Master thesis

DYSLEXIA, AWARENESS AND DISCRIMINATORY POTENTIAL

Perceptions of dyslexia among teachers in primary schools in Prishtina

Author: Qefsere Jusufi

Supervisor: Esther Friedman,
Agneta Hedblom
Examiner: Kerstin Gynnersted
Spring term: 2014
Course: 4SA70E
ABSTRACT

Tittle Dyslexia, awareness and discriminatory

potential: Perceptions of dyslexia among
teachers in primary schools in Prishtina

Author Qefsere Jusufi

Study program International Master Program in Social Work

Tutor Esther Friedman/Agneta Hedblom

Examiner Kerstin Gynnersted

Key words Dyslexia, teachers awareness, children with

dyslexia, normalization/SRV, attribution
theory.

Background
The most common reading disability is dyslexia. This reading disability encompasses various
symptoms such as poor spelling outcomes, reading fluency and difficulties in expressing
oneself. Failur to diagnose children coping with dyslexia is a potential risk of discrimination
and social exclusion.
Aim
The aim of this Master thesis is to explore if the primary school teachers in Prishtina are
conscious of the term dyslexia. This provides a better understanding of teacher’s perceptions
about dyslexia and to which extent they are aware of it. An additional purpose is to
investigate teachers’ awareness of their responsibilities to provide equal opportunities for
these children.
Method
A qualitative research, using an open-ended and semi-structured questionnaire had been
utilized to collect data about teacher’s awareness and knowledge concerning dyslexia and its
issues. The texts provided by the surveys were subjected to thematic analysis.
Result
The results of the presented qualitative research helped to understand the awareness of the
primary teachers in Prishtina concerning the term dyslexia. The findings showed that most of
the teachers heard about dyslexia, but demonstrated clear misconceptions of what dyslexia is.
Even though the majority of teachers had misconception of dyslexia, more than half of them
considered their role as very important to provide equal opportunities for children coping with
dyslexia.
Conclusion
One of the significant findings to emerge from this thesis is that the primary teacher's of
Prishtina have misconceptions about dyslexia. The results of this study support the idea that
due to the lack of knowledge among teachers about dyslexia, children coping with dyslexia
might be at risk of discrimination and exclusion comparing to other children.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my appreciation to the people, who helped and supported me through
this work.

First of all, I would like to thank my first supervisor Esther Friedman, without whom it would
be almost impossible to write the beginning of this thesis. Second, I will like to give my
appreciation to my second supervisor Agneta Hedblom who supported me through the ending
of the thesis. Their professional knowledge, support, advices, patient and motivation made me
experience this hard period more easily. I would like also to thank my examiner Kersin
Gynnersted for helping and being patient with us throughout the studies.

My acknowledgment goes to the people who voulenteered to take part of my empirical

research: my two special sisters, cousin and my friend who helped me deliver the surveys to
the schools that I wanted to be part of this study. Without their help, it would be next to
impossible to fulfill my empirical research.

I would like to express my appreciation to the teachers who were willing and motivated to be
part of this work. Without their answers, my study would be not possible and would have no
meaning. Special thanks go to the four Primary Schools of Prishtina who made my empirical
research go smoothly.

I would also like to thank my parents, sisters and my one and only brother who believed in me
and helped me throughout my life to achieve my goals. Last but not least I would like to give
my sincere appreciations to my family, my husband and my little daughter. My husband for
supporting me in everything and my daughter for being such an angel.

Qefsere Jusufi
[email protected]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 1
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 The choice of the field of study ........................................................................................ 2
2. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 The definition of dyslexia ................................................................................................ 4
2.2 The relation between dyslexia and measurement of intelligence quantity (IQ) ............... 6
2.3 Early identification of dyslexia ........................................................................................ 6
2.4 Misconceptions concerning dyslexia ............................................................................... 7
2.5 Background on teachers training (education) in Kosovo ................................................. 8
2.6 Elementary and high school education in Prishtina ......................................................... 8
2.7 Kosovo and children with disabilities .............................................................................. 9
2.8 Research on Children with Reading Disabilities in Kosovo ............................................ 9
2.9 The legislation on the rights of children with disabilities ................................................ 9
3. DEFINITION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM............................................................... 11
4. AIM ...................................................................................................................................... 12
5. THEORETICAL FRAME OF REFERENCE...................................................................... 13
6. METHOD ............................................................................................................................. 16
6.1 Instrument....................................................................................................................... 17
6.2 Informants/subjects ........................................................................................................ 17
6.3 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 18
6.4 Research ethical considerations ..................................................................................... 19
7. RESULT ............................................................................................................................... 21
7.1 “I understood that dyslexia is a disease” ...................................................................... 21
7.2 “According to my experience, dyslexic children are more self-withdrawn if compared to
other children…” ................................................................................................................. 22
7.3 “There are different causes like: born with a hole in mouth palate, small tongue, nose
inflammation…” ................................................................................................................... 23
7.4 “I know that it can be treated” ...................................................................................... 23
7.5 “I don’t think there is an advantage for these children. Whereas for disadvantages
there are a lot” ..................................................................................................................... 24
7.6 “Dyslexic children often look like they are more creative and they perform better in
arts” ..................................................................................................................................... 25
7.7 “They need more care and better treatment” ................................................................ 25
7.8 “No I did not have any courses for children with special needs” ................................. 26
7.9 “It can be said that after the family, the teacher has a big role to the students” .......... 26
7.10 The school’s role of children with dyslexia .................................................................. 27
8. DISSCUSION ...................................................................................................................... 30
8.1 Discussion of methods ................................................................................................... 30
8.2 Discussion of results....................................................................................................... 31
8.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 35
REFERENCES
Appendix 1. Open-ended questionarie
Appendix 2. Letters to teachers and director
1. INTRODUCTION  
“A teacher sent the following note home with a six-year-old boy: “He is too stupid to learn.”
That boy was Thomas A. Edison”. Thomas A. Edison

This Master Thesis analyses the awareness of the term dyslexia as a reading difficulty among
the primary school teachers in Prishtina, Kosova. The empirical research focuses on the
investigation of awareness of primary school teachers concerning the term dyslexia. The goal
of the research is to find out if the teachers are aware of the term dyslexia, and understand
their perception about dyslexia and children with dyslexia. There is no previous research
concerning the awareness of primary school teachers for dyslexia in Prishtina nor Kosovo.
The lack of information by teachers about this impairment and the different issues it presents
could potentially hinder normal educational and psychological development of children
coping with dyslexia. These children could be unintentionally discriminated and not included
equally in class, which can cause social problems in their later life. Knowing that education
has a significant impact upon quality of life of a person, the lack of a proper education in
children with dyslexia may hinder their development and therefore result in their exclusion in
the society. The lack of knowledge concerning dyslexia threatens the success in schools,
employment and may cause social segregation (EDA, 2013). Therefore the knowledge of
teachers concerning dyslexia is of high importance for these children to have a better life.
This research can also contribute in the inclusion process of children coping with dyslexia in
mainstream school. Teachers with up-to-date knowledge of dyslexia can be of good help for
children who face such a challenge.

After the war of 1999 in Kosovo, there has been an increased recognition for children with
disabilities and their needs (Kosova Education Center, KEC, 2006). Considerable actions took
place in an effort to promote equality for all citizens and prevention of exclusion, in the
Kosovar education system (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2007). Despite
the investment, Kosovo is far behind in comparison to affluent countries in understanding
children’s needs and their inclusion in the education system (Ministry of Education, Science
and Technology, 2007).

Dyslexia is the most common reading disability (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004; Bishop &
League, 2006; IDA, 2012). Fifteen to twenty percent of the population copes with different
symptoms of dyslexia, such as poor spelling, reading fluency and difficulties in expressing
themselves (IDA, 2012; LD Online, 2007; Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003). “The disorder
has lifelong persistence, reading retardation being merely one of its manifestations” (Ramus,
et al., 2003, p. 841). These difficulties in spelling and fluent word recognition that correlate to
poor phonological processing, characterize dyslexia as a specific learning difficulty (IDA,
2008; Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2005; Snowling, et al 2011).
The intelligence remains not affected as people with dyslexia often can have talents in
different fields such as art, design, computer science, music, sales and mechanics. (IDA,
2012; Shaywitz, 2003).

In the past years, there has been an extensive recognition of specific learning difficulties.
While the academic apprehension of these learning and reading difficulties increased, the
standards and quality of professional practice and intervention are unclear (Kirby, Davues, &
Bryan, 2005). According to various research studies done in UK and USA, there is a lack of
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awareness and clear misconception among teachers relating the specific learning difficulty
called dyslexia (Roper, 2010; Reid, 2005b; Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005). This lack of
awareness among teachers might obstruct understanding of the children’s needs and lead to
frustration and anxiety (Reid, 2005b).

This presented master thesis consists of a conducted qualitative research in the field of
dyslexia and teachers’ awareness of it. Initially it gives the reader a short introduction to the
presented study and its choice. Literature review discusses the background on the reading
impairment. Through my work, the reader will get the opportunity to get familiar with the
term dyslexia and provide up-to-date information of this field, its definition and
manifestations.

Since there is limited prior research concerning children coping with dyslexia in Kosovo, I
will provide information concerning children with disabilities in Kosovo and their legal rights
for school education. This information is a relevant contextual background in qualitative
methods.

I will account of the purpose of the study, the research questions and methods. I deliver a
thorough description of the results of the empirical research and discuss them further. This
study will emphasize the participants perspectives and knowledge regarding dyslexia.

1.2 The choice of the field of study

Various reasons determined my choice of investigating the awareness of dyslexia among
primary school teachers in Prishtina. The first reason is my academic curiosity and interest
within the field of children with disabilities and their right of social inclusion. My enthusiasm
about understanding the issues concerning the children with disabilities, increased during my
studies of International Social Work program at Linnaeus University. Getting familiar with
Swedish Welfare system, as a fruitful example for many developing countries, and knowing
the poor conditions in Kosovo, especially when it comes to children with disabilities,
motivated me to study the awareness of teachers concerning dyslexia in children.

The poor conditions in Kosovo, and the lack of research studies concerning disabilities in
general and specifically learning disability known as dyslexia, call for various research
studies. Hardly any research has been carried out in Kosovo concerning children with
dyslexia. Only one research was conducted on children with dyslexia in Kosovo (Avdyli &
Cuetos, 2012). This research is relatively recent, and its purpose was to compare the reading
abilities between children coping with dyslexia and those not coping with dyslexia, in
Albaninan speaking population. Thus, a need of research studies concerning these children
and children with all kinds of disabilities in Kosovo is evident.

Parents and meaningful others are the primary subjects children would communicate. Another
affluent social agent with whom children interact, are school teachers. Since the pedagogues
have a significant role in children’s development, it is meaningful to learn more about
teachers awareness of the term dyslexia, and find out what knowledge do they possess
concerning this particular learning disability. Knowing the state of the education system in
Kosovo, made me curious to understand if the teachers are aware of the term dyslexia.

