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Writing Centers as Rebel Spaces:

Tutor and Client Stories of ADHD, Neurodivergence and Mental Health

Ghada Seifeddine

NCPTW Conference

October 28, 2022

Slide 1: Writing Centers as Rebel Spaces: Tutor and Client Stories of ADHD, Neurodivergence, and Mental Health [1 min.]

Hello, everyone. My name is Ghada Seifeddine. I use pronouns she/her/hers. I’m a second-year Ph.D. student, studying Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University with specialties in public rhetorics and writing studies. I’m also a graduate writing consultant and the assistant director of undergraduate tutor education at Purdue Writing Lab.
My presentation, “Writing Centers as Rebel Spaces” aims to unwrap the often-hidden stories of writing center tutors and clients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in an attempt to understand their positionality in the writing center space, including their perceptions of past tutoring sessions, as well as ways of support that tutors and clients who are neurodivergent want.

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Overview

Backstory and research questions
Terminology
Literature: What’s out there? What’s missing?
Methods and participants
Results and discussion
Implications & next Steps

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Backstory and Research Questions

How do tutors and clients with ADHD perceive their tutoring sessions?
How can tutors and clients with ADHD be supported in the writing center space? And what barriers limit their access to the support they want?

Slide 3: Background Story & Research Questions [1:15]

First, I’d like to share my backstory that got me to my study. Usually when I disclose my identity in academia, or to friends and fellow colleagues, it is to disclose that I am an Arab Muslim woman and international graduate student from Beirut, Lebanon. Today though, I’m disclosing that I am a learner and tutor with ADHD.
Two years ago, around this time in October, I was diagnosed with ADHD, which until that moment, went undiagnosed for many years. Since then, I have become more aware about having ADHD and sought conversations with friends and colleagues who are neurodivergent themselves.
In one of my F2F sessions, I encountered a client who disclosed having ADHD in the middle of our conversation. This happened a month after I received my diagnosis. I blurted out, “I have ADHD too!”. It was the first time I came out in the writing lab since I was first diagnosed. After the session, I found myself reflecting on what it means to have ADHD as a tutor and what happens in a tutoring session.
This experience prompted me to develop research questions about tutoring and writing with ADHD, and today, I focus on two of my research questions for this presentation:
How do tutors and clients with ADHD perceive their tutoring sessions?
How can tutors and clients with ADHD be supported in the writing center space? And what barriers limit their access to the support they want?
Because I am discussing ADHD, I’d like to clarify some terminology you’ll encounter throughout the slides.

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Terminology

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Developmental disorder
Affects brain development and activity

Neurodiversity

“[D]iversity of human minds” (Walker, 2014)

Neurodivergence

Divergence in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical

Ableism

Set of ideas that value physical, mental, and social ability (Dolmage, 2017)

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Literature: What’s Out There?

Disability research in writing centers (Babcock, 2015; Babcock & Daniels, 2017; Daniels et al., 2015)
Universal design learning, spatial accessibility, & multimodality in writing centers (Hitt, 2012; Kleinfeld, 2018)
Neurodivergence in tutor consultants & admins (Batt, 2018; Degner et al., 2015)
Stigma and disclosure among students and tutors with ADHD (Garbus, 2017; Stark & Wilson, 2016; Zmudka, 2018)

Slide 5: Literature: What’s Out There? [30-40 sec]

In the past six years or so, writing center work has explored its intersection with disability research. More is being said on Universal Design Learning (UDL), multimodality, and spatial accessibility in the writing center space. If you want to read more about this, you’ll find a focused list of sources in the shared Google Drive if you scan the QR code I shared.
Much more recent work on neurodivergence among tutor consultants, admins, and faculty, as in Batt (2018), and Degner, Wojciehowski and Giroux (2015).
When it comes to research on ADHD in the writing center, Stark and Wilson (2016) talks about students’ experiences with ADHD in the writing center, focusing on their concerns of disclosure. Garbus (2017) and Zmudka (2018) focus on admins and tutors. They share their own experiences with ADHD as admin and tutor respectively.
Reading their stories made me think about how much more work we need to do in collaboration with neurodivergent tutors and clients.

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Literature: What’s Missing?

