My action research is about promoting a positive attitude towards neurodivergence in Fashion Contour students who are affected by it. The reason why I am focusing on this category of students is that we have noticed the percentage of dyslexic students in Contour is higher than other fashion courses, so it is particularly important for us that students feel comfortable with their diagnosis.
There has been a number of instances in my 4.5 years of lecturing on this course that have stuck with me and were the catalyst of this project:
- On welcome day with year one freshers, a student waited for others to leave at the end of the session and wanted to speak to the Course Leader. She then proceeded to tell her, in tears, that she was dyslexic. It was obvious her dyslexia was source of anxiety and that she was worried how it would have affected at university. The CL’s response was that many students, and lecturers too, on the course are dyslexic and that she was right at home.
- Another student, told us that she had always felt different in school because of her dyslexia, but since joining the Contour course, where so many other students have it, she feels normal.
- I once discussed with a student the possibility of her having ADHD. She responded she probably had it, and her mum was convinced about it, but she never sought a diagnosis because she didn’t see the point in labelling herself.
- One student was failing her exams, and would have benefitted from academic support and an ISA, but didn’t want to be labelled because of how it had made her feel in school, so she had not disclosed her disability. She was also aggravated by the idea of being considered disabled and having to contact the disability team.
My personal experience of late diagnosis (Dyslexia and ADHD at 50) was instigated by reflection on these instances and research that nurtured a deeper understanding of the conditions and realisation of my characteristics. I was also affected by “skill regression”, a side effect of acceptance, where the need to mask and “keep up” is no longer strong enough to support the skills (personal or professional) once mastered, resuting in poor performance.
Whilst I am not a specialist and I am very much in the process of learning about myslef, like many of our students probably are, I feel that being a neurodivergent lecturer puts me in a position to help reframe the perception of neurodivergence in our field to make the whole experience more positive.
Social Media has helped me view neurodivergence as a fantastic new world to explore, full of opportunities and optimism, reframed as a “cool” thing. So, whilst I am not inclined to simplify the matter, I think there is an emerging new attitude that can be drawn on to turn neurodivergence into a positive and empowering characteristic, and this research should be focused on the students experience and how they relate to a world created for neurotypical individuals.