiple working spheres. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems archive, Vienna, Austria. New York:ACM. Lyon, G.R., Shaywitz, S.E.& Shaywitz, B.A. (2003). A Definition of Dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia. 53: 1-15. Leontiev, A. (1977/1986). Verksamhet, medvetande, personlighet. Moskva: Progress Moskva/ Fram Göteborg. Vygotskij, L.S. (1934/1999). Tänkande och språk. Göteborg: Daidalos AB. Björn Milrad, M. (2010). Studenter med läs- och skrivsvårigheter som deltagare i högre utbildning. Doctoral thesis. Linnéuniversitetet. Växjö: Linnaeus University Press.

Author Information

Marianne Björn Milrad (presenting / submitting)

Linnaeus University

School of Education, Psychology and Sport Science

Växjö

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.