More scholarly conversation about tutors and clients with ADHD in the writing center

Pilot study at Purdue Writing Lab

Slide 6: Literature: What’s Missing? [1 min]

This is where my story and questions come in. Current writing center scholarship on ADHD among clients and tutors remains rare. The literature has focused on ways to reconfigure the writing center as a welcoming space that listens to a learner’s needs, or a space that is aware of the neurodiverse pool of students that walk into the center. To expand that research, we need to think about how neurodivergent identities of clients, consultants, and admins exist and emerge in this space. We also need to consider how an invisible disability, like ADHD, affects tutors and clients alike in the writing center, and perhaps in the academic institution where they belong.
This is where my pilot study comes in. I wanted to center the experiences of tutors and clients with ADHD and converse with them about their experiences in the writing center, their writing and tutoring, as well as potential observations they’ve had about the WC space.
With that in mind, my pilot study at Purdue Writing Lab is a preliminary one; its data can’t bring conclusive evidence about tutors and clients with ADHD, their stories and the kind of support they want. However, this pilot study has allowed me to explore the potential, importance, and impact of this topic in future research. It also allowed me to explore further questions in my research on neurodivergence in writing spaces.

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Methods & Participants

Pilot survey

Sent to Purdue Writing Lab tutor contact list for Fall 2021
10 survey questions

ADHD diagnosis/identification and disclosure
Lab support for tutors and clients

17 out of 50 tutors responded

8 out of 17 tutors with ADHD

56 out of 1100 clients responded

23 out of 56 clients with ADHD

Interviews

2 tutor interviews and 5 client interviews

Multiple cycles of coding the interview responses

Slide 7: Methods & Participants [3 min]

My pilot study first consisted of a pilot survey followed by semi-structured interviews.

Survey

The pilot study consisted of a short survey followed by a set of interviews with tutors and clients who filled out the survey and volunteered for an interview
After receiving IRB approval and access to Purdue Writing Lab’s tutor and client contact list for Fall 2021, I sent the survey to fellow tutors and clients.
The survey featured 10 survey questions. All survey respondents were asked about possible ways to provide support for tutors with ADHD, with the chance to write in their own open-ended responses.
Of the 50 tutors who were sent the pilot survey, 17 tutors responded. Out of the 17 tutors, 8 tutors disclosed their ADHD.
Of the 1100 clients who were sent the pilot survey, 56 clients responded. Out of the 56 clients, 23 clients disclosed their ADHD. Here, I would like to note that I asked whether tutors and clients have been diagnosed or self-identify as having ADHD (because participants might not have access to getting a medical diagnosis)
While I did not get a high response rate, I assume that tutors and clients who identified as having ADHD were more prone to responding to the survey because they had ADHD. Maybe other tutors and clients did not think they could answer questions about tutoring with ADHD, or were not quite familiar with the topic. Again, this is a pilot survey, so I’m not claiming that my list of participants is highly representative.

Interviews

The survey’s last questions asked tutors and clients with ADHD if they’re interested in being interviewed on Zoom.
While I initially got more responses from tutors and clients for an interview, some of them changed their minds and preferred not to be interviewed.
The interview questions tackled their ADHD diagnosis, their writing lab experiences with ADHD, effective approaches in consultations, suggestions on the kind of support they need. I also asked them about their writing strengths and struggles when it comes to ADHD (but that’s a topic for another day).
For the scope of my presentation, I will focus on the on the interviews with the tutors and clients with ADHD. I think it’ll be interesting for us—as tutors, admins, and practitioners—to listen to and reflect on what tutors and clients with ADHD are sharing.
Here, I’d like to note that I went through multiple cycles of coding my data both on NVivo and manually to detect possible codes that emerge from my data, besides my prefigured coding schema.

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Interview Results

Writing lab experiences of tutors and clients
Ways to support tutors and clients with ADHD
Tutoring approaches in consultations
Writing process and neurodivergence

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Clients’ WC Experiences

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Culture of understanding and listening

“I don’t know if I explicitly told the tutor I had ADHD, but thinking about my symptoms, I struggle with reverse outlining, so the sessions really helped. I described what my problems were with writing rather than saying I have ADHD. Definitely just talking through it was good, this kind of back and forth conversation to distill my ideas in writing.” (Client 2)

Slide 10: Culture of understanding and listening. [1 min]

Throughout all five interviews with clients with ADHD, clients expressed that their experience in the Writing Lab helped them grow as writers in a comfortable low-stakes environment. Some clients did note that the more successful consultations took place when their tutor provided clear feedback with follow-up questions and options to keep the communication going. Clients also said that communication was best when their tutors listened to their needs, and for clients whose sessions were email-based or virtual, that listening took the form of providing detailed and conversational feedback with a positive and encouraging tone.
For example, client 2 shared that they focused on addressing their problems with writing and didn’t find a need to disclose their ADHD.

“I don’t know if I explicitly told the tutor I had ADHD, but thinking about my symptoms, I struggle with reverse outlining, so the sessions really helped. I described what my problems were with writing rather than saying I have ADHD. Definitely just talking through it was good, this kind of back and forth conversation to distill my ideas in writing.”

