I joined Camberwell three years ago as the First Year Leader in BA Fine Art Photography, and much of my focus during the PgCert has been from this perspective- exploring issues such as wellbeing and integration that have a huge impact on first year attainment and retention. I have observed a lack of integration between the three year groups on BA, which was unfortunately exacerbated in the last academic year when third-year students were moved to a different campus during the accessibility building works at Peckham Road. I decided to use the Action Research Project as an opportunity to address this issue and explore ways of increasing social integration between year groups which I believed had the potential to improve student wellbeing and sense of belonging.
In my previous Inclusive Practices research I explored some of the barriers that prevented international students engaging with support for wellbeing, disability or mental health problems. A key finding was that international students were far more likely to seek help if recommended by a peer than a tutor, which led me to think about the value of bringing together third and first-year students, for the first-years to benefit from the experience and guidance of students who have been there and done it before.
‘Focussing on peer support is an integral way to foster community’. Imad, M. (2022)
In their report about how best to support students transitioning between Further and Higher education, Hagger, Scopa, & Harley (2011), identify ‘student mentoring’ and ‘buddying programmes’ amongst their suggestions to improve provision at UAL. While I’m aware of this being available at a college-wide level, my experiences with students demonstrated that many of those that might benefit most from these opportunities were not taking them up. As a result, I chose to implement a smaller-scale mentoring programme at course-level, which could be tailored more specifically to the individuals involved.
Strayhorn T. L. (2019) describes a sense of belonging as ‘a basic human need and motivation … it refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by and important to the group or others.’
Constructing a sense of belonging must be more than supporting students to make friends but helping them to identify as ‘fitting in’ or being ‘in the right place’. First year students arrive with hugely varied experience, and Neil and Reid (2011) provide a useful summary of Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and how a perceived ‘deficit’ of ‘cultural capital affects how students see themselves, how they are seen by others, including peers and academic staff. They can easily come to feel isolated, out of place, as not really belonging.’
My intention in establishing a mentoring scheme that brings together first and third-year students is that the new students will be able to see something of themselves in those with more experience, creating reassurance and a sense of fitting in, being ‘seen’ and valued as an individual.
A brief introduction to the Interchange Project given at the start-of-term full course meeting.
References
- Hagger, J., Scopa, K and Harley, C. (2011) The Art of Smooth Transition. In O’Neill P., Bhagat D. Inclusive practices, inclusive pedagogies. [U.K.]: UK: CHEAD
- Imad, M. (2022) Our Brains, Emotions and Learning: Eight Principles of Trauma-Informed Teaching. Edited by Carello J., and Thompson P in Trauma-informed pedagogies. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Neil, K and Reid, E. (2011) Accessing and Decoding Communities of Cultural Capital. In O’Neill P., Bhagat D. Inclusive practices, inclusive pedagogies. [U.K.]: UK: CHEAD
- Strayhorn T. L., ProQuest (Firm), (2019). ”A Bridge to Belonging”: Insights from First-Year College Students in College students’ sense of belonging: A Key to Educational Success for All Students. New York, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.