The issues that come with dyslexia can improve if awareness of dyslexia is increased.
"Without sufficient knowledge in this area, failure in school, employment, general
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communication impairments and social segregation are common threats, with well-known
consequences in the lives of those affected, their family members and society"(EDA, 2013
p.1). Nirje 1969, points out the importance of children with disabilities and their needs.
Normalization/ SRV is a main component in the field of learning difficulties (Yates et al.,
2008). Normalization suggests that people with learning difficulties should enjoy the good
things in life as close as other people in society (Walmsley, 2001). According to Nirje, 1966
having a normal life for children with disabilities same as other children is what
normalization principle strives for. This means that they should enjoy the good things in life
same as other people. It is crucial to let the children with disabilities find their own personal
abilities. It is very important to let them experience their personal qualities so they can build
their self-image. Whereas, dismissing and ignoring their personal qualities leads to stress,
unhappiness and confusion. “Childhood is a highly developmental period of great importance
for learning about one's own personal abilities and potentialities, for obtaining understanding
of oneself, and for building self-confidence that can serve as sound basis for life after the
school years" (Nirje 1969, p. 20). From this perspective, it can be claimed that the teachers
lack of knowledge concerning the children's needs in this case children with dyslexia, can
result in ignoring their needs and therefore children might end up being discriminated or
excluded. According to Reid, inclusion is a process that flourish over time and "depends on
the preparation and the foundation that have been put in place" (Reid, 2005a, p.100). Other
studies also agree that the principle of inclusion is for the schools to offer a proper
environment for children (Clark, Dyson & Millward 1995; Jenkinson, 1997). These
definitions recognize the effort that needs to be given to prepare conditions so that the
inclusion of these children can happen. Preparing the conditions for these children means
matching the educational needs of these children (Reid, 2005a). From this perspective
schools as institution should strive in progressing social inclusion by offering better
eviroment for these children. If the teachers are not aware of dyslexia it can obscure their
abilities as teachers to recognise the needs of these children. This lack of knowledge among
teachers is a social problem since it can affect the childrens personal achievement and later on
in their life. Failing to understand the needs of these children by responsible actors such as
teachers, the society can neglect to fully include fiteen to twenty percent of the pupils in the
education process. The extent of this non-inclusion can have major social implications beside
the personal issues faced by the individuals coping with this disability.

In the following section, I will elaborate and define dyslexia. A review of the salient
development in the fields will be presented with various research studies concerning dyslexia,
its symptoms and difficulties.

3
2. BACKGROUND
In this section, a description of dyslexia is provided. This includes an account on the ongoing
process of the exposition of dyslexia by different researchers. Symptoms, factors and research
findings are illustrated to introduce the reader with dyslexia as a specific learning disability.
Additional subsections of this chapter include references to the academic concept of
intelligence quantity, the importance of early identification of dyslexia and the ideas teachers
have concerning dyslexia.

2.1 The definition of dyslexia

The definition of dyslexia has been debated for a long time (Snowling & Duff & Petrou &
Schiffeldrin, 2011). Researchers have tried to define dyslexia by applying various theories
(Ramus et al., 2003). However, there are three prominent theories used in different studies:
the phonological theory, the magnocellular theory and the cerebellar theory.

1.) The Phonological Deficit Theory, hypothesizes that, among people coping with dyslexia,
the deficiency in phonological (sound of spoken words) awareness can be found (Ramus et
al., 2003). Phonological awareness deficit is the difficulty of detecting the sound structure of
spoken words (Swan & Goswami, 1997). So the deadlock of recognising the sound of words
that are spoken is known as phonological awareness deficit.

2.) The Magnocellular Theory postulates that there is a deficiency in the development of the
brain's magnocellular (visual) systems (Ramus et al., 2003). "The magnocellular theory
postulates that the magnocellular dysfunction is not restricted to the visual pathways but is
generalized to all modalities (visual and auditory as well as tactile)" (Ramus et al., 2003, p.
843). According to this theory the visual systems as well as other modalities such as auditory
and tactile are dysfunctional when talking about people coping with dyslexia.

3.) Cerebellar Deficit Theory is the third theory of dyslexia which proposes "the biological
claim is that the dyslexic's cerebellum is mildly dysfunctional and that a number of cognitive
difficulties ensue" (Ramus et al., 2003, p. 843). This theory asserts that dyslexia is caused by
a mild dysfunction in cerebrum (part of the brain that involves motor control and cognitive
functions) which can result in cognitive obstacle.

According to Ramus et al., (2003), various researchers criticized these three theories. The
Phonological theory’s weakness is that it fails to show the case of motor and sensory
deficiencies in people coping with dyslexia. The cerebral theory weakness, on the other hand,
"is that the causal link postulated between articulation and phonology relies on an outdated
view of the motor theory of speech, according to which the development of phonological
representations relies on speech articulation" (p. 843). The third theory, magnocellular theory,
it is unique since it covers all occurrences of dyslexia. However, this theory has as well been
criticized "...number of failures to replicate findings of auditory disorders in dyslexia" (Ibid.
p. 843). The Phonological Deficit Theory is the most supported theory by different studies
whose findings show that dyslexic individuals are particularly impaired in processing the
phonological information (Ibid.). The difficulties in spelling, fluent word recognition etc.,
were found in correlation to poor phonological processing (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005;
Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2005; Snowling, et al 2011; Ramus, et al., 2003). Savage,
Frederickson, Goodwin, Patni, Smith & Tuersley, (2005) indicate a strong support to this

4
assumption provided by developmental research. In comparison to above-average readers,
poor readers lack the phonological skill (Savage et al., 2005).

In the past, the definition of dyslexia described a reading disorder in which reading
achievement is significantly below the level of general intelligence (e.g. DSM-IV, American
Psychiatric Association, 1994; Rutter & Yule, 1975). However, with time passing there has
been a change over this view of dyslexia, especially in the case of discrepancy between
reading achievement and intelligence. "Recent definitions of dyslexia have abandoned the
need for reading to be significantly below general intelligence, and have adopted a
dimensional view of dyslexia with phonological processing as a core deficit" (Snowling et al.,
2011, p. 158). In many studies, dyslexia is defined as a phenomenon with a discrepancy
between intelligence quantity and reading difficulties (Ramus, 2003; Snowling, Duff, Petrou,
Schiffeldrin, & Bailey, 2011b; Stanovich, 1994). This thesis applies the definition of the
International Dyslexia Association (IDA), which supports the recent definitions. The reason
this definition was chosen is because IDA is considered to offer a wider definition of dyslexia
including issues of spelling and other language processing difficulties (Washburn, Joshi, &
Binks-Cantrell, 2011):

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is

characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor
spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the
phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other
cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary
consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading
experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge
(IDA, 2012, p. 1).

For a better overview on different views of the definition of dyslexia, see (Sanders, 2001).
From the phrase in the quotation above we understand that dyslexia is a disability that is
specific and unique in comparison to other learning disability (LD) categories. LD surrounds
difficulties in listening, speaking, reading, writing and mathematics (Lyon et al., 2003). In
Shaywitz (2003) work, it is cited that reading and speaking rely on the phoneme; however,
reading is not natural yet speaking is. The study of Williams&Lynch, (2010) suggest a
different view, in some cases reading, writing and spelling are not the only characteristics of
dyslexia, but speaking as well. Williams&Lynch (2010), claim that this occurs in cases where
intelligence and educational opportunities are as an influence. This shows that children who
do not have the education opportunity to improve their academic skills might also result in
difficulties, in oral expression(Ibid.). Functional brain imaging research confirms dyslexia as
being neurobiological in its origin (Ramus, et al., 2003). "Converging evidence using
functional brain imaging in adult dyslexic readers shows a failure of left hemisphere posterior
brain systems to function properly during reading"(Lyon et al., 2003, p. 6). According to
Lyon et al., (2003) with the use of brain imaging in people coping with dyslexia, one can see
failure in their left hemisphere of the brain which involves language skills.

5
2.2 The relation between dyslexia and measurement of intelligence quantity (IQ)
As mentioned above, new definitions of dyslexia disregard the assumption that reading is
compatible with below average intelligence. It approves that dyslexia is a deficit in processing
phonological information (Snowling et al., 2011). These findings claim that intelligence is not
affected by dyslexia and people coping with dyslexia can often be gifted in areas such as art,
design, computer science, music, sales and mechanics (IDA, 2012; Shaywitz, 2003). As
Solvang (2007) states, the American dyslexia activist Ronald Davies (1995) assumes that
people coping with dyslexia learn differently and are neurologically different. They have
above average abilities, which are rarely, valued or developed in school, such as artistic
abilities and creativity (Solvang, 2007). According to the same source, many researchers think
that reading difficulties can occur at any level of IQ (Ibid.). Researchers claim that children
coping with dyslexia execute poorly academically with average or above average intelligence
(Williams & Lynch, 2010). When children face reading and writing problems and these
problems are due to their inability of word-level decoding this is identified as dyslexia
(Solvang, 2007).

Nowadays there is a lot of critiques on the concept of excellence deriving from intelligence
quantity. There are other types of intelligence such as social and emotional learning which
were neglected by the education system but, seem to account for excellence and distinction
(Basu & Mermillod, 2011). One of them is emotional intelligence (EI). Self awareness,
managing emotions, motivating oneself, empathy and handling relationships are five domains
of EI identified by Salovey and Mayer (1990). In Basu & Mermillod (2011) study, the
importance of emotional intelligence is equal to the importance of IQ. "Ei may be as
important as or even more important than cognitive intelligence". (p. 182). The intelligence
quotient is in discrepancy with dyslexia and early identification of this reading disability is
important for improvement of the academic life of children coping with dyslexia (IDA, 2012;
Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004; Ramus, et al 2003). More abut early identification of dyslexia is
going to be presented in up coming subsection.

2.3 Early identification of dyslexia

Dyslexia is considered to be hereditary and is inherited within families. “It is now well
established that dyslexia is a neurological disorder with a genetic origin, which is currently
being investigated” (Ramus, et al 2003, p. 841). Dyslexic parents are likely to have dyslexic
children (IDA, 2012; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004; Ramus, et al 2003). Given that their
parents cope with dyslexia, a child is at fifty percent risk at developing reading difficulties
(Vellutino, Flenowling, & Scanlon, 2004). However, children coping with dyslexia can
improve their state. They can improve their reading skills if early intervention occurs (IDA,
2012; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004). With proper help, many people coping with dyslexia can
learn to read and write well (Bishop & League, 2006; Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005;
Schatschneider & Torgesen, 2004; IDA, 2012). Several studies e.g. Scarborough, (1990);
Snowling, Gallagher & Frith, (2003), show that children who are diagnosed with dyslexia at
eight years of age, had difficulties in letter recognition ability at around 4-5 years of age. The
phoneme awareness develops at around age 5-6 years (Snowling et al., 2011). Findings
indicate that children who are at risk of dyslexia can be identified earlier than the age of eight
years. Identification could happen by "simple tests of letter knowledge and phoneme
awareness at the beginnings of reading” (Ibid. p.158). Such examinations might provide a
good indication of children risk of dyslexia.

6
Early identification and intervention could provide the key in helping individuals with
dyslexia achieve in school and life (Bishop & League, 2006; Wadlington & Wadlington,
2005; Schatschneider & Torgesen, 2004; IDA, 2012). The ambition is for early identification
of dyslexia "so that intervention can be put in place to prevent or limit reading difficulty"
(Snowling et al., 2011, p. 158). According to Fuchs & Fuchs, (2006) this way of approaching
the problem is more effective than "waiting for children to fail in their reading before a
‘diagnosis’ of dyslexia can be made" (Snowling et al., 2011, p. 158). This indicates that an
early intervention is a crucial factor in improving academic achievements and well-being in
their future life.

2.4 Misconceptions concerning dyslexia

This section of the research focalise on misconceptions concerning dyslexia especially among
teachers. There are numerous studies done for educators awareness and understanding of
learning disabilities in general (Kirby et al., 2005; Wight & Chapparo, 2008). However, there
is a lack of research done for the awareness of teachers concerning the needs of children
coping with dyslexia (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005). One of the researchers that do
concentrate on dyslexia and teachers understanding of dyslexia is that of Wadlington &
Wadlington (2005), “What Educators Really Believe about Dyslexia”.

Wadlington & Wadlington (2005) conducted a study were they compared the perception and
knowledge of dyslexia among 250 participants at a southern regional university and faculty
members in US. Their study included various categories of educators such as school
administrators, elementary general teachers, university faculty teachers, special education
teachers, secondary general teachers and speech therapists. They developed a 30-item survey,
which they named it as Dyslexia Belief Index (DBI). In their study Wadlington & Wadlington
(2005) found that the educators had insufficient knowledge concerning dyslexia and most of
them misunderstood the case of dyslexia. According to their findings clear misconception was
found in most of the educators, Wadlington & Wadlington (2005) determined that there is a
need of handing out more information and trainings to the educators concerning this reading
specific learning disability called dyslexia.

