Mellan fakticitet och projekt : läs- och skrivsvårigheter och strävan att övervinna dem

Abstract

In today’s society we regard it as a human right to be literate and literacy abilities are regarded as crucial; as a learning tool in education, and at work as a natural part of daily routines. We also need, as members of a democratic society, to keep ourselves informed and to be able to participate in and exert an influence upon the democratic process. Finally, we read and write for our own pleasure, growth and development. Since these abilities are understood to be so important, much attention is paid to them in schools, higher education, and in general public debate. Dyslexia is a well-known phenomenon and help and assistance is offered to pupils and students who experience difficulties with reading and writing. However, those who do not learn to read and write like other people have to work much harder and often with very little pay-off for their endeavours. This study investigates how people with reading and writing difficulties experience their difficulties and how they strive to overcome them. Nine persons, ranging in age from eight to 53, participated in the study over a period of 18 months. The main method of data production has been semi-structured interviews. The study has a phenomenological lifeworld approach, which indicates that subject and world are regarded an inseparable whole. Facticity, as it is understood in this study, is constituted by the world into which we are born, with its historical and cultural traditions, but also by the situation in which we find ourselves; as man or woman, poor or rich, young or old. We finally carry our facticity in our own lived bodies with its prerequisites for our encounters with the world. Projects, in this study, refer to the subject’s ability to transcend facticity, to learn, to go beyond the given and to create something new. The results show that people with reading and writing difficulties actively strive to overcome their difficulties, in accordance with their own abilities and conditions. The study also shows that the struggle with literacy tells a person who she is but, at the same time, the way she looks at herself also affects the ways in which she tackles literacy problems. The encounter is mutually dependent on the subject and the world. Literacy in today’s society appears to be an existential issue, although the nature of this issue differs in different periods of life. The participants learn in meaningful situations, which involve three aspects of meaning: learning as a joint venture, learning an interesting content and learning for one’s own sake. Lived time and lived space are also shown to be of great importance. To be able to learn, people build shelters around themselves. They also need to be permitted their own time to be able to learn.