retention and the first year experience Kate Thomas European First Year Experience Conference 2015 Bergen Challenge Workshop Tuesday 16 June 2015 Parallel Session 5 workshop aim t o introduce two research methods used to investigate spatial dimensions of belonging on campus for parttime ID: 339551
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Slide1
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 5Slide2
workshop aimto
introduce two research methods used to investigate spatial dimensions of belonging on campus for part-time, mature undergraduates (in English HE)Slide3
workshop outlineresearch context key concepts
activity: crossing campusMapping Belonging and Campus Dérive questions/discussionSlide4
research contextresearch 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)Slide5
dominant practices of ‘belonging’ in HEacademic:
disciplinary/programme/cohort social: sports/enrichment/voluntary/leisurepresence on campus/outside contact hoursvalidated in literature, websites, institutional strategy
‘typical’ student, assumptions about engagement with HESlide6
key research questionshow 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?
Slide7
activity: crossing campus
use a coloured pen to map your route around the conference venue today (or yesterday)mark anywhere you particularly
liked or disliked or remember – and whybriefly share your map and
your thoughts and observations with your neighbour(s). how might this research method uncover spatial dimensions of belonging?
Slide8
methodsmapping belonging
(from development studies research)student workshop exercise with campus mapvisual 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)
c
onducted by researcher – ‘walking as narrative’
i
nfluenced
by ethnography – ‘making the familiar strange’
* site-specific
* engaging
with physical campus/spatial
relationships (researcher)
* transcribing landscape – research journal, case study reportSlide9
mapping belongingSlide10
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 institutionStudent Unions, gyms, libraries, societies, bars - rarely used
i
nterrogating ‘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
b
elonging is complex, not uniform, negotiated, based on relations of powerSlide11
thank you
kate.thomas@sps.bbk.ac.uk