1. Thinking ‘spatially’ about ‘belonging’, retention and the first year experience Kate Thomas European First Year Experience Conference 2015, Bergen Challenge Workshop: Tuesday 16 June 2015, Parallel Session 5

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

3. workshop outline research context key concepts activity: crossing campus Mapping Belonging and Campus Dérive questions/discussion

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. methods mapping 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

9. mapping belonging

10. outcomes how 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

11. thank you kate.thomas@sps.bbk.ac.uk