Another research that pint points the importance of teachers awareness and knowledge
concerning children coping with dyslexia is the project of Ashburn & Snow, (2011)
“Dyslexia: Awareness and Intervention in the Classroom”. The project held in California,
Sacramento, was created for elementary, secondary and special education teachers. These two
authors created the project, and the purpose of it was to "provide teachers with the
information they will need about dyslexia: what it is, risk factors for it, prevalence, co-morbid
conditions, and early identification" Ashburn & Snow, (2011. p.). They prepared a 4 hour
training workshop with a presenter's manual, handouts, slides, and presenter notes, which
could be presented by school psychologists. In their literature review, it is stated that teachers
do have misconceptions about dyslexia. Thus, they created this project, with its aim to give
the teachers a better understanding about dyslexia.

The study of Washburn et al., (2011), “Teacher Knowledge of Basic Language Concepts and
Dyslexia”, is another study with a purpose of identifying teachers knowledge about different
language concepts and dyslexia. The participants in this study were elementary school
teachers. The participants were collected form two data groups. Group one consisted of 99
participants and was from 10 different schools of the district in a Midwestern state in the
United States, group two, consisted of 86 participants from an urban school district in
7
Southwest United States. In this study, the researchers found that the teachers carried a
common misconception of what dyslexia is. They were confusing dyslexia with a "visual
processing deficit rather than phonological processing deficit" (Washburn et al., 2011, p.
165).

Another study/dissertation was conducted in China for teachers perceptions of children with
dyslexia (Lee, 2009), “Teachers' perceptions of students with dyslexia in a local primary
school”. Lee, (2009) obtained the perceptions of students with dyslexia from ten Chinese and
English Language teachers. The teachers were working in a local primary school, in Hong
Kong. Except qualitative interviews, Lee also used the DBI tool to measure the perception of
teachers concerning dyslexia. Using the DBI tool, it was "found that all language teachers
held a number of misconceptions about dyslexia, but they had a better understanding of
teaching strategies for dyslexic students" (p.1). However, from the qualitative interviews he
found out "the collaboration and cooperation between different school stakeholders was not
well-developed and exam-oriented learning atmosphere restricted how teachers perceived and
helped dyslexia” Lee, (2009, p.1). There are also some other research studies which are not
particularly about teachers awareness concerning dyslexia but they relate to teachers and
students coping with dyslexia (Johan et al., 2010). To best of my knowledge there is no
European research in english concerning teachers awareness of dyslexia among children.

As stated previously, there is a lack of research studies concerning the knowledge of dyslexia
among teachers. It is as well assumed that there is a lack of research on dyslexia’s awareness
and knowledge among educators in Kosovo. Since the focus of this thesis is on the awareness
to the special needs of children coping with dyslexia in Kosovo, the following part contains a
description of Kosovo’s situation concerning children with disabilities. The next subsections
will describe in short paragraphs relating the background of the Faculty of Education in
Prishtina, statistics of elementary and high school education in Prishtina, the work that
Kosovo has done through this time for children with disabilities and what the legislation
claims to offer for these children.

2.5 Background on teachers training (education) in Kosovo

The education/training of teachers, with higher education degrees started in late 1958.
However, the university level of teachers education was created in 2002. The elementary
study program was approved by the University Senate the same year. The study of the Faculty
of Education started in late 2002. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in
Kosovo decided for the Faculty of Education to use this program in the study years 2003/2004
(University of Prishtina, 2008).

The study program of the academic year 2007/2008 of the Faculty of Education according to
University of Prishtina, (2008) includes four years of studying. Every year is devised in two
semesters. According to University of Prishtina, (2008), in the third year, VI semester, there
are two courses that include special education and methodology and the difficulties in
learning. However both of these two courses are elective courses, which means that the
students can choose if they want to take these courses or chose another course.

2.6 Elementary and high school education in Prishtina

According to the Education statistics in Kosova 2012/2013, elementary and high school
education includes the mandatory education with nine years of education. It is divided into
8
two levels: first level includes the elementary education which is years from 1-5 of education
and second level which includes the high school education, with 6-9 years of education. This
includes the children with the age groups of 6 to 15 years old (Ministry of Education, Science
and Technology, 2013).

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology develops policies, drafts and it
implements legislations for the education system in Kosovo. However, the municipalities
have the power to run the local interest while applying the policies set from the state
(Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2013).

2.7 Kosovo and children with disabilities

In the last decade, Kosovo has shown certain recognition for children with disabilities and
their needs (KEC, 2006). Reasonable activities were designed to advocate equality and
inclusion for all people, in the Kosovar education system (Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology, 2007). Diverse national and international organizations coordinated seminars,
with the objective of increasing awareness to the rights of the children in the education (KEC,
2006). However, the children’s needs and their inclusion in the education system, in Kosovo
are quite behind when comparing to developed countries (Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology, 2007). In scholastic terms, there is a considerable lack of research and literature,
about children with disabilities and their current situation in Kosovo. Unfortunately, there was
no possibility to find more information on children with disabilities in Prishtina or Kosovo in
general.

2.8 Research on Children with Reading Disabilities in Kosovo

As mentioned earlier, during the literature search only one study was found concerning
reading disabilities in Kosovo, (Avdyli & Cuetos, (2012), “Reading difficulties in Albanian”).
The aim of their study was to compare the reading abilities between Albanian dyslexic
children with other nondyslexic children of the same age. There were 264 participants in the
study, where 114 were children with reading disabilities and 150 of them were children with
no reading problems, between the age of 6 to 11 years old. What is important to emphasize
regarding this study is that, these researchers explained that there is a difference between
Albanian language and English language when it comes to dyslexia. Albanian language is
part of shallow orthography with other languages such as German, Italian etc., and in these
languages the reading speed deficit is what characterized dyslexia. Shallow orthography is
based on the written words where the words are easy to pronounce. Whereas in for opaque
orthographies where English languages takes place, reading speed are not mentioned since
reading accuracy plays a role in dyslexics speaking this language (Avdyli & Cuetos, 2012). In
contrast to shallow orthography, in opaque orthography the pronunciation is more difficult
based on how the words are written.

2.9 The legislation on the rights of children with disabilities

According to the UN convention on the Rights of the Children (Article 2.1), education,
rehabilitation, socialization and integration, of children who are coping with exceptional
needs, are of high value:

States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to
each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of
9
 the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, color, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property,
disability, birth or other status (UN Convention on the Rights of the Children, 1990, p.
2).

According the the above citation, a state has to guarantee the rights of all children in its
dominion. The republic of Kosovo acknowledged the above-cited article, from the convention
on Children’s rights, in article 40 of its Preuniversity Education Act:

It is the explicit intention of this Law that the principle of inclusive education should
be applied in the Republic of Kosovo as best practice in accordance with international
norms as set out in the UNESCO Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the
Statement of Salamanca (1994), the UN Convention of the Rights of Disabled Persons
(2007) and other relevant international conventions or recommendations (Assembly,
Republic of Kosovo, 2011, p. 27).

In this paragraph, the republic of Kosovo ratifies among other conventions, the UN
convention of the rights of the children, while creating a policy safeguarding the principle of
inclusive education and equal opportunities. The aforementioned law, article 3, specifies in
addition that:

It shall be the general duty of the Ministry, the municipalities, the educational and/or
training institutions and all other bodies engaged in the provision of pre-university
education, as regulated by this Law and other applicable laws, to plan and deliver an
efficient, effective, flexible, inclusive and professional service designed to provide all
pupils with equal opportunities in access to education in accordance with their
specific abilities and needs and to promote their educational and social development
(Assembly, Republic of Kosovo, 2011, p. 4).

According to these Legislations, social policies should be enacted in order to provide teachers
with sufficient expertise in helping children with different needs. The acts previously
mentioned guaranty rights of inclusion, regardless of children’s special needs. However, there
is a discrepancy between these policies to the situation in practice (KEC, 2006). Lack of
funds, research and awareness concerning to the importance of prevention in the field of
learning disabilities in Kosovo (Ibid.), may account for the gap between reality in practice,
and the relevant regulations. This gap may imply that children coping with dyslexia are in the
vulnerable position and at risk of exclusion in future life. To this end dyslexia relates not only
to a physical impairment but is likely to originate to social exclusion. This may be a result of
restricted possibilities to participate fully in society. The limited possibilities available for the
individual's choices, the individuals determination over her or his life, and the negatively
negotiated identity may results in exclusion (Dominelli & Campling, 2002). In the next
chapter, there will be a description of definition of the research problem where the study aim
and research questions are presented.

10
3. DEFINITION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
In the past several decades, learning difficulties received substantial comprehension. While
the academic knowledge of specific learning difficulties is growing, standard of professional
recognition is still unclear (Kirby, et al., 2005). Research studies show that there are
misconceptions, lack of awareness and knowledge among educators concerning dyslexia
(Roper, 2010; Reid, 2005b; Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005). This lack of awareness among
teachers does not help to understand the needs of children, and this can result in anxiety
(Reid, 2005b). According to Wadlington & Wadlington (2005), dyslexic student’s self-esteem
can be fragile, and the teacher’s attitude towards them plays a significant role during their
studies. Educators, who acquire knowledge and training, may have better chances to identify
children who may be coping with dyslexia, meet their diverse needs, and mny mediate the
adjustment of those needs. This research will focus on teacher’s awareness concerning
children coping with dyslexia in Kosovo. In the coming chapter, the purpose of this thesis will
be described more thorogly with the added research questions.

11
4. AIM
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the awareness of primary school teachers of the term
dyslexia. Additional information will be gathered concerning their knowledge concerning
dyslexia. More specifically, the plan is to provide a better understanding of educator’s
perceptions about dyslexia and children coping with it. The research is additionally focused
on the awareness of teachers in Prishtina regarding their responsibilities and roles in
providing equal opportunities and approaches that meet the needs of all children. As well as
to see, if they have any education regarding children with special needs.

Following the aim described above, this research focuses on the following questions:

● What are the conceptions among primary school teachers, concerning dyslexia?

● Are the teachers aware of characteristics indicating suspected dyslexia?

● Are the teachers aware of the needs of children who are coping with dyslexia?

● Do they get any education during their studies concerning children with special needs?

● What do they think is their role as teachers in providing equal oppurtunities for these
children?

Next chapter will describe the theoretical frame of reference used for this study. To get a
sufficient answer to these questions, it is important to use a suitable method of research. In the
following section, the method of this master thesis will be described in details.

12
5. THEORETICAL FRAME OF REFERENCE
In the section, I will specify the main debates in the field of inclusion of children with
learning difficulties. I will emphasise the significance of lack of awareness among primary
school teachers concerning dyslexia. This includes concepts such as normalization, social role
valorization (SRV) and attribution theory.

Normalization/ SRV is a salient component in contemporary debates and practice in the field
of learning difficulties (Yates et al., 2008). With its origin form Scandinavia; normalization
suggests that people with learning difficulties should enjoy the good things in life as close as
other people in society (Walmsley, 2001). Walmsley (2001) cites Nirje, (1980, p.33) and
generalize the concept of normalization as relevant for people with intellectual disabilities, as
applicable to the situation of people coping with learning difficulties:

The normalization principle means making available to all mentally retarded people
patterns of life and conditions of everyday living, which are as close as possible to the
regular circumstances and ways of life of society (p. 33).

Later on this definition was changed as follows:

The normalization principle means that you act right when making available to all
persons with intellectual or other impairments or disabilities patterns of life and
conditions of everyday living which are as close as possible to or indeed the same as
the regular circumstances and ways of life of their communities (Nirje, 1992, p.16)

The benefits of normalization process are that it helps in social integration. "Isolation and
segregation foster ignorance and prejudice, whereas integration and normalization of smaller
groups of mentally retarded improve regular human relations and understanding, and
generally are a prerequisite for the social integration of the individual" Nirje (1969, p.).
According to Nirje, normalization principle has various attributes. Normalization principle
means to have a normal rhythm of life for people with disabilities a normal routine of
everyday life, to have a normal life experiences as other “normal” people. These attributions
are very important according to Nirje since they contribute on the developments of
independence of the "retarded" people, helping their self-confidence etc. Nirje (1969), points
out that normalization principles not only helps out people who are mildly or profoundly
retarded but also those who work with them and their parents. (Nirje, 1969). Normalization
principle is serviceable in all groups of people meaning in every society. Nirje, (1969) shows
eight characteristics of what normalization principles means:

1. "Normalization means a normal rhythm of the day for the retarded". It means having a
normal rhythm of the day as others such as getting up in the morning, eating. Having the same
routines as other people do.