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Culture of understanding and listening

“I tell my friends with ADHD to go because I promise the tutors do it in a way that is not overwhelming. They don't make you feel dumb, which is an experience I've definitely been into during tutoring situations where I felt judged, and that makes you never want to go back to the tutor. I wish more people would just utilize the Lab, but I understand why some people don't.

It's intimidating. The process of having to sit down and explain yourself can feel embarrassing. I know it's not an embarrassing thing, but it feels icky almost, for a lack of better terms, to sit there and explain to someone who is neurotypical why you have trouble organizing sentences and that process can be really frustrating. So, I understand why people don't utilize it.” (Client 1)

Slide 11: Culture of understanding and listening [1 min]

Another client also remarked that more students should utilize the writing center. To this client, the writing lab was a supportive environment where tutors will listen and not judge—it’s a neurodiverse space for all. When I asked her why she thinks some of her friends with ADHD don’t utilize the Lab, she said the following.

“It’s intimidating. The process of having to sit down and explain yourself can feel embarrassing. I know it's not an embarrassing thing, but it feels icky almost, for a lack of better terms, to sit there and explain to someone who is neurotypical why you have trouble organizing sentences and that process can be really frustrating.”

Her explanation made me think about the concept of disclosure in our writing centers, writing spaces, and even the institutions where these learning spaces reside. This makes me ask: What institutional barriers get in the way of students, WC admins, and staff with disabilities and mental health concerns wanting to disclose but feeling afraid or embarrassed to? What dangers are attached to that disclosure? And what can the writing center space do to push for more equitable and inclusive policies that could possibly lead to a shift in the institution’s structure?

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Academic and institutional barriers

“My high school was a pretty ableist environment, and I didn't have ADHD at the time, I had a learning disability.” (Client 1)

“I can’t think of any particular frustrating sessions at the writing lab, but in high school, when I was trying to get help with writing, I felt like they weren’t listening…. Sometimes, the tutor wasn’t patient enough to hear me out and let me go on my tangent to explain what I’m trying to say and then organize my ideas.” (Client 2)

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Academic and institutional barriers

“When I went to the disability office as an undergrad and told them about my disability. They told me my GPA and grades were fine. It frustrated me. That's actually why I became a teacher because we're not dumb, we can learn… When Purdue shot me down on that one, I re-enrolled for my second masters and got a scholarship. Things were more against me then.” (Client 5)

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Multimodal accessibility in tutoring

Spatial

“My tutor gave me the option to be on camera or off-camera, which I appreciate because sometimes I feel like actually seeing someone, kind of like with body doubling sessions. It’s actually helpful to keep me on task.” (Client 3)

Visual

“I usually tell them up front, I have ADD. I also have Asperger Syndrome, which basically means that I don’t pick up on tone and emotion, so precise feedback in the comment bubbles help me out.” (Client 4)

Temporal

“Since I am ADHD, I always block off an hour instead of half an hour because I need the extra support, and some tutors are really good at giving me detailed feedback on how to make my writing sound better.” (Client 5)

Slide 13: Multimodal accessibility in tutoring [45 sec]

I also asked clients to share any past tutoring sessions they found it to be successful or frustrating. Several discussed what worked best for them. Client 3 appreciated their camera-on sessions because they were like “body doubling sessions” that “[kept] them on task”. Client 4—who has ADD and disclosed having Asperger Syndrome—said they only sign up for e-tutoring sessions because they benefit the most from having visual feedback in the form of comment bubbles. Client 5 stated that they always book one-hour long sessions because they want detailed feedback.
This makes me wonder what other multimodal or sensory accessabilities can we provide to clients with ADHD, so we can better support them. It also makes me think about what else we need to consider when it comes to our writing center’s modes of accessibility. What is working? And what can we improve?

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Tutors’ WC Experiences

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Neurodivergence and Gender

“I had some pretty bad sessions when I first started because of my ADHD, so now I try to be honest about my sort of limitations. For some people, it's harder to be open, but to me, it's got something to do with the fact that I'm trans too. I want to get it all out there. It's not like I'm a stealthy trans person, you know I’m trans as soon as you see me. I feel that way about ADHD and autism too. It really helps to say up front how I have this thing, and I need to do things in a certain way because it will more helpful for the session.” (Tutor 2)

Slide 16: Neurodivergence and Gender [1min]

