UCU Life Changers Text

Bringing
hope
Dr Janine Talley
Sally Wilcox,
Carol Hakins and
Jim Addison
Professor
Dick Hobbs
Pat Wilkinson
Dr Janine Talley
Open University
It was an unexpected phone conversation. ’I got a call
from a new student in my group, Terry Rush-Morgan,
saying: ’Hi, I’m one of your students, and I’m going to
send you my assignment. And when you get it, I don’t
want you to think that I’m insulting you and that I
haven’t put any time into it. What you’re going to get is
probably a page of block capitals.’
It was 1998, just after the start of Dr Janine Talley’s
Open University Health and Disease course for that
year. ’I said that I wouldn’t
’My children do not see
their disabilities as a
barrier to success.
That is a direct result of
Janine inspiring me.’
be offended by anything
that someone sent in,’ Dr
Talley recalls. ’I told him to
do what he could and I’d
have a look at it.
’And lo and behold,
something like that
arrived. It was something I
had not seen before, with
unusual features such as letters out of order in the
words. I’d met Terry at tutorials, and he was the most
stunningly vivacious, enthusiastic and bright person.
None of it matched.’
Terry had worked as a carer for many years, and at
the time worked as a healthcare assistant in a mental
health unit in Bolton. By now in his mid-forties, he knew
that spelling wasn’t his strong point. ’I’d always gone
through school being told ‘You’re thick‘, comments on
my school report like ‘Your writing is atrocious and your
spelling is worse‘. I had that all through school,’ he says.
Dr Talley immediately spotted the signs of dyslexia.
’He’d been
written off and
nobody had ever
thought about it
by the sounds of
it. I thought, why
on earth has
nobody ever
bothered to look
into this or pick
this up?’
She arranged
for Terry to see a
specialist who
could make a
diagnosis. ’A
while later I got
this call from
Terry. ‘Janine! Janine! Janine! I’m dyslexic!’ And I said,
‘Fantastic!’ Because actually, a reason had been
discovered for why he wasn’t meeting his potential. His
whole world changed as a result, because he was then
able to do some things to improve his performance.’
’If I hadn’t had Janine physically help me to get
assessed for dyslexia, I probably would have failed the
first year and then dropped out,’ says Terry. Instead, he
was able to complete the year, and subsequently his
degree.
Dr Talley, who has worked at the OU for nearly 20 years,
sees Terry’s case as part of its core mission. ’The Open
University’s philosophy is about removing barriers to
access. Some cases might be about time, illness, a family
commitment. A lot of what you do is helping people get
through practically. You use your knowledge and your
skills in the system to enable people to keep going.’
But even where there are no personal barriers at play,
Dr Talley says that courses she has
taught, which relate to health and
health promotion, are about
transforming people’s perceptions.
’A lot of health workers feel terrible
pressure to make people’s lives
better and they can’t always do it.
One woman was almost despairing
when she started the course, but by
the end was incredibly liberated
because she didn’t feel responsible for how people’s
lives were. The reality is that it’s not her job to change
people.’
Dr Talley started teaching at the OU after taking a
course there herself. She says she went into teaching to
help other people fulfil their potential.
’Personal transformation doesn’t come about in
isolation. It comes about through your interactions with
other people.
’I’ve achieved what I have because somewhere along
the way, some people have believed in me. Things like
getting a PhD, I got through that because of somebody’s
belief in me. It’s so important to believe
in people, and to believe that they can be
everything they can be. It’s wonderful to enable
people to do that.’
She still keeps in contact with Terry, even
swapping knitting patterns. Terry now lectures
at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College,
teaching Health and Social Care from level one
to foundation degree.
’The belief I got off Janine has totally inspired
me to want to help others who are in a position
like me. The people on foundation degrees
often haven’t had the educational chances, as I
didn’t. It’s really inspired me to support them.’
All of Terry’s six children have dyslexia or
dyspraxia. ’One of the reasons I wanted to succeed
and get some education behind me was
to inspire them to do the same. Now my children
do not see their disabilities as a barrier to academic
success. That is a direct result of Janine inspiring me,
and I can now do that for my kids.
’I can’t explain how much difference Janine has made
to my life.’
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