2. "The normalization principle also implies a normal routine of life". Having to go to work
and come back home, (these should be different places not same place). Work where they get
the experience that their job is meaningful and important part of life.

3. "Normalization means to experience the normal rhythm of the year". Here, he includes
having the normal rhythm of enjoying family holidays and vacations.

13
4. "Normalization also means an opportunity to undergo normal developmental experiences
of the life cycle": Here Nirje, (1969) gave four important subsections a.) children should have
a friendliness atmosphere with strong help in sensory stimulation, and give great surroundings
to help them nourish their knowledge and skills; b.) youth should enjoy the good life equally
to other youth by giving their proper conditions that are structured for youth people. It is
important for their development to have a good life at school and outside school. c.) This is a
period transition from adolescent to adulthood, the period which is very fragile for people
with disabilities. For their achievement, it is important that other people such as parents,
relatives and institutional staff to have more cautious attitude towards them; d.) for the old
people with disabilities who cannot work, to offer them to live in facilities that are close to
their places where they spend their adulthood.

5. Here Nirje points out that normalization principle also means "the choices, wishes and
desires of the mentally retarded themselves have to be taken into consideration" and that
these should be respected from others.

6. "Normalization also means living in a bisexual world". They should be mixed with both
sexes e.g. the facilities staff should be of both sexes.

7. The economic conditions should be considered as very important as well."A prerequisite to

letting the retarded obtain an existence as close to normal as possible is to apply normal
economic standards".

8. In the end normalization principle suggest that the "standards of the physical facilities, e.g.
hospitals, schools, group homes and hostels, and boarding homes, should be the same as
those regularly applied in society to the same kind of facilities for ordinary citizens" (Nirje,
1969).

Later on the notion of normalization was re-conceptualized as Social Role Valorization

(SRV), which suggest “the use of culturally valued means in order to enable, establish and/or
maintain valued social roles for people” (Wolfensberger & Tullman, 1989, p. 211).
Wolfensberger changed the name of normalization to SRV as more focused on all devalued
and deviant people rather than only to people with intellectual disability. It is important to
mention that SRV supports two types of groups: those who are already devalued in society
and those who are at risk of being devalued in society. According to Wolfensberger (1983),
Nirje focused more on human rights and equality while SRV basic aim is that people should
enjoy social valued roles in society. The concept of SRV means that society should strive to
give a positive social role to devalued individuals, by enjoying acceptance in society, respect,
education, self belonging and other things that make them feel valued in society. SRV "can
help not only to prevent bad things from happening to socially vulnerable or devalued people,
but can also increase the likelihood that they will experience the good things in life" (Osburn,
2006, p. 5). This strategy aims to improve these individuals’ social image and develop their
personal competencies through integration into society, by having access to ordinary
vocations, education and housing. Individuals can engage in social activities that are socially
valued (Wolfensberger, 1983). Both normalization and SRV movements have achieved great
success last decade by helping devalued people towards successful integration on society
(Culham & Nind, 2003). These two concepts are used in this study to show the importance of
knowledge concerning dyslexia among teachers so that children coping with dyslexia can be
socially valued as other children. Children coping with dyslexia are very much at risk of
being devalued and excluded from their rights as students because of their difficulties. With
14
Normalisation/SRV goal, the teachers must obtain knowledge of dyslexia, so they help these
children to be accepted in school and later on in life.

Another important concept related to this thesis is the notion of attribution theory. Initially
Heider, (1958) purposed the psychological theory of attribution. He explained how attribution
theory suggests that people try to decide why people do what they do. Later this theory has
been extend by Weiner, (1980) to encompass problems of social psychology. Weiner, (1980)
focused the attribution theory on self-concept and achievement:

Causal attributions determine affective reactions to success and failure. For example,
one is not likely to experience pride in success, or feelings of competence, when
receiving an ‘A’ from a teacher who gives only that grade, or when defeating a tennis
player who always loses...On the other hand, an ‘A’ from a teacher who gives few
high grades or a victory over a highly rated tennis player following a great deal of
practice generates great positive affect. (Weiner,1980 p. 362).

According to Weiner, (1980) success is usually attributed to internal, stable, uncontrollable

factors such as the abilities of students who are high achievers. Failure might be attributed to
the internal, unstable, controllable factors such as effort, or it might be attributed to external
factors such as luck. The same applies to children who are coping with dyslexia. If these
children have continuous difficulties in reading while other peers do not
have they will perceive themselfs as poor readers. This self-perception of being poor readers
can result in acceptance of failure. Attribution theory also deals with the difference of high
achievers and low achievers. It explains how, high achievers see themselves as successful,
and if they fail, it is because they have bad luck and it does not affect their self-esteem.
However, low achievers put the blame on their selfs. In this case, children coping with
dyslexia, if they have difficulties in reading, its because they are poor readers and that is why
they have low self-esteem. Thus, the awareness of teachers is important so these children can
be helped to have better expectations of their selfs so they can have a better life.

As mentioned in the introduction chapter, educators may obtain misconceptions, lack of

awareness and lack of knowledge concerning dyslexia (Roper, 2010; Reid, 2005b;
Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005). Wadlington & Wadlington (2005) found that most of the
educators had a poor understanding of dyslexia. According to Wadlington & Wadlington
(2005), dyslexic student’s self-esteem can be fragile, and the teacher’s attitude towards them
plays a big role during their studies. The teachers attitude who lack knowledge of dyslexia can
be explained by the attribution theory. Tetlock, (1985) agrees with Heider, (1958) that
attribution theory explains the phenomenon where people draw conclusions form their
observations of the actor’s behavior. There is a systematic bias in this process, where the
person has the tendency “to overestimate personality or dispositional cases of behavior and to
underestimate the influence of situational constraints on behavior” (Tetlock, 1985, p. 227).

In this chapter, I presented Normalization/ SRV as an important component in the sphere of

learning difficulties. I also suggest how attribution theory can be used to explain teachers
(who lack awareness of dyslexia) perception of children coping with dyslexia.; and how these
children perceive themselves. The following chapter will describe the method used for this
thesis.

15
6. METHOD
Word qualitative refer the importance on the qualities of individuals and on action and contest
that are not experimentally measured in premises of quantity (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005).
While quantitative research, focus on statistically based investigation, the qualitative research
gives a in-depth understanding of concepts (Tewksbury, 2009). Qualitative research is
focused on finding out how others experience life. It "refers to the meanings, concepts,
definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things.” (Berg, 2007, p.
3). Qualitative research is used in many disciplines, "anthropology, education, nursing,
psychology, sociology, and marketing regularly use qualitative methods to address questions
about people’s ways of organizing, relating to, and interacting with the world" (Guest, Namey
& Mitchell, 2012, p.1) This study used a flexible method, using an open-ended and semi-
structured questionnaire. Open-ended questions in contrast to closed questions allow the
respondent to respond without any restriction giving the researcher unexpected answers
(Robson, 2002).

Data concerning teachers' awareness of dyslexia was obtained from twenty-seven school
teachers. The surveys were sent to four prominent elementary schools in Pristina. Some of the
participants could not access computers and internet. Therefore, the surveys were delivered in
two ways: via e-mail to participants that have frequent access to e-mail communication, and
to those who do not have e-mail addresses the surveys were handed to their schools. Ten
teachers’ email addressees were obtained by four different schools. The surveys were sent to
these teachers, but only two of them replied. Out of the twenty-seven who answered directly
or via email, only sixteen participants completed the whole answers. The other nine
respondents did not answer the whole survey beside the demographic part, and two of the
participants were disqualified. These nine participant who did not complete the whole
questionnaire said they never heard about dyslexia. Two participants were omitted from the
analysis since they “copy-pasted” information about dyslexia directly from different Albanian
internet webpages. These two disqualified participants were those who answered via email. At
last, twenty-five of participants were included in the analysis.

Because of some personal reasons at the time when doing this thesis, it was not possible to
travel to Kosovo. This was the reason of choosing to use a self-completion method. The
surveys that were handed out directly to the teachers were enabled by my sisters, a cousin and
a friend who live in Pristina. These persons will be referred to as volunteers in the rest of this
thesis. The volunteers that helped in this thesis had academic degrees and were previously
involved in research studies meaning they had experiences in distribuying surveys.

The survey questions should be arranged in a way that can help the researcher answer the
research questions and complete the purpose of the study (Robson, 2002). The demographic
items included questions referring to their gender, age, where and when did they obtained
their degree, what is their major and years of their teaching experience. Whereas the other
items are in a relation to the five research questions (please see the five questions in the aim
section). From twenty items, the question one to nine (please see Appendix 1) were
constructed to get information of participants general knowledge of dyslexia, symptoms,
causes, treatment, advantages/disadvantages, academic problems and differences between
children coping and those not coping with dyslexia. From question ten to thirteen the
participant had the possibility to show us what do they think about children's needs, their role
as a teacher when they encounter children coping with dyslexia in their class and their opinion

16
about school’s role regarding these children. The accounts produced by these items provided a
deeper understanding of teacher’s point of view. The answers were subjected to a thematic
content analysis. In order to show the intended study, two pilot questionnaires were
distributed and analyzed. The pilot questionnaires helped the researcher to richen the survey
by modifying some of the questions that the respondents did not answer, or thought were
unclear. Therefore, more explanations were given in some items based on the feedback on the
pilot questionnaire. Namely, some language related issues were edited while the content of
the questions remained the same. These pilot questionaries were included in the data as well
because the changes to the final questionnaire were minor.

6.1 Instrument/tool
The lack of research about children with learning disabilities in Kosovo creates a possibility
to discover a lot of unexpected answers regarding dyslexia. The researcher is not aware if and
what misconceptions about the dyslexia exist. Therefore, a qualitative tool consisting of 20
items was developed. These items were inspired from the Dyslexia Belief Index (DBI) tool of
Wadlington & Wadlington (2005). The DBI tool is of a quantitative nature, and in the very
start of this research this tool was seen as an effective mean to achieve the given aim since the
DBI tool was used in other similar research studies (Lee, 2009). However, it was discovered
that the tool is being refined after contacting the authors for permission of use. A new
qualitative tool was developed, due to the reasons mentioned earlier. The questions were
adapted to the context of Kosovo and included more content derived from the literature about
dyslexia such as IDA, (2012); Shaywitz & Shaywitz, (2004); Wadlington & Wadlington,
(2005); Shywitz, (2003); Savage et al., (2005); Shaywitz & Shaywitz, (2005); Snowling, et al
(2011); IDA, (2008); Bishop & League, (2006); LD Online, (2007); Shaywitz, (2003);
Vellutino et al., (2004). The tool was constructed in Albanian language as the native language
of the participants is Albanian. The researcher adapted the items to the local linguistic
appropriateness. As mentioned earlier Avdyli & Cuetos, 2012 explained that there is a
difference between Albanian language and English language when it comes to dyslexia.
Albanian language is part of shallow orthography, and for the languages that are part of this
group the reading speed deficit is what characterized dyslexia. Shallow orthography is based
on the written words where the words are easy to pronounce. Whereas for opaque
orthographies where English languages takes place, reading speed is not mentioned since
reading accuracy plays a role in dyslexics speaking. In contrast to shallow orthography, in
opaque orthography the pronunciation is more difficult based on how the words are written.
In the DBI tool, there were some questions that related to english speaking people, which in
this case were not taken in consideration. This is the reason why the items were adapted in the
local linguistic appropriateness. These 20 items consist of questions that can give a better
perspective on the teacher’s knowledge about dyslexia in general.

