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Peer mentoring groups as spaces for creatively exploring ways of re-conceptualizing the self Sharon Gallagher, University of
East London (U.K). This paper examines how useful a peer mentoring group can be for undergraduates with disability/health issues in re-conceptualizing ‘broken selves’ and aiding their learning. The paper is based on a qualitative study of the support experiences and requirements of students with disabilities, including language issues such as dyslexia, and physical and mental health problems. The preliminary findings draw on fifteen participants, who completed semi structured questionnaires on support experiences and requirements and then participated in a weekly peer mentoring group for three months. Participant observation records were kept of all sessions by the two peer mentors. The majority of participants have chronic illness and/or mental health issues; some have physical disabilities. The paper uses a psychosocial perspective and examines how the group has sustained an eclectic approach to coping strategies (Lazarus 1976) that includes dealing with the uncertainties of their conditions and coping with loss of self (Charmaz 1983:168). This is further explored through a psychoanalytical and Foucauldian perspective. The group’s various interpretations of coping, suggest that the interaction of needs in the group is a valid means of support, endorsing other studies on the use of self help groups (Coppa and Boyle 2003:18) The notion that there was an ‘invisibility of disability’ within this group is explored. The majority of group members had no visible sign of their disability and had difficulty in conceptualizing themselves within socially constructed notions of disability, as if they resided in the land between the kingdoms of the healthy and the sick (Sontag 1979:3). The paper looks at the stigma that was nevertheless strongly felt by undergraduates with disabilities, especially those with mental health issues. The undergraduates with chronic illnesses tended to focus in the group on finding inclusive ways of reading their variable body idioms. The study suggests that the group has opened up a holistic psychosocial approach to the problems faced by undergraduates with physical/mental disability and health issues. The evidence so far suggests that this group has given the undergraduates a means to explore a more creative approach to understanding a self that may feel broken. This space can allow them to negotiate more beneficial conceptualizations of selves within the academic world.
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