'It broke my heart': An investigation of ableist microaggressions towards mothers of Australian dyslexic children in primary school

Article

Leslie, Rachel. 2025. "'It broke my heart': An investigation of ableist microaggressions towards mothers of Australian dyslexic children in primary school." Disability and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2025.2450533
Article Title

'It broke my heart': An investigation of ableist microaggressions towards mothers of Australian dyslexic children in primary school

ERA Journal ID35345
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsLeslie, Rachel
Journal TitleDisability and Society
Number of Pages24
Year2025
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN0968-7599
1360-0508
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2025.2450533
Web Address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2025.2450533
Abstract

Mothers of dyslexic children take on additional responsibilities such as interacting with their children’s educators as a means to support their children’s education. While this allyship is seen as beneficial to the well-being and academic outcomes of the children, these parent-school interactions can often be fraught with challenges. This paper reports on semi-structured interviews with 10 Australian mothers of dyslexic children and the microaggressions that were evident in their interactions with their children’s educators. Employing qualitative content analysis, the study determined that many of Keller and Galgay (2010) domains of ableist microaggressions were communication to parents and conveyed messages that demeaned either the children or the mothers. The findings indicate that mothers experience ableist microaggressions both vicariously through their children’s experiences and as a primary adjacent experience as part of their allyship to their child.

KeywordsDyslexia; Parent-school partnerships; Allyship; School-based experiences; Microaggressions; Ableism
Contains Sensitive ContentDoes not contain sensitive content
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020390407. Inclusive education
390203. Sociology of education
Public Notes

The accessible file is the accepted version of the paper. Please refer to the URL for the published version.

Byline AffiliationsSchool of Education
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