6.2 Informants/subjects
This thesis focused on a group of primary school teachers located in the area of Pristina,
which is the central metropolis of Kosovo. The study took place in four primary schools of
Prishtina. The participants teach from first to the fifth year of elementary school. Teachers
from different gender and age groups were chosen to participate in the study. Eighteen of
them were female teachers while seven were men. Their age was between 25-65 years old.
Five of participants were of 51-65 years of age, with high school diploma. They did not have
a bachelor degree. Seventeen participants had a bachelor degree from Pristina University with
17
a major in Primary Education. Other three participants had their degrees in other areas such as
Philosophy and Social Science. Table 1 shows an overview about the participants’s
demographic, academic and professional background. In this thesis, the demographic data
was used to see if there is a difference between the respondents point of view concerning
dyslexia. The analysis of the data will be described in the next coming part of this thesis.

Table 1
Demographic items
Gender Age Working Experience Education/Degree
20-35 36-50 51-65 1-5 6-10 11-25 >25 High School Bachelor
M 7 0 2 5 0 1 0 6 5 2
F 18 10 8 0 5 3 9 1 0 18
Total 25 10 10 5 5 4 9 7 5 20
Note: The Table 1 shows the demographic items of twenty-five participants who answered the
questionnaires. The table divides the gender and shows how many male and female participants
took place in this study. Further it shows their age, working experience as teachers and their
education state.

6.3 Data Analysis

In this section, the process of data analysis will be described. This study used an open-ended
and semi-structured survey, following, a thematic content analysis. “Content analysis is most
conveniently used with textual types of data such as open-ended survey questions or print
media of various sorts” (Kondracki et al., 2002, p. 224). Thematic content analysis pursues to
estimate the basic understanding of subjects, "generally for survey or experimental purposes"
(Neuendorf, 2002, p. 192). Markel (1998) uses thematic analysis from a qualitative and
semiotic perspective where the meaning of the symbol has been analyzed. Thematic analysis
gives the opportunity to recognize, analyze and report the themes of data Braun & Clarke
(2006). In doing thematic analysis, according to Braun & Clarke (2006) one should follow
six phases. These six phases were used to conduct the analysis of the data in this thesis, which
are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Phase of Thematic Analysis

Phase Description of the process

1. Familiarizing yourself with your data: Transcribing data (if necessary), reading and re-
reading the data, noting down initial ideas.

2. Generating initial codes: Coding interesting features of the data in a

systematic fashion across the entire data set,
collating data relevant to each code.
3. Searching for themes: Collating codes into potential themes, gathering
all data relevant to each potential theme.

4. Reviewing themes: Checking in the themes work in relation to the

coded extracts (Level 1) and the entire at a set
(Level 2), generating a thematic 'map' of the
analysis.

5. Defining and naming themes: Ongoing analysis to refine the specifics of each
theme, and the overall story the analysis tells;
generating clear definitions and names for each

18
 theme.

6. Producing the report: The final opportunity for analysis. Selection of

vivid, compelling extract examples, final analysis
of the selected extracts, relating back of the
analysis to the research question and literature,
producing a scholarly report of the analysis.

Table 2 is retrievd from Braun & Clarke (2006) study, to show how the thematic analysis of this thesis
was conducted.

Wordle, a "web-based tool for visualizing text " (Viegas et al., 2009) was used in order to do
a text visualization of the themes that participant used to describe dyslexia. Various people
who use the internet use this tool (Ibid.). The answers to the first question of the survey -
Have you ever heard about dyslexia? If yes, what do you know about it?- were used as input
in Wordle webpage. Wordle shows the words that were used most frequently, and it
emphasizes these words in the text via font size. By visualizing the text, Wrodle gives the
reader an idea of what type of answers the participants gave to the question. In results chapter,
the reader have the opportunity to see the figure of Wordle used for this thesis.

6.4 Research ethical considerations

Ethical issues are very important when doing a research study. A cautious ethical assessment
has a great role on the quality of a research study Gustafsson & Hermerén &Petersson,
(2006). As the ethical aspect of any research study is of high importance, it is relevant to
mention that ethical aspect concerning the protection of participant’s confidentiality is as
much considered in this study. The ethical considerations in the empirical research are
important to refrain situations of stress and tension (Robson, 2002). Because of the
importance of participant’s confidentiality, during the creation of open-ended and semi-
structured questions and the whole course of the study, the aspect of ethical issues where
given a serious thought and was taken into account.

The ethical part is considered in this study by giving special attention to ensure the
respondents that the research is confidential. Before sending the questionaries’ to the teachers,
the approval of the directors of the schools was required (see Appendix 3: letter of permission
from directors and teachers). The teachers were asked in the beginning if they wanted to
participate in a study, which they agreed. The teachers were informed why the researcher
could not be there and hand out the surveys directly and the teachers showed a positive
understanding of the researchers absence. After the directors and teachers approval the
surveys were handed to the teachers where they were informed and reassured about their
anonym responses. The teachers were familiarized in details about the purpose of the study.
Clear instruction was given in the questionnaire to introduce the teachers with the study and
the questionnaire form. Most importantly they were informed that their participation is
voluntarily and ensured free will to respond and to leave the questioner without any hesitation
of any kind. The participants had the chance to fill the questionaries’ in school where the
questionaries’ were handed, but they also had the chance to take the survey at home if they
were busy during their working hours. There were envelopes attached together with the
surveys so when the teachers are finished responding the answers they could close the
envelope and hand it over. This was due to assuring the teachers that their answers are going
to be first checked by the researcher. The two respondents, who answered via email, did not

19
have to give their email address to the researcher. Their answers were submitted via the
contact of the researcher who work as a teacher in one of the schools where the research was
conducted. As mentioned earlier in the method part the surveys that were handed out directly
to the teachers were enabled by volunteers of this thesis. All of them had academic degrees
and were previously involved in research studies. The participants answers were not affected
in any way since they did not know the volunteers who handed out the surveys. The teachers
did not hesitate to give their answers to the volunteers who helped with handing out the
surveys. The answers retrieved from the school where one of the volunteers works as a
teacher, were also not affected by the fact that she is a teacher of the grade six to nine school
years. Meaning that the teachers did not know the volunteer as they work different age groups
and shifts. The participants were also informed that their self-completed questionaries’ will be
used and shared with the thesis supervisor and the staff of Linnaeus University where the
researcher is going to defend the Master thesis.

20
7. RESULT
The results are the fundamental part of the study. The researcher should be careful in
assessment of the results (Vetenskapsrådet, 2006). This chapter discussesses the results of the
qualitative analysis. The study was conducted in pursuit of a better understanding, of
teachers’ awareness and knowledge about the term dyslexia as well as the needs of children
coping with dyslexia. During the analysis of the data one could find some alarming responses
which shed light on the topic in focus. The result section is divided in subsection according to
the identified themes.

As mentioned in the method part, there were twenty-seven primary school teachers who
participated in this study. During the analysis of the data, it was found that nine of the
participants never heard about dyslexia, while two of them were disqualified. Sine these nine
participants did not hear about dyslexia, they did not fill out the survey except the
demographic items and the first question, which they answered as “No I never heard about
dyslexia”(p9-17). The volunteers reported that the participants asked them if they can leave
the questionary blank if they did not know what to write. The disqualification of both
participants who answered through electronic mail occurred since they copied information
from Internet concerning dyslexia and then added the copied answers on the questionnaires as
their own. While trying to analyze their answers, a suspicion of copied material was raised.
After searching the Internet using the same sentences found in the respondents answers, it was
found that they copied the paragraphs from different webpages on Internet and then pased to
the questionnaire. Other respondends said they heard about dyslexia, but they showed a clear
misconception of what dyslexia is, and what their role is if facing pupils coping with this
learning disability. In the following, some of these misconceptions will be explained using
thematic analysis methodology.

7.1 “I understood that dyslexia is a disease”

In this subsection, there will be a presentation of respondets point of view concerning their
knowledge of dyslexia. Of the sixteen participants who completed the whole questionnaire,
over half of them referred to dyslexia using various terms such as disability, disorder,
speaking difficulty, and delay in reading, special disability, difficulty, stumble, psychological
occurrence, difficulties in understanding (p3, p5, p6, p7, p8, p18, p20, p21, p23, p24, p25).
Dyslexia was describes as a disease according to two teachers (p 2&4). They referred to
dyslexia as a disease which is related to memory, the development of the brain and physical
development in comparison with other children and those with speaking problems. One
participant defined dyslexia as a psychiatric disorder which results in slow function of
apprehension:

“Some of the knowledge that I have read form internet I understood that dyslexia is a
disease that occurs in children and adults as well…The consequences are in
memorizing, reading slowly and sometimes difficulties in creating sentences”
(Participant 2).

“It’s a disease of those who have problems in speaking” Participant 4.

“Dyslexia is a psychic disorder that is manifested with slow function of cognitive

system of the individual” (Participant 22).

21
These suggestions are not in accordance with research studies concerning dyslexia, where
they claim that dyslexia is a reading disability with difficulties in spelling and fluent word
recognition (IDA, 2008; Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2005;
Snowling, et al 2011). Less than half of respondents defined dyslexia as a difficulty in
speaking, stumble in understanding, lacking the spelling skill, disability in remembering and
disability in learning the words etc. (p3, p5, p6, p7, p8, p18, p20, p21, p23, p24, p25). While
these participants had somewhat an idea of what dyslexia might be, there were other
respondents who had alarming misconception about dyslexia by defining it as: a disease,
problem with mouth, a hole in the mouth, psychiatric disorder, stumble in logic reading,
disability in getting information, etc. (p2, p4, p7, p8).

7.2 “According to my experience, dyslexic children are more self-withdrawn if compared to

other children…”
The teachers had the opportunity to write their perception about children who are coping with
dyslexia and its symptoms. One third of participants described them as children with speaking
and learning difficulties, slow readers, who need more time to process the study work, with
low self-esteem and self-withdrawn, isolated and who hesitate to communicate and be active
during study hours (p3, p1, p2, p7, p18, p20, p22, p24, p25):

“According to my experience, dyslexic children are more self- withdrawn if compared

to other children. When they read you can notice their hesitation and concern. But
when it comes to playing and having fun with other toys with their friends they are
normal” (Participant 3).

“I think that a child with dyslexia have a stumble in reading and maybe even when
they know how to read they hesitate” (Participant 24).

Interestingly, two of the participants indicated that these children are no different when
comparing with others expect the reading problem, and that they should be treated equally as
others, (p21, p23).

“…I think that a child with dyslexia is different only when spelling and reading come
to place” (Participant 23).

As it is shown in earlier chapters, dyslexia is characterized with poor reading fluency, poor
decoding abilities and difficulties in self-expression (IDA, 2012; LD Online, 2007; Lyon,
Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003).

A small number of those surveyed suggested that intelligence plays a significant role when it
comes to dyslexia. According to them dyslexia is connected to intelligence, indicating that
children coping with dyslexia have below average intelligence. These suggestions are not in
accordance with the claims of various research studies where it is said that intelligence is not
affected by dyslexia (IDA, 2012; Shaywitz, 2003). The single most striking response to
emerge from one respondent was the belief that children coping with dyslexia do not know
how to recognize a human from other species (p4). Same participant indicated that if speaking
is not developed the intellectual aspect as well remains undeveloped:

“Lack of speaking, they don’t know how to differ a person in comparison with other
species. Without speaking one cannot be developed in intellectual way, education,
22
 culture, science, and technology. Every nationality have its own speaking and based
on this language it develops its culture, so language is the base of human
development” (Paricipant 4).

The majority of the respondents did not mention anything about the intelligence of children
coping with dyslexia. The analysed data showed that there were two participants who
suggested that intellectually children coping with dyslexia are no different form other children
(p3, p23).

