ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, OXFORD

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: HISTORY OF DYSLEXIA

Further particulars

St John’s College invites applications invited for a 12-month post of Research Assistant at St John’s College, University of Oxford. The post is full-time and fixed-term, and involves working on the research project, The History of Dyslexia. The project is funded by the University of Oxford’s John Fell Fund and Wellcome Trust ISSF, and by St John’s College’s Meeting of Minds Fund. The project team is Professor William Whyte andProfessor Kate Nation, with Professor Maggie Snowling, Dr Philip Kirby, Professor Robert Evans and Ms Denise Cripps.The appointee will take up the post on October 1st2017 or as soon as possible thereafter.

St John’s College

Established in 1555 as a constituent college of the University of Oxford, St John’s College fosters excellence in education and research. It is one of the largest among Oxford Colleges and nearly every subject studied at the University has its representation. Today, St John's is home to approximately 390 undergraduates, 250 graduate students,100fellows and 25 College lecturers. A vibrant international community, it fosters intellectual rigour, creativity, and independence in its students, teachers, and researchers. The College supports a range of research activities including discussions, seminars, workshops, public lectures and visiting scholar schemes, as well as the Research Centre, which particularly emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches. While scholarly publication is naturally at the heart of our research endeavours, the fellowship is also committed to informing policy and public debate, and to teaching that is informed by research findings.

The St John's College Research Centre was set up by the Governing Body of St John's College in 2001. Its aim is to provide focus and support for the College's intellectual and academic life as it already exists and to support new research, particularly of an interdisciplinary nature which might otherwise be unfunded: and to enhance the College's role in promoting first-class innovative research in the University of Oxford and the academic community at large. It supports a balanced mixture of research in science and humanities.

For further information about the College and the Research Centre, please visit our web-site:

The project

Dyslexia is a neuro-developmental disorder – and a very common one. It is estimated that onein ten of us has some form of dyslexia, and about four per cent of the population is veryseverely affected. Dyslexia primarily affects learning to read but much else as well; it frequentlyco-occurs with other disorders and it can have a significant impact not only on educationalattainments but also career opportunities and ultimately adult well-being. As a result dyslexia isthe subject of intensive research by psychologists and educationalists. It has not, however,been studied by historians.

Yet dyslexia has a history, even if it is one that has yet to be told. The first paper was publishedin the British Medical Journal in 1896, and in the last fifty years there have been significantadvances both in understanding its causes and in finding ways of remediating it. At the sametime, people with dyslexia – and, still more, the parents of children who are dyslexic – havecampaigned for better treatment. Both these trends have shaped public policy and practice inschools. There is also a history to be written about the experience of being dyslexic.

Focusingon the history of dyslexia in Britain, the project consists of four strands:

  1. The science of reading

Developing a definition of dyslexia took decades; determining the causes of dyslexia is anongoing project. No one has as yet offered an authoritative account of these scientific debates,nor of the institutions which did so much work to put dyslexia on the map.

  1. The politics of dyslexia

Scientists and campaigners struggled to make government take dyslexia seriously. It was notuntil 1994, for instance, that the Department of Education officially acknowledged its existence.The Rose Report, commissioned by government and published in 2009, contains the mostrecent guidance but it has not led to widespread policy change. This strand explores whatwas at stake in these struggles.

  1. Everyday dyslexia

In writing the history of a neuro-developmental disorder it is easy to ignore the voices of thosewith the condition in favour of experts and officials. This strand explores the everydayexperience of dyslexia and also how dyslexic people and their families came to understand thesubject.

This role will be principally concerned with the cataloguing, expansion and analysis (in keeping with the three themes above) of the project’s fourth strand:

  1. UK Dyslexia Archive

Underlying each of these project strands is the production and curation of a comprehensive and wide-ranging archive. To this end, the project has created the UK Dyslexia Archive – a small, but growing repository of major scientific papers and classic books, records from key centres (e.g. the Word Blind Centre, one of the first organisations in the country to address the condition), biographies of key figures and education policy documents, as well as a series of oral histories conducted with key actors in the history of dyslexia in the UK. To date, we have compiled nearly 20, but intend to double this number within the tenure of the post. Many of these pioneers are either retired or retiring, giving urgency to the archive’s compilation.

The main task of the appointee will be the expansion of the current archive, but also its furtherance in new directions, including through the use of crowdsourcing to collect not only the testimonies of elites in the field of dyslexia, but also the voices of those who have lived with dyslexia in their everyday lives, which have hitherto gone unheard.