When Tutor 2 shared their experience in the Lab, they highlighted the different facets of their identity. To them, neurodivergence constitutes one aspect of who they are.
Tutor Response: “I had some pretty bad sessions when I first started because of my ADHD, so now I try to be honest about my sort of limitations. For some people, it's harder to be open, but to me, it's got something to do with the fact that I'm trans too. I want to get it all out there. It's not like I'm a stealthy trans person, you know I’m trans as soon as you see me. I feel that way about ADHD and autism too. It really helps to say up front how I have this thing, and I need to do things in a certain way because it will more helpful for the session.” (Tutor 2)
The tutor didn’t think of their neurodivergence in a vacuum, which made me realize that when we want to talk about neurodivergence, we must also think about what other aspects of one’s identity play a role or interject with one’s Lab experience at different moments, including gender, race, religion, nationality, and ethnicity.
For example, someone like me comes from a culture that considers talking about my ADHD a taboo topic. Some might even find it absurd that I have ADHD or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) because how can one be in a PhD program abroad and have ADHD.

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Neurodivergence and Training

“[W]e did have a whole day in our staff education course on neurodivergence. Because of my diagnosis, I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I need to start looking more into this.’ And I found that there isn't a lot of research, but we did have conversations [in the course].” (Tutor 1)

Slide 17: Neurodivergence and Training [40 sec]

Tutor 1 share their experience as a tutor in relation to their professional role. Note that at the time I interviewed the tutor, they had recently got their official diagnosis, which shifted the way they conducted tutor education training.
Interview Response: “We did have a whole day in our staff education course on neurodivergence. Because of my diagnosis, I was like, ‘okay I guess I need to start looking more into this.’ And I found that there isn't a lot of research, but we did have conversation [in the course].”
My fellow tutor’s response might imply that we, as tutors and admins in the writing lab, need to look into further research on neurodivergence, including ADHD, that will help in crafting better staff education and resources.

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Ways to Support Tutors and Clients with ADHD

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Ways to Support Clients with ADHD

“Having awareness of how neurodivergent people operate…. keeping me accountable to actually work and reassuring me I’m on the right track.” (Client 3)
“Going step by step with patience” (Client 1)
“Providing access to quiet rooms” (Client 2)
“Giving options… instead of being forced to fit into some routine that doesn’t work for us.” (Client 3)
“Offering longer time slots to break things down” (Client 2); “I wish there was a way to say, ‘Hey, I have ADHD, I need two hours with the same person.’” (Client 5)

Slide 19: Ways to Support Clients with ADHD [1:15]

In my client interviews, I noticed an overlap in the types of support that clients wanted, and I included excerpts here. Clients with ADHD recommended the Writing Lab and their tutors to:

Have awareness of how neurodivergent people work, providing reassurance, accountability, and patience. Clients also found it more helpful if their tutors gave them options in a session, instead of resorting to a specific structure or format in a session.
Several clients also told me that they need more access to the Writing Lab, such as offering longer time slots at the Lab. Some wanted access to quiet rooms for their session.

As an assistant director of tutor education, and an aspiring WC director, I am continuously thinking about how I could include conversations/training about neurodivergence and mental health of clients (and tutors alike), which I know is an immense scope. I am also aware that developing our tutor education curriculum requires time to build and incorporate. In tutoring training and education, I need to cover multiple topics within a one semester course, so where does neurodivergence fit in? Is there a way to use neurodivergence as the framework to build the training/tutor education courses? The same goes for self-paced learning modules about neurodivergence.

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Ways to Support Tutors with ADHD

“I think we have a cultural problem that frames neurodivergence as a challenge that we must overcome. It’s like we’ve gotten to a point where it’s okay to be neurodivergent for the most part, but accommodations are considered roadblocks that a person has. I think, especially for ADHD, we need to not frame it that way, in this sort of environment, because there are things that ADHD advantages you in, with being a tutor.” (Tutor 2)

Slide 20: Ways to Support Tutors with ADHD [1 min]

As for tutor support, one of the tutors bring up a good point about how we need to talk about the cultural problem, or perhaps stigma, that frames neurodivergence as a challenge. They state that “I think we have a cultural problem that frames neurodivergence as a challenge that we must overcome. It’s like we’ve gotten to a point where it’s okay to be neurodivergent for the most part, but accommodations are considered roadblocks that a person has. I think, especially for ADHD, we need to not frame it that way, in this sort of environment, because there are things that ADHD advantages you in, with being a tutor.” (Tutor 2)
This makes me think of how tutors and clients with disabilities, including ADHD, might still face backlash or shaming when asking for accommodations. Accommodations are treated like a crutch, rather than a way to level the neurodiverse field.

