This research is centred on dyslexia tutorials in higher education; dyslexia tutorials are sessions offered to higher education students who have been assessed as having a specific learning disability. The purpose of this research is to explore how tutors and students experience the dyslexia tutorial in higher education. I take a critical pedagogy of space approach, informed by disability studies to explore the dyslexia tutorial and the structures that influence how the dyslexia tutorial is constructed. Specifically, it seeks to address the following questions 1, How do students and tutors experience and understand the tutorial space? 2, How are the tutorials navigated by students and tutors, in terms of power dynamics,
negotiation and resistance? 3, What is the influence of the space on the tutors and students’ journey?
In my methodology, I utilised a critical realism ontology and a constructivist epistemology. The methods were in-depth interviews and interpersonal process recall observations of recorded teaching sessions to allow for an exploration of the students’ and tutors’ experience of the tutorials. Four tutor participants and four student participants were recruited for the interviews, and two participants were recruited for the interpersonal process recall sessions, one tutor and one student participant. The student participants are students currently on degrees, who identify as being dyslexic and who access dyslexia tutorials. The students self-selected and were recruited via posters advertising the project. The tutors were recruited via an email to the Association of Dyslexia Specialists in Higher Education, via JiscMail. The criteria were that they were qualified dyslexia tutors, currently working in higher education. Finally, the analysis tool was framework analysis, a form of thematic analysis.
My findings are:
1, students and tutors experience the space differently; tutors align the space with their professional identity and relationship with the institution where they worked. Students, in contrast, experienced the space in relation to their department, their lived experience of dyslexia, and their previous educational experience.
2, initially, the sessions reproduce traditional tutor-student power dynamics, but these become more equalised as the tutors and students progress through the sessions. The tutorials aim to support students to become acculturated into the academic practices of their department, develop authority over writing, and develop critical thinking skills
3, whilst tutors and students view the purpose of the sessions differently, they are in alignment in their view of taking an assignment-based approach and working to develop an academic identity.
4, both students and tutors recognise the tension between the dyslexia tutorials being a third space, and the influence of the first space on the dyslexia tutorial.
