Student Transitions - Welcome · Rites of Passage •Core characteristics for all rites of passage...
Transcript of Student Transitions - Welcome · Rites of Passage •Core characteristics for all rites of passage...
Student Transitions Using a rites of passage approach to prepare
students for the challenges of learning at university
Exploring rites of passage
• Rites of passage are the rituals and processes involved in becoming a member of a community
• Birth, priesthood, marriage, adulthood
– Crossing a knowledge threshold (liminality)
– Becoming/ belonging
– Usually tribal or religious communities
• Confirmation - Bar Mitzvah - Hajj
• Trials - Land diving – scarification
Rites of Passage
• Core characteristics for all rites of passage – (Van Gennep (1960)
• Structure
– Separation, Transition, Incorporation
– Separation, Marge, Agregation
• Transitional periods often acquire an autonomy – E.g. Novice, apprentice, student, freshman/ fresher
– Territorial passage
– E.g. moving away from mothers into specific lodges/ kraals
Transition Period is often Problematic
• E.g. Apprentices
• Often responsible for civil unrest & trouble
• England
– 1590 proclamation - "Enforcing Curfews for Apprentices”
– 1642 - drive the King out of London & start Civil War
– 1668 – army had to be called to restore order after Shrove Tuesday riots at brothels
• America
– Boston Massacre 1777 instigated by apprentices
Rites of passage are not problem free
• In the West, rites face challenges from:
– Secularism/Individualism/Commercialism
• Rites also sustain:
– Hierarchies, patriarchies, secret societies
– Violence
• Clitoridectomy
• Hazing, ragging, bizutage, ontgroening, novatada, mopokaste, iesvētības, nollning, praxe, nonnismo, dedovshchina
Creative thinking about rites of passage
Hypothesis
• If we treat some of the student experiences as a rite of passage we might be able to help our students
– Orientate
– Mark points of transition, achievement
– Know what’s expected
• Might be particularly important in the academic sphere
Re-conceptualise an academic activity as a rite of passage
• Work in pairs:
– Imagine yourself as a shaman/ spirit guide
– What can be done to make your activity more like a rite of passage?
• How might you introduce the activity?
• What would you do differently?
• How do you involve your students as a group?
• How do you celebrate the event?
References
• CHICKERING, A., and GAMSON, Z., 1991. New directions for teaching and learning: Vol 47. Applying the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• PASCARELLA, E., 1985. College environmental influences on learning and cognitive development: a critical review & synthesis. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 1, 1-64.
• PALMER, M., O'KANE, P. and OWENS, M., 2009. Betwixt spaces: student accounts of turning point experiences in the first year transition. Studies in Higher Education, 34 (1), 37-54.
• TINTO, V., 1987. Leaving college : rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago ; London: University of Chicago Press.
• VAN GENNEP, A., 1960. The Rites of Passage. USA: University of Chicago Press.
• YORKE, M., and LONGDEN, B., 2008. The first year experience of higher education in the UK. The Higher Education Academy.