7.3 “There are different causes like: born with a hole in mouth palate, small tongue, nose
inflammation…”
This subsection presents the results obtained from analysis of item (5), where the respondents
commented on the cause of dyslexia. The minority of respondents/those who responded the
whole questionnaire claimed to have no knowledge about the cause of dyslexia. The other
participants expressed the belief that dyslexia can be caused by: high fever, small tongue,
damages during labor, psychological problems, brain problems, development factors, hearing
problems, social factors, inflammation in nose, nose hemorrhage etc. (p4, p6, p18, p21).
While all of these assumptions are not in a correlation to what it is said in the earlier research
studies concerning the cause of reading disorder dyslexia, there were only five of the
participants who assumed that dyslexia can be inherited or caused by genetic factors (p3, p5,
p7 p23, p25):

“There are different causes like: born with a hole in mouth palate, small tongue, nose
inflammation, nose hemorrhage etc” (Participant 4).

“The causes can be: genetics, premature birth and damages during labor.
these children can be noticed thorugh: they have problems with palate (have holes or
are very soft), small tong etc”. (Participant 7).

“I think that it is inherited” (Participant 23).

Suggestions such as children with dyslexia have holes in their mouth, have small tongue, nose
inflammation, nose haemorrhage, children of premature birth, have had damage during labor,
show a clear misconception of dyslexia and its causes. Dyslexia is a reading disability which
is inherited within families (IDA, 2012; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004; Ramus, et al 2003;
Vellutino, et al 2004).

7.4 “I know that it can be treated”

The participants were asked to express their opinion about the treatment of dyslexia. As many
as seven of the participants, who heard about dyslexia, showed that they did not know if
dyslexia could be treated (p1, p6, p8, p19, p20, p22, p25 ). Whereas the majority of those who
responded indicated that there should be a consultation with professionals. They even
expressed their conception of the treatment and possible interventions for children coping
with dyslexia. They indicated that dyslexia should be treated by specialized people in
otolaryngology, psychology, defectology, doctors, experts of this area and by parents and
society (p3, p4, p5, p7, p18, p23 ). One participant commented that dyslexia should be treated
by specialists of this area by usingwith medical remedies, “in severe cases with surgical
intervention” (p7). Three other participants indicated as well that dyslexia can be treated. One
23
of them stated that if its earlier identified it is possible, and another one said it can be treated
but not totally vanished:

“It can be treated but this disorder should be identified as early as possible so that it
can be treated by professionals of this domain” (Participant 2).

“I don’t have information if this disease can be treated but I think that there should be
a special pedagogue besides teachers to determine if the child is touched by this
disease” (Participant 1).

“I believe that dyslexia can be treated but not disappeared totally, but it can be
improved with trainings in talking and reading. If it is severe it needs surgical
intervention in that part of the brain where is not functioning” (Participant 21).

Ten out of sixteen of respondents who commented on this question believed that dyslexia can
be treated. This shows strong evidence that teachers are not aware of the treatment of dyslexia
since according to research studies there is no treatment of dyslexia. “The disorder has
lifelong persistence” (Ramus, et al., 2003, p.841). However, some respondents were loosely
correct as dyslexia’s severity can be reduced if identified early in childrens’ life (IDA, 2012;
Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2004).

7.5 “I don’t think there is an advantage for these children. Whereas for disadvantages there
are a lot”
The analysis of the respondents assumptions concerning academic problems,
advantages/disadvantage toward children coping with dyslexia was assessed. Most of the
teachers showed knowledge about the academic problems that children with dyslexia might
have. These problems that children coping with dyslexia encounter are of various sorts. They
have problems in reading, learning, expressing themselves, hesitating during class,
concentration problem, writing-reading problems, and problems in socializing (p5, p6, p18,
p20, p21, p22, p24). Two participants claimed that children coping with dyslexia might have
problems of adapting to the school environment and that some of these children might even
“abandon the school“ (p8). “These children have problems that deal with the adaptation in the
school environment” (p7). Another one commented that the problems that children coping
with dyslexia might have at school is because they have lower intelligence than others,“When
the intelligence is lower than average” (Participant 4).

When asked if there are advantages and disadvantages of children coping with dyslexia, their
responses were mainly about the disadvantages.

“It doesn’t have advantages” (Participant 1).

“I think that there is no disease that has advantages, especially when it’s about
stagnation in development of brain-memory”,( Participant 2).

“I don’t think there is an advantage for these children. Whereas for disadvantages
there are a lot” (Participant 6).

“Disadvantages are multiple” (Participant 22).

24
According to different studies individuals coping with dyslexia often can be gifted in various
areas such as art, design, computer science, music, sales, mechanics etc. (IDA, 2012;
Shaywitz, 2003). Based on the respondents answers it is evident that they have distorted
perceptions of the subjects, pointing out that dyslexia has only disadvantages. However, in
twenty-five participants included in this study, three out of sixteen that filled out the whole
questionnarie believed that besides their disadvantages, children with dyslexia can be gifted
with other skills:

“In games and other skills they are more alive/energy” (Participant 3).

“I don’t think that they have advantages, but it is said that these children can be very
bright”(Participant 8).

“Intelligence is equal to other normal (random) children, but they can be backward in
reading, expressing themselves” (Participant 24).

7.6 “Dyslexic children often look like they are more creative and they perform better in arts”
The teachers had to express their ideas about the differences between children coping and
those not coping with dyslexia. Most of the teachers described the first as more self-
withdrawn, unsecure, with difficulties in speaking, reading and learning, with lack of
attention, lonely, children that need more time for learning (p3, p5, p6, p7, p8, p18, p19, p22,
p25). Children coping with dyslexia can have a vulnerable self-esteem
(Wadlington&Wadlington 2003). According to these participants, children who are not
coping with dyslexia do not have these problems. There are no differences between these
children, expect that children coping with dyslexia need more help to improve their reading
(p21, p24). There were also two other participants who expressed a positive comment
describing children with dyslexia as creative and skillful outside the learning scope (p3, p20):

“Children with dyslexia are more withdrawn in learning, whereas in playing are
more skillful. Non-dyslexic children are the same in learning and other skills”
(Participant 3).

7.7 “They need more care and better treatment”

When the teachers were asked about the needs of children coping with dyslexia the majority
suggested that these children have their own needs. Some of the opinions, were academic
oriented indicating that these children need more time to solve their problems at school, need
maximal engagement (p19, p20, p21, p23). Others focused more on the medical aspect
expressing that children coping with dyslexia have the need to be treated from experts, they
need support from psychologists, pedagogue and “research centers of this occurrence” p25
(p4, p5, p25). It is important to mention that there were also comments of the sort that
children coping with dyslexia need moral support, love, they need to be prioritized by parents,
society and school, they need care from the school, parents, society, more commitment from
the teachers, their inclusion in education, and appropriate environment to answer their needs
(p3, p6, p7, p8, p18, p22):

“They need care from their parents, social environment and school
environment”(Participant 3).

“Take big steps that children can be included in education”(Participant 7).

25
 “Appropriate environment and an environment that would understand their needs
and that will give conditions for these children to develop” (Participant 22).

The first two participants explained how these children should have a special treatment from
teachers in class, and that teachers should have special approaches to them while not making
them feel different from other children (p1, p2).

7.8 “No I did not have any courses for children with special needs”
The participants were asked if during their education they had courses for children with
special needs. They also had to add their opinion on the importance of having these courses
during their education. They had the opportunity to answer freely by showing their ideas and
opinions of what do they think its best for children coping with dyslexia. Almost all of
participants who answered the survey claimed they did not have courses for children with
special needs. Only one of them claimed to have had one course concerning children with
special needs during the master studies:

“I as a teacher have had one course while i was studying for my Masters and some
seminars from different places: inside the country and outside ” (Participant 5).

“No I did not have any courses for children with special needs” (Participant 6).

“We didn’t have and I think that it is necessary to have courses” (Participant 24).

Five of respondents are teachers who have a high school diploma. This shows that they did
not have courses concerning children with special needs. Four of the respondents did not
possess a degree of Education. They had different degrees such as Social Science,
Philosophy. A somewhat encouraging fact is that Faculty of Education provides single subject
(elective) courses about children with special needs and learning disabilities in it’s last
semester of the program (University of Prishtina 2008). However, the issue is that not all
prospective teachers will chose any of those courses. (University of Prishtina 2008).

7.9 “It can be said that after the family, the teacher has a big role to the students”
When asked “What is the teacher’s role if they encounter children with dyslexia in their
class?”, nine of the respondents expressed their role as very important. They pointed out their
role as crucial to help find ways for these children to improve in learning aspect. They
suggested that their role as teachers is to answer the children’s needs in learning direction, and
make them feel as equal as possible by not discriminating them (p2, p3, p6, p8, p18, p20, p22,
p23 p24):

“I think that the teacher’s role is important because we have to find adequate ways
that can answer the needs of children…to find better ways in improvement of their
knowledge in general” (Participant 2).
“In the class the teacher should work together with all, so the children cannot notice a
discrimination towards them…(Participant 3).

“It can be said that after the family, the teacher has a big role to the students”
(Participant 6).

26
 “The role of the teacher is to work more and longer with them. To have patients and
be able to work with them” (Participant 22).

“To be more careful towards him…to not criticize etc.” (Participant 24).

“To identify these children…” (Participant 25).

According to these opinions, one third of the teachers in the survey showed their motivation
to help these children to improve their academic and life achievements. Even though they
have misconceptions concerning dyslexia in general, it is important to mention that some of
the teachers believe that their role is important to help these children improve, so they do not
feel discriminated.

A small number of those who responded had a different opinion about this issue. Four of the
participants expressed their role as messengers, saying that they should contact the children’s
parents and guide them to consult with psychologists, doctors and other experts so the
children can get help (p1, p4, p5, p7):

“First we have to talk to the parents, so that the child can be consulted with logoped,
because we don’t have logopeds in ours schools” (Participant 4).

“To guide the child look for help from experts of this area” (Participant 5).

“The first step is to consult with the parents, logopeds and psychologists” (Participant
7).

The results show that these teachers believe they do not have a lot of power to help these
children in this issue. Their only duty is to contact the parents or guide children to seek for
help from professionals. In Wadlington&Wadlington (2003) study, it is also suggested that
children coping with dyslexia are vulerable, and teachers attitude plays a great role on their
performance. The overall response to this question was very positive. Only one participant did
not answer in this question (p19).

7.10 The school’s role of children with dyslexia

When the subject were asked about the school’s role of children with dyslexia, the majority
suggested the school’s role as multiple. According to their suggestions, in order to have
inclusion in schools it is important to treat children with equality and provide them with
conditions of the sort that can help improve their learning during school years. The teachers
gave ideas about improving the conditions of the schools by employing professionals to deal
with children coping with dyslexia (p3, p4, p5, p6, p8, p18, p19, p20, p21, p22, p24, p25).
They also suggested that schools should organize courses for teachers, so they can be
informed about these disabilities and to support the children coping with dyslexia by giving
them good environment etc:

“The schools role is to give information about dyslexia and that these persons should
be treated the same way as other children. To prepare the teachers how to behave
with these children” (Participant 21).

“If we want inclusion in schools, there should be trainings for teachers in improving
their abilities to work with these children” (Participant 7).
27
 “Every school should have their policies for these kids so they won’t be stigmatised.
To protect them from discrimantions that these children can face” (Participant 22).

Thirteen out of sixteen respondents suggested that, in order to have included and non-
discriminated children, the school has the role to provide the appropriate conditions for the
teachers. Only one of them did not answer this question (p23).

The last item allowed the respondents to add any additional comment they had about dyslexia
or the study. Only five of the participants commented on this item (p3, p4, p7, p18, p24). One
participant expressed acknowledgment for the study (p4). The other participant added that the
information concerning dyslexia was taken from internet “Hopefully that with what I looked
on the internet I’ve achieved to answer your questions” (p24). The other three showed
enthusiasm for improvement for the future concerning the situation of these children. One of
the respondents commented that Kosovo’s poor political and economical condition affect the
lives of children coping with reading disabilities. The subject indicated that the chances of
improvement of conditions for these children are low. All five of participants who
commented on this question showed a willingness to improve their knowledge concerning
dyslexia. They suggested that improvement of their knowledge can be possible if there are
different seminars, trainings and different lectures concerning children with disabilities
offered from schools, so they can be ready to meet these children’s needs:

“It is known that Kosovo is a poor country. The possibilities for this category of
children are few. My opinion is that these children should be treated equally and not
be isolated from the society” (Participant 3).

