Voice, Identity, and Belonging: Making a Difference

Abstract

Throughout the world, participation numbers and student demographics in higher education are changing, with an increasing number of first-generation students being accepted into higher education. The educational background of these students varies from being well prepared in the appropriate skills, concepts, and academic experience, to being seriously underprepared. This poses a range of challenges for the students, lecturers, and the institutions. In widening participation and extending opportunities, inequalities of experience and outcomes can either be reproduced or challenged. This chapter examines the key elements and dynamics at play in the successful model developed at a South African university. The model engages with factors that contribute towards students’ sense of being ‘on the border’ and addresses the needs, strengths, and issues involved in widening participation to students and achieving more equality in the culture of learning. The programme embraces complexity; develops multiple approaches and interventions; and actively promotes academic and affective factors that will contribute towards affirming students’ identity, harnessing their agency, fostering a sense of belonging to a learning community, and shifting away from a homogenised view of ‘disadvantage’ and the notion of simply ‘assimilating’ students into the university. This has provided genuine space for students to change and transform how we as academics think about our practice, challenge our ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions, and provide a rich tapestry for classroom practice and beyond.