The candidate will be expected to work closely with Professor William Whyte, Professor Kate Nation and the rest of the team (Professor Maggie Snowling and Dr Philip Kirby), across both the Faculty of History and Department of Experimental Psychology. They will also work with the project’s wider contributors, including educationalists, practitioners and project consultants: Regius Professor Robert Evans emeritus, Mr Steve Chinn and Ms Denise Cripps, amongst others.

Further details can be found at and the project is outlined in greater depth at Informal enquiries may be addressed to William Whyte ()

Duties

The principal duty of the appointee will be the expansion of the current archive, but also its furtherance in new directions, including through the use of crowdsourcing to collect not only the testimonies of elites in the field of dyslexia, but also the voices of those who have lived with dyslexia in their everyday lives, which have hitherto gone unheard.

Principal responsibilities

  1. To catalogue, curate and digitise the existing archive, making it available to the project’s researchers and others;
  2. To expand the existing archive through proactive engagement with specialist schools, dyslexia organisations and other relevant bodies;
  3. To use the project website, social media and innovative crowdsourcing to collect testimonies from people on their everyday experiences of dyslexia;
  4. To assist in the organisation of a major conference on dyslexia to be held during the later stages of the post.

Further responsibilities

  1. To contribute to the dissemination of project research, through academic and non-academic publications and presentations;
  2. To develop original approaches to the analysis of materials contained within the UK Dyslexia Archive;
  3. To continue existing work being undertaken for the UK Dyslexia Archive, including interviews with key actors in the history of dyslexia and the transcription of interviews;
  4. To connect with other researchers in the field, building a network of expertise from which the project can draw.

Selection criteria

Candidates will be assessed in relation to the following selection criteria:

ESSENTIAL

  1. Graduate qualification in history, or in a field of humanities or social science relevant to the project;
  2. Previous experience of having worked with archival resources and/ or undertaking a crowdsourcing project;
  3. Enthusiasm for, and commitment to, research on the history of education in the UK, especially the history of special educational needs;
  4. Ability to work accurately and independently in the day-to-day running of the research project;
  5. Excellent communication skills, in both writing and speaking. Colloquial command of English to native-speaker standard;
  6. Ability to communicate academic research to a broader audience and interest in making links between research, policy and practice;
  7. Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, in a collaborative and supportive fashion.

DESIRABLE

  1. PhD in history, or in a field of humanities or social science relevant to the project;
  2. Familiarity with current trends in education policy, and in academic debates around specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia;
  3. An emerging track record of academic publications, commensurate with the stage of the applicant’s career.

Terms and Conditions of Employment

Salary: Appointment will be at Grade 7 of the University’s salary scale, £31,076 - £38,183 per annum.The appointment will be made on the scale according to experience.

Holidays: Annual leave entitlement is 30 days, to include 5 fixed days to be taken at Christmas, plus 8 public holidays. The holiday year begins on 1 January and ends on 31 December. All leave must be approved in advance.

Meals:Full dining rights throughout the period of appointment will be offered.

College gym: The postholderwill be entitled to lunch and dinner in the Senior Common Room when the kitchen is open.

Probationary and notice periods: The appointment is subject to satisfactory completion of a three-month probationary period, during which the notice period will be one month on either side.

Application procedure

There is no application form. Candidates should email the following documents as a single pdf to :

  1. A covering letter of no more that 1-2 pages;
  2. a CV with details of qualifications and experience;
  3. a statement of current research interests and publications;

Candidates must also provide the names of two academic referees who should be asked to email their references to the same address. Both applications and references should reach the College no later than noon on Friday 18th August 2017. Late applications will not be accepted.

Candidates are encouraged to include a completed equal opportunitiesmonitoring form with their application. Your information will not form part of the selection process and will not be disclosed to the selection panel. Please send this electronically as a separate document to .

Interviews will take place during the first half of September.

Right to work in the UK

The appointment will be subject to the provision of proof of the right to work in the UK. This role will not attract sufficient points to obtain a sponsored tier 2 visa under the points based immigration system, however applications are welcome from candidates who don’t currently have the right to work in the UK, but who would be eligible to obtain a visa via another route.

Data protection

All data supplied by applicants will be used only for the purposes of determining their suitability for the post, and will be held in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the College’s Data Protection Policy and recruitment monitoring process.

Equal Opportunities

The policy and practice of the College requires that all staff are afforded equal opportunities within employment and that entry into employment with the College and progression within employment will be determined only by personal merit and the application of criteria which are related to the duties of each particular post and the relevant salary structure. In all cases, ability to perform the job will be the primary consideration. Subject to statutory provisions, no applicant or member of staff will be treated less favourably than another because of his or her sex, marital status, sexual orientation, racial group, age, disability or religion and belief.

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