“Improvement of knowledge for including these children. The teachers should have
seminars and have courses that can help them deal with children with this disorder”
(Participant 7).

An analysis of the demographic part was also assesed. The purpose was to find out if there
were any differences between the answeres of the teachers with various ages and educational
degrees. Five teachers were between 51-65 years of age and had only high school diploma.
However, these teachers had more working experience then other teachers that participated in
this study. It is important to mention that these five teachers had a colourful opinion on the
matter of dyslexia comparing with others who were younger and had higher educational
degrees. This might indicate that their long working experience as teachers helped them meet
various students, and they had better chances to meet children coping with dyslexia. There
was no other difference on the respondents that related to their personal data.

28
Figure 1. This diagram presents the results of the question one of this study “Have you ever heard
about dyslexia? If yes, what do you know about it?”. This graph shows the themes that were used from
the teachers concerning their general knowledge of dyslexia. The most frequent themes are depicted
with larger font size. This view gives a fast insight into the main themes used by the participants in
general.

As mentioned in the method section, the answers from question one were used as input to
create visualization in Wordle (Viegas et al., 2009). From Figure 1, we can understand that
most of the themes that were used to answer this question were difficulties, speaking, reading,
disability, disorder etc. The result of this visualization of themes is in correlation to the results
shown in first subsection where the teachers referred to dyslexia using various terms such as
difficulties, disability, disorder with speaking and reading difficulty.

In previously mentioned chapters, we understood that there is lack of funds, research and
awareness concerning the field of learning disabilities in Kosovo (KEC, 2006), which makes
us understand that the conditions for these children in Kosovo are in bad shape. This
assumption is supported by the empirical research done for this study in the above citations of
teachers.

The analyzed data indicates that beside the nine participants who were not aware of dyslexia,
the other teachers showed a somewhat knowledge of the term dyslexia. In other questions,
where they had to give a wider knowledge about dyslexia and children coping with dyslexia,
some alarming misconceptions were found. The alarming misconceptions found in this study
and the fact that one third of participants did not even fill out the whole form show a
considerable lack of knowledge of dyslexia among the primary school teachers of Prishtina.

29
8. DISSCUSION
The primary aim of this study is to analyze the awareness of the term dyslexia by primary
school teachers in Prishtina. Additional information is gathered concerning their knowledge
about dyslexia. Respectively the purpose is to provide a better understanding of participant’s
perceptions about dyslexia; to recognize if they are aware of their responsibilities to provide
equal opportunities and teaching approaches that meet the needs of all children; as well as to
see if they have any education regarding children with special needs. To fulfill this aim, I
collected information concerning their knowledge and exposure to the needs of children
coping with dyslexia. The present study shows that primary school teachers of Prishtina are
not fully aware of the term dyslexia. The study also found a presence of clear misconceptions
among teachers concerning dyslexia and its manifestations. However, some of the teachers
are aware of the children's needs and consider their role as educators as very important to help
these children cope better with their reading disability. Some of these teachers feel their role
is to direct children’s parents to a psychologist or other professionals, without being too much
involved in the process of helping them cope with their disability. This final section begins by
highlighting the methods and the results of this study. The results obtained from questionaries
answer the research question. They are discussed in detail after elaborating the methods used
for this study. In the end, a brief conclusion of the study is described.

8.1 Discussion of methods

In this subsection, the discussion of methods is presented. Various issues regarding the
choices of research methods and in some cases their subsequent adaptations are elaborated
here. The trustworthiness of the result using this method is also discussed. It continues by
showing the strengths and weaknesses of the method used in this thesis.

This study is a qualitative study that uses an open-ended and semi-structured questionnaire.
Open-ended questions in contrast to closed questions allow the respondent to respond without
any restriction giving the researcher unexpected answers (Robson, 2002, p. 275). As
presented in the method section, a qualitative tool consisting of 20 items is developed. This
tool is inspired by the DBI quantitative tool (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005). A detailed
literature review revealed that the DBI quantitative tool was used extensively in studies
sharing similar goal to the one presented in this thesis. In the very beginning, the plan was to
create a quantitative study by using the DBI tool. However, the different nature of Albanian
language meant that a lot of the items from DBI would need to be adapted. After contacting
the authors for their permission to use the tool, I found out that the tool is in the process of
being refined. These reasons made me change the method of my study and decided to use it
only as an inspiration. As mentioned in previous sections, the lack of research studies
concerning teachers knowledge of dyslexia made it hard to find an ideal tool for this study.
However, using the DBI tool as an inspiration and combining it with theoretical knowledge
from related literature concerning dyslexia I created a 20 items tool that was adapted to the
context of Prishtina. As it shown in chapter two, dyslexia can varry in its nature between
various languages. The DBI tool contained some questions that related to english speaking
people, which were not taken in consideration since the place where the study took place is
Albanian speaking language. The survey questions are created and arranged in a way that can
help the researcher answer the research questions and complete the purpose of the study
(Robson, 2002, p. 241). A pilot questionnaire is crucial for the design and development of a
study. For a good design, it is also crucial to have the questionnaire tested on family,
colleagues etc (Wellington & Sczerbinski, 2007). Thus, to test its trustworthiness a pilot
30
questionnaire was conducted prior to the study, and it was tested among friends, family and
then among two primary school teachers in Prishtina. The pilot study helped in improving the
questionnaire, i.e., it aided in making the questions more understandable and less ambiguous.

Questionaries are mainly used for quantitative research, but can also be qualitative, where
they seek to find out perceptions or peoples opinions of an issue. (Wellington & Sczerbinski,
2007). Questionaries especially open-ended can be time consuming for the respondent and
difficult to answer. Thus, it is important not to create a large number of questions. In this
thesis, the questionnaire does not consist of too many questions. The advantage of a
questionnaire is the administration of the data (Wellington & Sczerbinski, 2007). It is
important for the design of questionaries to start with straightforward closed questions and
continue with open-ended questions in the end (Wellington & Sczerbinski, 2007). The same
principle has been applied in this thesis as well; the questions start as closed questions and
continue with open-ended. The closed questions seek the matter of fact and open-ended
require opinions and feelings about the issue (Berg, 2007).

The results of the study might have been different if an additional open-ended interview were
to be assessed. Two teachers got help from the Internet when filing out the questionnaire. This
might hide the exact extent of the non-awareness of the teachers, as a it is unclear how many
respondents took answers from the Internet before or at the time of filling the questionnaires.
As mentioned before, the surveys were handed in two ways: via email and directly. One third
of the teachers who got their questionnaires directly, did not answer immediately. They took
the questionnaires at home and then handed them out after several days. This is why an
interview would be a better choice of finding out the awareness among teachers concerning
the term dyslexia. Of course not all the question could be learned or copied completely,
especially the ones pertaining to the teacher's personal opinion regarding children coping with
dyslexia. So, not all the answers were taken from the Internet. It is clear that at least one third
of the participants who did not answer the whole form did not check the answers from the
Internet and did not ask for help anywhere.

Two important limitations need to be considered. First, the small sample of participants is one
of the limitations of this study. Second, being unable to handle the surveys by my own is also
a limitation of the study. The study could be richer if there were a larger framework of a
qualitative study by including rural school teachers. Urban schools are known for a better
education system and more professional teachers. Therefore, it would be an extensive work if
the rural schools were involved in this study, to see if there is a difference between the
teachers awareness and knowledge concerning dyslexia. However, since there is a lack of
research concerning dyslexia in Kosovo, starting from one point is a good process.

8.2 Discussion of results

After sampling the data, an analysis of the data was assessed. During the analysis of the data,
various unexpected responses were found, resulting in a very interesting outcome. The result
of the analyzed data was split in subsections giving every question of the survey an important
part of the study. In this study, it was found that nine out of twenty-seven participants never
heard about dyslexia. These nine participants left most of the survey questions blank. They
only filled-in the demographic part and the first question, which they answered as “No I never
heard about dyslexia”. It was reported that the teachers asked if they could leave the
questioneer blank if not feeling sure what to write. This shows that the teachers were willing

31
to respond but were not able to fill out the form since they were not aware of the term
dyslexia. Two out of twenty-seven participants were disqualified. The reason behind the
disqualification of these two participants is the copied information concerning dyslexia. They
copied from Internet and then added the answers on the questionnaires as their own. Both of
these participants answered through electronic mail, so it is believed that they had enough
time to check the Internet to find information about dyslexia in different Albanian websites.
While trying to analyze their answers, a suspicion of copied material was raised. I copied the
teachers written paragraphs and passed in the Internet. It was clear that the same paragraphs
were also present in some Albanian websites. Moreover, two other participants who said they
heard about dyslexia, confirmed that the Internet alone was the source where they got to raise
their awareness of dyslexia. What is most striking of this result is that these Albanian
websites contain misconceptions on information concerning dyslexia. If non-official
Albanian websites are the main source of information concerning dyslexia for teachers, and if
these websites contain wrong or misleading data, consequences for the children might be dire.

The results of the study indicate that two third of the teachers are aware of the term dyslexia,
with nine of them confirming they never heard of it. The results also show a clear lack of
awareness of this learning difficulty among primary school teachers. They have clear
misconceptions of dyslexia, its characteristics and manifestations. Answers to the first
question (see Appendix 1), suggest that most of the teachers believed that dyslexia have to do
with reading problems, spelling, speaking, learning etc. Some of them labeled dyslexia as a
learning disability. This is supported by various authors where they claim that dyslexia is the
most common reading disability that is characterized by symptoms such as such as poor
spelling, reading fluency and difficulties in expressing themselves (Shaywitz & Shaywitz,
2004; Bishop & League, 2006; IDA, 2012; LD Online, 2007; Shaywitz, 2003). These
difficulties in spelling and fluent word recognition that correlate to poor phonological
processing, characterize dyslexia as a specific learning difficulty (IDA, 2008; Wadlington &
Wadlington, 2005; Gabrieli, 2009; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2005; Snowling, et al 2011). What
is considered as an unexpected result is that the minority of the respondents referred to
dyslexia as a disease, psychiatric and psychological disorder with pathologic causes such as
born with a “whole in a mouth palate”, “small tongue”, “nose inflammation”, “nose
hemorrhage”. It was expected to have a misconception of dyslexia, however, not with such
alarming results where teachers refer to it as a pathologic problem.

When asked if they are aware of the disadvantages and advantages of children coping with
dyslexia, the aim was to find out if the teachers are aware that these children can be gifted
with other skills. The teachers showed that they were not aware that these children can have
skills in other fields. According to research study people coping with dyslexia have above
average abilities. These skills like artistic abilities and creativity are rarely developed in
schools (Solvang, 2007).

The analysis of results showed that there are misconceptions about dyslexia's characteristics
among primary school teachers. Even though most of them mentioned, reading, spelling and
learning as a difficulty of dyslexia, they also emphasized "speaking" as a difficulty of
dyslexia. According to researchers, the speaking is not the prior difficulty of dyslexia as more
of a consequence of the difficulty of reading. According to IDA's definition the reading
problem "can impede the growth of vocabulary" (IDA, 2012, p. 1)., children coping with
dyslexia can end up having difficulties in growth of vocabulary. However, it does not mention
that these children might have problems in speaking. However, Williams&Lynch (2010) point
out that a characteristic of dyslexia is not only reading, writing and spelling but speaking as
32
well, but this is influenced by intelligence and educational opportunities. Williams&Lynch's
(2010), findings are particularly interesting in the context of this thesis, especially the
mentioning of educational opportunities which relates to the teacher's awareness and inclusion
of these children in the educational system.

