Thinking ‘spatially’ about ‘belonging’,retention and the first year experience

Kate ThomasEuropean First Year Experience Conference 2015, BergenChallenge Workshop: Tuesday 16 June 2015, Parallel Session 5

workshop aim

• to introduce two research methods used to investigate spatial dimensions of belonging on campus for part-time, mature undergraduates (in English HE)

workshop outline

• research context • key concepts• activity: crossing campus• Mapping Belonging and Campus Dérive • questions/discussion

research context

• research into part-time, mature undergraduates, retention and the discourse of ‘belonging’ in English higher education (HE)

• multiple case study: 4 English HEIs delivering face-to-face part-time provision (2014-15)

• the discourse of ‘belonging’ in retention literature and institutional approaches – a dominant but problematic narrative for part-time, mature undergraduates (in English HE)

dominant practices of ‘belonging’ in HE

• academic: disciplinary/programme/cohort • social: sports/enrichment/voluntary/leisure• presence on campus/outside contact hours• validated in literature, websites, institutional strategy • ‘typical’ student, assumptions about engagement with HE

key research questions• how is belonging defined, experienced, imagined? By the

institution? By staff? By students?

• what spaces/places do part-time, mature students occupy/create for learning, sociality, development?

• what happens when ‘belonging’ is interrogated through space, power and identity?

activity: crossing campus

1. use a coloured pen to map your route around the conference venue today (or yesterday)

2. mark anywhere you particularly liked or disliked or remember – and why

3. briefly share your map and your thoughts and observations with your neighbour(s).

how might this research method uncover spatial dimensions of belonging?

methodsmapping belonging (from development studies research)• student workshop exercise with campus map• visual activity to capture spatial dimensions of ‘belonging’ for part-

time, mature undergraduates

* site-specific

* engaging with physical campus/spatial relationships (student)

* transcribing landscape – paper documents/photo/commentary

campus dèrive (from pyschogeographical practice) • conducted by researcher – ‘walking as narrative’• influenced by ethnography – ‘making the familiar strange’

* site-specific

* engaging with physical campus/spatial relationships (researcher)

* transcribing landscape – research journal, case study report

mapping belonging

outcomeshow is belonging defined, experienced, imagined by students?• dimensions of belonging: centre, cohort, programme, virtual, imaginary

what spaces/places do part-time, mature students occupy on campus?• marginal/peripheral/dark/empty• time-poverty limits physical/affective engagement with institution• Student Unions, gyms, libraries, societies, bars - rarely used

interrogating ‘belonging’ through space, power and identity?• dominant narrative of belonging modelled on FT, young students• PT students – in deficit – different AND absent• belonging is relational in structured social space of HE• belonging is complex, not uniform, negotiated, based on relations of

power

thank you

kate.thomas@sps.bbk.ac.uk