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Ways to Support Tutors with ADHD

“I would encourage them to develop an individualized tutoring stance… And think about how [ADHD] isn't a limitation when they're tutoring but instead it’s going to shape the way that they work with people, and to think about how that can be productive, useful and fruitful for them, and how can it be something that they embrace.” (Tutor 1)

Slide 21: Ways to Support Tutors with ADHD [1:15 min]

We could also think about the ways in which we, as neurodivergent tutors, can support ourselves, and encourage others to think of how ADHD shapes the way tutors work with people.
Interview Response: “I would encourage them to develop an individualized tutoring stance… And think about how [ADHD] isn't a limitation when they're tutoring but instead it’s going to shape the way that they work with people, and to think about how that can be productive, useful and fruitful for them, and how can it be something that they that they embrace.”
When I was first diagnosed, I started comparing myself with other tutors and belittling my tutoring efforts. I thought I needed to work more/harder, or else clients will notice the ADHD. After conversing with fellow tutors, Lab’s associate director Vicki, and our Lab director Harry, I soon realized how wrong my thinking was. I started finding my individualized tutoring stance: what works for my sessions, how to approach clients, and make the session productive for both ends.
I wonder how this tutor stance can be implemented in pedagogical approaches to training tutors.

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Writing Lab as Rebel Space

”[To] acknowledge that the systems/structures in place with the University/academia writ large are what make ADHD disabling. Acknowledge and explore the possibilities of the writing lab as third or rebel space which can help our students find ways to think using the ways their brains actually formed, rather than upholding the structures of academia to try and fit them into a neurotypical mold. That's a losing game."

Slide 22: Writing Lab as Rebel Space [1:30]

Before I get into implications and next steps, I do want to go back to the title of my presentation, “Writing Centers as Rebel Spaces: Tutor and Client Stories of ADHD, Neurodivergence, and Mental Health”, and shed light on where the term “rebel space” in my title comes from.
In one of the survey’s open-ended responses, when a tutor with ADHD was asked about the support they want, the tutor pointed out that we need to explore the writing lab as a rebel or third space and understand that the current systems in place make ADHD disabling.
The tutor’s response shaped how I ask questions and conduct research, and confirmed to me that we need to build up writing centers where neurodivergence is not an exception or something to be ignored. Perhaps thinking of the writing center space as a rebel space means we are not there yet, and we need to continuously speak up as neurodivergent tutors, admins, directors, and clients with ADHD. There will be times when doing so might be frowned upon and even dangerous, but when that is the case, it means there’s much to do as advocates for a more inclusive and neurodiverse space.
Perhaps rebelling means to come out as we are, against the stigma and institutional tendency to fitting its students, staff and faculty into a “neurotypical mold”. The first step to do so could be asking about the potential barriers, including institutional barriers, that limit neurodivergent tutors and clients from coming out as they are and attaches a social stigma surrounding their disability.

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Implications & Next Steps

More collaborative conversations with tutors and clients to develop pragmatic approaches to tutor education & training
Continuous assessment of the environment, consultation structure, and accessibility needs in the lab
Shift in individual & institutional ideas about neurodivergence & ADHD

Actualize tutor and client support

Slide 23: Implications and Next Steps [2 min]

This is a pilot study, which means that my implications are primary and will need to be studied further.
However, the results turn attention to tutors and clients with ADHD’s experiences in the Lab and what they themselves think might be of support to them.
Like the literature suggests, there is much more to learn about ADHD in the writing lab space, and more collaborative conversations with tutors and clients will help to develop pragmatic approaches to tutor education and training.
Our support for tutors and clients with ADHD, as is the case for neurodivergent individuals who utilize the lab or work in the lab, involves

thinking about how they embody the space of the writing lab, how the structure of the consultation could more diverse and adaptive, and what accessibility issues still reside in WC spaces.
This means continuous assessment to reflect on and take action on how we can enhance our writing center space and promote anti-ableist language and practices that drive our neurodivergent population at the Lab to reach out, rather than remain silent or hesitant to ask for support.

In terms of next steps, this pilot study has pushed me to think more about how we can change the individual and institutional ideas about neurodivergence and ADHD. As Babcock & Daniels (2017) note, we need to follow-through and work on actualizing the policies and models we’ve been using to talk about neurodivergence, including ADHD.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we can make the necessary changes in our pedagogies and spaces so they are more accommodating, equitable, and inclusive. Why can’t that be the rule, rather than the exception?
I hope that talking about what these stories of tutors and clients with ADHD would prompt administrators and practitioners to plan their future tutor education and training around disability studies literacy in their own writing centers, and even collaborate with faculty from across disciplines, or with resource centers.
I also hope this empower tutors, clients, and WC staff to continue telling their stories, and encourage others to do the same.

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Questions?

Ghada Seifeddine

gseifedd@purdue.edu