The role of identity in disabled students learning

1
The role of identity in disabled students
learning

• Hazel Roberts
• and
• Jan Georgeson

2
Learning and identity

• Many of the choices disabled students made about
  teaching and learning - particularly in relation
  to accessing support and reasonable adjustments -
  were underpinned by the complex and changing ways
  in which they positioned themselves in relation
  to disability

3
Asking about identity and disability

• What does the word disability mean to you?
• Do you consider yourself to be disabled?
• If not, how do you feel about taking on the label
  of disabled student?
• Do you see the label of disability positively, as
  something you have utilised to enable you to
  access support, or is it more something you have
  had to accept even if you think it does not apply
  to you?
• From Year 2 first interview schedule

4
Perceptions of the mainstream

• Watson (2002) found that the disabled people
  downplayed their impairments as they sought a
  mainstream identity
• Our students tended to situate the student
  identity in relation to a perceived mainstream,
  centred around drinking activities
• For me it wasnt the usual student get drunk
  and party because I just dont do that, its not
  me. (Brandon)
• You go out and get hammered standard, Id have
  thought, as any freshers week I spent a lot of
  time in the pub" (Ben)
• Some disabled students were prevented from
  accessing this mainstream student identity e.g.
  freshers events too crowded for a wheelchair user
  or clubs that used strobe lighting

5
Perceptions of disability

• Students tended to perceive disability in the
  abstract as permanent, physical and extreme
• Disability, in my eyes is more sort of being in
  a wheelchair or sort of, not being able to speak,
  something that sort of stops you from doing
  things on a day to day basis, that a normal
  person would be able to do (Dermot)
• A lot of peoples interpretation of disabled is
  not being able to walk, being in a wheelchair or
  being a cripple (Cara)

6
Disability and identity I

• For Low (1996) and Goode (2007), disabled
  students primarily seek to negotiate a
  non-disabled identity in order to be seen as a
  normal student
• I still get emails from the Disability Office or
  register with disability something . I kind of
  think I am not disabled (Jean)
• I dont like it I have to say, its not something
  that I feel very comfortable with. I have never
  classified myself as disabled. If I was going to
  label it would be diabetic (Kathryn)

7
Dyslexic students and disability

• I guess in some ways dyslexia is a disability but
  I dont think it is necessarily an appropriate
  term for it. Partly because it is not, it is not
  most peoples ideas of disability. Dyslexia
  isnt what is seen as being disabled. (James,
  dyslexia)
• I dont particularly mind it label of disabled
  student but I dont sort of think its really
  appropriate for, kind of, for dyslexics,
  personally, because theyre not exactly that
  disabled, you know. (Darren, dyslexia)

8
Disability and identity II

• However, for other students disability played a
  part in identity
• It is part of me, it is not my defining
  characteristic (Andrew)
• I wouldnt like to think of it as my main
  identityhopefully, it isnt a big glowing sort
  of thing that says Ive got epilepsy just beware.
  I prefer to be thought of as a normal person
  (Dermot)

9
Declaring disability

• The students taking part in our study had all
  declared an impairment/ disability to their
  university
• Students wishing to access formal support must
  declare themselves as disabled (which may not
  reflect their own position), and then be assessed
  and categorised by the institution as disabled
• The rigidity of categories of disability may
  constrain students decisions about what
  information to pass on
• Students were more likely to feel positively
  about the label of disabled student when it was
  linked to support

10
Taking on the disabled label in order to access
support

• I do describe myself as a disabled student, when
  my mates and stuff askhow did you get this and
  how do you get the extra time and stuff, but
  thats not how I describe myself out of
  university (Duncan)
• It gives you access to all sorts of things
  because if you dont say Im disabled you dont
  get the support. You have to understand that you
  need the support in order to get where you want
  to be. Otherwise, if you dont have any support
  then you would find it impossible to do anything,
  like uni wise (Daisy)

11
Contrasting responses to support

• Individuals classified as having the same
  disability made different and contrasting
  responses to the same reasonable adjustment or
  special provision
• Some highly valued the equipment and other forms
  of support provided, while for others they were
  useless luxuries or an embarrassment
• Students were worried about fairness relative to
  their peers, as well as not wanting to be treated
  differently

12
Feeling different and being normal

• Dominant models of disability (medical, social)
  are predicated upon disability/ impairment as
  difference
• Generally students were very keen not to feel
  different, and often conceptualised difference as
  in binary opposition to being normal
• However, some students accepted the disability
  label but also saw themselves as normal

13
Disabled and normal?

• When Im ill, yeah, I would say Im classed as
  disabled but times like this, I think well Im
  just, like the next person so its, its really
  hard to balance the two I think its quite good
  actually, to see, that you can be classed as
  disabled, but still lead a perfectly, sort of,
  normal life (Dionne)
• I think in a sense there is a very fine line
  between being disabled and being for want of a
  better word normal if you know what I mean
  (Andrew)

14
Difference as variation with normal limits?

• We all have strands and areas of development
  that can be worked on (Jean)
• We have all got things we can and cant do
  (Andrew)
• Me personally, I dont like that word
  disability because it means that I have limits,
  even though I do, but so does everyone else
  without a disability. So therefore its like,
  well, why arent they tagged with something?
  (Billy)

15
The dilemmas of disclosure I

• Disclosure may mean being treated differently
  by staff and other students, particularly when it
  leads to visible forms of reasonable adjustment.
• Trade off between the predicted stigma
  associated with disclosure and the necessity of
  accessing learning support
• Decisions may be particularly difficult for
  students with an unseen disability or where their
  impairment is seen by themselves or others as
  borderline

16
The dilemmas of disclosure II

• However, for some students disclosure was
  unproblematic
• Interviewer Did you have any concerns about
  disclosure?
• Ben No, not really. It was more the fact that I
  knew there would be help available if I did, so I
  thought I might as well
• Ive lived with it so long, you dont hide it
  any more (Dionne)

17
Previous educational experiences

• It was the seventies then and basically they
  took us out of the class, put us on tables
  outside in the corridor - All glass doors so all
  the kids could see that we were separate from
  them - Everybody walking past so that we were all
  disturbed and everything
• It was totally wrong, which obviously I know
  now because at that time they called it
  remedial education, so we got the label of rem
  really which stuck with me for many many years
  that has more of a detrimental effect on you than
  the lack of the education because its such a big
  handle to take through school (Barry)

18
Reflections

• The role of the project in student accounts
• Having to fit identity/ impairment to rigid
  institutional categories may discourage
  disclosure and support take up
• We argue for a move from disabled students as
  passive recipients towards a more universal
  expectation that any student might access advice
  and support with learning
• I just felt she assumed things, youre dyslexic
  so you will need this, this, this and this
  (Jean)
• This move will lessen the effect of the
  disabled label, as the concept of learning
  support becomes mainstream

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Questions/Comments?
20
References

• Goode, J. (2007) Managing disability early
  experiences of university students with
  disabilities. Disability Society, 22 (1), 35 -
  48
• Low, J. (1996) Negotiating Identities,
  Negotiating Environments an interpretation of
  the experiences of students with disabilities.
  Disability Society, 11 (2), 235 - 248
• Watson, N. (2002). Well, I know this is going to
  sound very strange to you, but I don't see myself
  as a disabled person identity and disability.
  Disability Society, 17 (5), 509 - 527.