Abstract
Universities have been considered a transitional space which, of course, brings into question notions of “belonging”. With the massification of higher education and an increased focus on widening participation in many countries, the demographics of the student body have been changing, challenging the essentialised notion of “the student” so central to the policy imaginarium. This chapter critically examines the question of student “belonging” as invoked in models of transition, engagement and what this may mean for retention. Focusing on space I consider the complexities of power, space, time and movement, and provide theoretical tools to position the university as a site of contestation of identity, inclusion/exclusion, belonging/otherness, and mattering/marginality. Drawing on a study of self-identified “non-traditional” students studying in Scotland, this chapter explores how these students engage with space and place, how they construct their identities as students and navigate transitions within this, and how they forge a sense of place and construct belonging in these contested landscapes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
All names have been changed.
- 2.
These areas would be well-known to any Capetonian. Camps Bay is a wealthy, historicallywhite coastal suburb of Cape Town; Mitchell’s Plain is a sprawling township on the outskirts of Cape Town to which people classified as “coloured” were forcibly removed under the Group Areas Act; and Khayelitsha is a sprawling township—initially an informal settlement- on the outskirts of Cape Town where people classified as African were required to live under the Group Areas Act.
References
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Bathmaker, A.-M., Ingram, N., Abrahams, J., Hoare, A., Waller, R., & Bradley, H. (2016). Higher education, social class and social mobility: The degree generation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bender, B. (2001). Introduction. In B. Bender & M. Winer (Eds.), Contested landscapes: Movement, exile and place (pp. 1–20). Oxford: Berg.
Berger, J. (1984). And our faces, my heart, brief as photos. London: Granta.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. E. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory of research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York: Greenwood Press.
Brown, L. N. (2016). Narratives of belonging amongst students at a historically White University. Unpublished M.Ed. thesis, University of Stellenbosch.
Field, J., & Morgan-Klein, N. (2010). Studenthood and identification: Higher education as a liminal transition space. In Leeds: Educationline/British Index. 40th Annual SCUTREA Conference, University of Warwick. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1893/3221
Goodenow, C. (1993). Classroom belonging among early adolescent students: Relationships to motivation and achievement. Journal of Early Adolescence, 13(1), 21–43.
Harvey, L., Drew, S., & Smith, M. (2006). The first-year experience: A review of the literature for the higher education academy. York: The Higher Education Academy.
Kessi, S., & Cornell, J. (2015). Coming to UCT: Black students, transformation and discourses of race. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 3(2), 1–16.
Kuh, G. D., Cruce, T. M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., & Gonyea, R. M. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 79(5), 540–563.
Kuh, G. D., & Love, P. G. (2000). A cultural perspective on student departure. In J. M. Braxton (Ed.), Reworking the student departure puzzle (pp. 196–212). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt Press.
Maxwell, J. A. (2012). A realist approach for qualitative research. Los Angeles: Sage.
Peterson, J. A., & Martens, R. (1972). Success and residential affiliation as determinants of team cohesiveness. Research Quarterly, 43, 63–76.
Reay, D. (2017). A tale of two universities: Class work in the field of higher education. In R. Waller, N. Ingram, & M. R. M. Ward (Eds.), Higher education and social inequality: University admissions, experiences and outcomes (pp. 83–98). Oxford: Routledge.
Rose-Adams, J. (2013). Leaving university early: Exploring relationships between university type and student withdrawal and implications for student mobility. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 15(2), 96–112.
Scott, D., Hughes, G., Evans, C., Burke, P. J., Walter, C., & Watson, D. (2014). Learning transitions in higher education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stahl, G., & Habib, S. (2017). Moving beyond the confines of the local: Working-class students’ conceptualizations of belonging and respectability. Young, 25(3), 1–18.
Thomas, L. (2012). Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change: Final report from the What Works? Student Retention and Success programme. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, HEFCE, The Higher Education Academy and Action on Access.
Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Trowler, V. (2016). Nomads in contested landscapes: Reframing student engagement and non-traditionality in higher education. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.
Valentine, G. (2007). Theorising and researching intersectionality: A challenge for feminist geography. The Professional Geographer, 59(1), 10–21.
Waller, R., Ingram, N., & Ward, M. R. M. (Eds.). (2018). Higher education and social inequality: University admissions, experiences and outcomes. Oxford: Routledge.
Ward, M. R. M. (2014). ‘I’m a geek I am’: Academic achievement and the performance of a studious working-class masculinity. Gender and Education, 26(7), 709–725.
Wayne, Y., Ingram, R., MacFarlane, K., Andrew, N., McAleavy, L., & Whittaker, R. (2016). A lifecycle approach to students in transition in Scottish higher education. York: Higher Education Academy.
Young, I. M. (1986). The ideal of community and the politics of difference. Social Theory and Practice, 12(1), 1–26.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Belonging and the politics of belonging. Patterns of Prejudice, 40(3), 197–214.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Trowler, V. (2019). Transit and Transition: Student Identity and the Contested Landscape of Higher Education. In: Habib, S., Ward, M.R.M. (eds) Identities, Youth and Belonging. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96113-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96113-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96112-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96113-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)