Dyslexia: Naming pedagogic difference in the art school, a cultural studies perspective.

This chapter aims to unpack the way in which knowledge about dyslexia is developing in the UK, within the context of the 2010 Equality Act. This marked something of a watershed for higher education (HE) educators in relation to specifc learning diffculties (SpLD) like dyslexia. The chapter uses several transdisciplinary (Osborne, 2015) perspectives to propose, on the one hand, a less binary understanding of dyslexic difference and, on the other, more productive engagements with the disability label (Goodley, 2011, 2015), in line with the social model of disability (Oliver, 1990, 2013). It advocates a cultural studies approach, which offers useful ways of thinking about dyslexia: frst, it provides an opportunity to develop critical perspectives on the biomedical ‘systems of truth’ (Foucault, 1991: 23), which inform dominant discourses of dyslexia; second, it provides an interdisciplinary location for the coming together of a range of perspectives that are relevant to a critical engagement with dyslexia research and pedagogy; and third, it is particularly appropriate in a UK HE art and design educational context because of the infuence of cultural studies on the content of the ‘contextual studies’ which forms a signifcant part of most undergraduate art and design courses.