Abstract
“I just wish that when the teacher says, ‘Now take out your books,’ and the others start reading, I could do the same. Instead, I have to take out my computer, start the program, and get it to read aloud. I just wish I was normal.” (Sebastian, 14-year-old with dyslexia).
Most research on dyslexia is grounded in various biological or psychological perspectives, which risks individualising ‘the problem’ and focusing on the individual as the target for diagnosis and intervention. This risk is present not only in research but also in practice, as support for dyslexia within the educational system is often individualised, aiming to help students adapt to existing educational practices (e.g., with technical aids) rather than the other way around. Additionally, most dyslexia research is quantitative and/or conducted with adults, often excluding the voices of children and young people.
In this paper, I examine how societal and school assumptions, norms, and practices create institutional barriers that restrict the participation and everyday lives of young people with dyslexia. The paper’s empirical basis is a collaborative and ethnographically inspired Ph.D. project in which I explore the knowledge of young people with dyslexia in Denmark. I follow 15 young people (aged 13-17) with dyslexia, studying their everyday lives and school experiences. The presentation aims to highlight how perspectives within critical disability studies can offer not only a theoretical framework for rethinking dyslexia but also a reframing of practices, teaching, and support based on the knowledge of young people. Thus, I wish to contribute to the work of important scholars who have aimed to understand dyslexia not as an impairment in reading and writing, but as a result of disabling barriers and ‘lexist’ views in our highly literate society and educational system (Riddick, 2001; Macdonald, 2009, 2019; Collinson, 2022).
Most research on dyslexia is grounded in various biological or psychological perspectives, which risks individualising ‘the problem’ and focusing on the individual as the target for diagnosis and intervention. This risk is present not only in research but also in practice, as support for dyslexia within the educational system is often individualised, aiming to help students adapt to existing educational practices (e.g., with technical aids) rather than the other way around. Additionally, most dyslexia research is quantitative and/or conducted with adults, often excluding the voices of children and young people.
In this paper, I examine how societal and school assumptions, norms, and practices create institutional barriers that restrict the participation and everyday lives of young people with dyslexia. The paper’s empirical basis is a collaborative and ethnographically inspired Ph.D. project in which I explore the knowledge of young people with dyslexia in Denmark. I follow 15 young people (aged 13-17) with dyslexia, studying their everyday lives and school experiences. The presentation aims to highlight how perspectives within critical disability studies can offer not only a theoretical framework for rethinking dyslexia but also a reframing of practices, teaching, and support based on the knowledge of young people. Thus, I wish to contribute to the work of important scholars who have aimed to understand dyslexia not as an impairment in reading and writing, but as a result of disabling barriers and ‘lexist’ views in our highly literate society and educational system (Riddick, 2001; Macdonald, 2009, 2019; Collinson, 2022).
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Publikationsdato | 7 maj 2025 |
| Status | Udgivet - 7 maj 2025 |
| Begivenhed | 17th biennal Nordic Network on Disability Research Conference: Disability in Local and Global Contexts - University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Varighed: 7 maj 2025 → 9 maj 2025 Konferencens nummer: 17 https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/nndr-2025 |
Konference
| Konference | 17th biennal Nordic Network on Disability Research Conference |
|---|---|
| Nummer | 17 |
| Lokation | University of Helsinki |
| Land/Område | Finland |
| By | Helsinki |
| Periode | 07/05/2025 → 09/05/2025 |
| Andet | Disability and inequality experiences are embodied, and consequently too often individualised and normalised. When critically studying disability in a context, local and global structural barriers finally come to the surface of inquiry. Yet, we have often tried to understand the social phenomenon of disability in a local context, even though global issues increasingly impact on the phenomenon. In recent years, we slowly started to understand the impact of global issues such as climate change, pandemic, digitalisation, war and migration that are intertwined to the social fabric to complicate the phenomenon of disability in a local context. Furthermore, it could be argued that these global challenges have profoundly questioned the binary of local/global based on spatial divisions following nation state or continental borderlines. At the same time as these global challenges demand international collaboration, we have witnessed a rise in nationalist political movements that return to harsh division of local from global. Against these ongoing changes and challenges, it is critical to ask how should disability studies approach changing relations of the local and global. If we consider disability as a contextualised phenomenon, how do these changes impact our understanding of/approach to disability? What kind of new research questions are unfolding from these changes? What does contextual sensitivity/rigorousness mean and require from disability scholars? <br/><br/>The NNDR2025 conference, Disability in local and global contexts, invites scholars, activists, decision makers, NGOs, private sector actors, and those interested in disability in local and global contexts to encounter each other and deepen our understanding of disability both locally and globally. <br/> |
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