Some of the teachers who responded to all the questions suggested that the children's needs
are very important. They said that teachers should be trained and well informed to address the
children's needs. They even showed motivation and enthusiasm of changing the conditions for
these children, by requiring from their schools to change the environment and make it more
welcoming and helping. Even though the teachers are not informed of dyslexia and other
learning disabilities they are willing to help these children and give their best to make these
children feel equal to others. However, there were some of the teachers who suggested that
these children's needs are to be addressed by professionals. A possible explanation for this
might be that the teachers think they cannot help these children, and that is why they need to
be treated by professionals. This indicates that teachers are not aware of the nature of
dyslexia, and as a result, they are not aware of these children's needs. That is why some
teachers are not familiar about their responsibilities towards such children. If the teachers are
aware of dyslexia and its manifestations, they might be able to have better approaches
towards these children. With wider knowledge of dyslexia, they can help these children in
many ways without thinking that these children need only professional help.

During the analysis of the data, it was found that primary school teachers of Prishtina do not
have courses for children with special needs during their education. Most of the teachers who
had their degree in Education claimed they did not have such courses at all. Their claim is
also supported by the data found in the website of Faculty of Education. According to Faculty
of Education program, the students have the opportunity to take courses for children with
special needs and learning difficulties. However, these two courses are available only as a
single subject courses in the last semester of the final year of study. These two courses are not
provided by the Faculty as mandatory courses. It is the prospective teachers who have to
decide if these courses are important or not to take during their studies. This shows why all
the teachers claimed they did not have courses concerning children with learning difficulties.
They also claimed that they did not have courses or seminars after their employment
concerning children with learning disabilities.

The teachers were asked to write about their school's role concerning children with dyslexia.
According to their responses not one of the four schools in Prishtina offer any environment
about these children. Concerning the role of schools for children with learning disabilities, the
respondents showed a real enthusiasm of what the schools should offer to improve children's
needs. The majority of teachers expressed the school's role is to offer the proper conditions so
these children can have a better life. They suggested that schools should offer trainings and
seminars to prepare the teachers to work with these children. This shows that the teachers
despite their lack of knowledge concerning dyslexia recognise their role as very important in
helping these children improve in their academic and life courses.

The legislation of Kosovo claims to offer childrens rights of education and inclusion. The
Preuniversity Education act, article 3 specifies that it is of "Ministry, the municipalities, the
educational and/or training institutions and all bodies" duty to ensure effective, inclusive,
professional service and equal opportunities for all children in case of education "in
accordance with their specific abilities and needs" (Assembly, Republic of Kosovo, 2011, p.
4). It can therefore be assumed that if the teachers do not have courses for pupils with special
33
needs during their education and their career as teachers and if the schools do not provide
good environment for these children, the Preuniversity Education act is just a written act that
does not apply in practice.

The demographics part of the questionnaire reveiled some interesting results about the
realtion between the teachers working experience and their knowledge concerning children
coping with dyslexia. The longer experienced teachers with only high school diploma,
showed a wider capacity of knowledge concerning children with difficulties in learning than
those with higher degrees and less experience as teachers. This indicates that the teachers who
had a longer working experience had the chance to meet various children. Its their experience
that made them more aware of children with learning difficulties and their needs. This finding
rises concerns about the readiness of younger and future teachers to face the described
challenges.

As mentioned in the theoretical background, many research studies related to the teachers
awareness concerning dyslexia in children suggest that there are misconceptions among these
educators (Wadlington and Wadlington 2005; Ashburn & Snow, 2011; Washburn et al., 2011
Lee, 2009). This support the findings of this study where it is shown that there are
misconceptions among teachers relating dyslexia in children. However, this thesis revealed
rather serious misconceptions of dyslexia among teachers in Prishtina. With these findings in
mind and the theory of inclusion of children with dyslexia discussed in the Chapter 5, it is
clear that without teachers basic knowledge concerning learning disability such as dyslexia,
the children cannot enjoy the good things in life and cannot be included as same as other
people in society. Normalization principle according to Nirje (1969), claims that people with
disabilities should enjoy the good things in life as same as other people. They should have the
normal rhythm of life same as other people do. With the teachers lack of knolwede, the
children coping with dyslexia might not have an equal opportunity to normal rhythm of life as
other children. Normalization principle and its purpose show the importance of teachers
knowledge of dyslexia and their approach to these children. Giving a warm environment and
supporting the nourishment of these children's knowledge is also another characteristic of
Normalization principle. Another very important notion which was a refined aproach of
Normalization that describes the importance of valuing devalued people, is SRV concept. The
concept of SRV means that society should strive to give a positive social role to devalued
individuals, by offering acceptance in society, respect, education, self belonging and other
things that make them feel valued in society. This can be possible only if the teachers are
aware of children with dyslexia and their needs. For them to be aware of their needs, they
have to possess proper knowledge concerning dyslexia. If the teachers cannot give their best
in class, by offering various approaches to all children then many of these children with
limited possibilities can end up excluded and discriminated. Attribution theory which is used
in social psychology, explains the phenomenon where people draw conclusions form their
observations of the actor’s behavior (Tetlock, 1985). There is a systematic bias in this
process, where the person has the tendency “to overestimate personality or dispositional
cases of behavior and to underestimate the influence of situational constraints on behavior”
(Tetlock, 1985). Because teachers are not aware of dyslexia's nature, children might get
victimized as described by the attribution theory which is discussed in detail in Chapter 5.
The teachers lack of knowledge concerning the nature of dyslexia can impact on their
judgment towards the children’s behavior and lead to ignoring them in class which means
discriminating or excluding them from other children who do not cope with these problems.
Some of the teachers showed a little bit knowledge of dyslexia by describing their working
experience. They mentioned cases where they had children who were self-withdrawn and had
34
low self-esteem in class. The attribution theory suggests that high achievers and low achievers
experience failures and success differently. It explains how low achievers put the blame on
themselves, in contrast to high achievers. It can be suggested that children coping with
dyslexia with their reading difficulties can blame themselves, thinking they are poor readers.
The awareness of teachers is thus important to help these children have better expectations of
themselves so they can have a better life.

Even though the rights of inclusion to education and rights of people with disabilities are well
defined in legislation of Kosovo, and despite the increased recognition of children rights on
inclusion there is a significant gap between theory and practice concerning these issues.
Teacher's misconceptions concerning dyslexia shows an urgent need to make changes such as
preparing them to work with these children, so they do not feel left out academically and
socially. It is of high importance for these children to be treated as properly as possible in
school and outside the school so they can be included in society. As it is mentioned in early
chapters, the education has an important role upon the quality of life of a person. The teachers
lack of knowledge concerning dyslexia is a social problem since it can affect in the
development of childrens learning skills, and have negative influence further in their life. The
lack of sucficient knowledge concerning dyslexia may cause social problems, such as failing
in education, employment and segregation of society. These common threats affect not only
those coping with this learning disability but their families and the society as well. The
immature lingusitis skill can have an negative affect on the social life of a person, and this is a
social matter of social work.

8.3 Conclusion
This thesis has analysed primary teachers awareness of the term dyslexia in children.
Additionally the study set out to gather information concerning their knowledge and exposure
to the needs of children coping with dyslexia; to provide a better understanding of
participant's perception about dyslexia, their responsibilities, and their roles as teachers to
offer equal opportunities to the needs of children coping with dyslexia. One of the significant
findings to emerge from this thesis is that the primary teacher's of Prishtina have a clear
misconception of dyslexia. The results of this study support the idea that the lack of
knowledge among teachers about this term places these children at risk of being discriminated
and excluded from academia and society.

The findings from this study make several contributions to the current literature. First it is the
only study in Prishtina that deals with teachers knowledge concerning dyslexia. Second, it
deals with children coping with dyslexia and the possibility of getting discriminated and
excluded. Third, it analyses the application of Kosovo's legislation in context of existing
international norms and standards. Kosovo’s legislation is well defined concerning various
roles of different state institutions in ensuring inclusion for children coping with different
disabilities, but such claims of Kosovo's legislation are not applied in practice.

The lack of literature and research studies related to the current condition of Kosovo
concerning teachers and children with learning disabilities is a drawback. However, this
drawback proves the need for more research in this direction, which is exactly what this thesis
is doing. Notwithstanding these limitations, the findings of this thesis point out on a direction
that primary teachers of Pristina have a lack of awareness concerning dyslexia.

35
More information on teachers awareness of dyslexia would help to establish a greater degree
of accuracy on the matter of children with dyslexia and their needs. This study open the
possibility for many various future works. First, it gives space to research the primary school
teachers education system. It would be interesting to investigate how they get prepared during
their studies to meet all children's needs. Second, a wider study concerning teachers
awareness concerning dyslexia in children is appropriate, including schools from rural areas.
Third, and more importantly a research for the conditions of children with dyslexia and their
rights of inclusion in society would be more than needed since there is a lack of research
concerning children with dyslexia.

36
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 Appendix 1: 20 items of open-ended
questionnaire

Dear primary school teachers,

This survey is a part of the master thesis project at the Linnaeus University in Sweden, which
focuses on recognizing the awareness of primary school teachers regarding the term dyslexia.
It involves teachers that teach the children of grades 1-5 school years. I hope that you will
take time to fill out this form.

This survey consists of 14 questions where you can answer while writing. You will be able to
answer also 6 demographic questions. The survey should not take longer than 15 minutes.
Your participation is voluntarily and your answers are confidential. Your responses will
be used and shared with my dissertation supervisor and other staff at Linnaeus
University in Sweden.

Your answers will advocate us identify the dyslexia awareness among teachers. This can also
help raise the awareness of dyslexia among teachers and consequently improve the conditions
of children with reading problems in mainstream schools.

I look forward to learning about your perceptions of dyslexia. If you have any questions
regarding this study and the survey you can contact me on [email protected].

Age:

Gender:

When did you finish your education?

What country and University did you get your degree?

What is your major?

How long have you been working as a teacher?

41
1. Have you ever heard about dyslexia? If yes, what do you know about it?

2. If you had to explain the term "dyslexia" to a friend, how would you explain it?

3. How would you describe a dyslexic child?

42
4. How will you know if a child might have dyslexia?

5. What might cause dyslexia?

43
6. Do you know if and how dyslexia can be treated?

7. What are the advantages/disadvantages for children coping with dyslexia?

44
8. Name some of the academic problems that dyslexic children have?

9. What are the differences between a dyslexic child and a non-dyslexic child?
45
10. What kind of needs do children with dyslexia have?

11. What is the teacher’s role if they encounter children with dyslexia in their class?
46
12. What is the schools role if it encounters children with dyslexia?

47
13. During your education, did you take courses on children with special needs? If no,
why? And do you think that these types of courses should be compulsory?

14. If you have something to add, please do so:

Thank you for your participation.

Best regards,
Qefsere Jusufi

48
 Appendix 2: Letters to teachers and director

Dear school director,

This project focuses on recognizing the awareness of primary school teachers regarding the
term dyslexia. It involves teachers that teach the children of grades 1-5 school years.
This survey consists of 14 questions where you can answer while writing. The teachers will
be able to answer also 6 demographic questions. The survey should not take longer than 15
minutes. The teacher’s participation is voluntarily and their answers are confidential.

Allowing this project to continue its work will advocate us identify the dyslexia awareness
among teachers. This can also help raise the awareness of dyslexia among teachers and
consequently improve the conditions of children with reading problems in mainstream
schools.

If you have any questions regarding this study and the survey you can contact me on
[email protected].

Thank you for your participation.

Best regards,
Qefsere Jusufi

Dear primary school teachers,

This survey is a part of the master thesis project at the Linnaeus University in Sweden, which
focuses on recognizing the awareness of primary school teachers regarding the term dyslexia.
It involves teachers that teach the children of grades 1-5 school years. I hope that you will
take time to fill out this form.

This survey consists of 14 questions where you can answer while writing. You will be able to
answer also 6 demographic questions. The survey should not take longer than 15 minutes.
Your participation is voluntarily and your answers are confidential.

Your answers will advocate us identify the dyslexia awareness among teachers. This can also
help raise the awareness of dyslexia among teachers and consequently improve the conditions
of children with reading problems in mainstream schools.

I look forward to learning about your perceptions of dyslexia. If you have any questions
regarding this study and the survey you can contact me on [email protected].

Thank you for your participation.

Best regards,
Qefsere Jusufi

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