Transitions to and from First-Year – Multiple Challenges for the First-Year Lecturer

Transitions to and from First-Year –Multiple Challenges for the First-

Year Lecturer

UJ First-year Seminar

30 October 2014

Brenda Leibowitz

Transitions

Transitions as hurdles

… or milestones?

… or challenges

… or foundations?

Transitions to the First-year

Transitions from the first- year

Different ways of thinking about transitions

Community Cultural Wealth (Tara Yosso):

Aspirational capital

Familial capital

Resistance capital

Linguistic capital

Navigational capital

Scaffolding

Building on local, indigenous knowledges

Different ways of thinking about transitions

Generic graduate attributes (Simon Barrie)

• 1. Precursor Conception;

• 2. Complement Conception;

• 3. Translation Conception;

• 4. Enabling Conception.

Generic attributes cont.

Different ways of thinking about transitions

“Ontology trumps

epistemology”

(Barnett, 2007, p. 6)

Different ways of thinking about transitions

Agency in interplay with structure and culture (Margaret Archer)

Different ways of thinking about agency

“One has to ask of ‘competence’ or ‘creativity’ – “Competence for what?” “Creativity of whom?” to ask these questions (even better, to answer them) is the beginning of an understanding of human potential and the constraints on its actualization”.

(Bernstein, 1990, p. 130)

Teaching approaches

• Rules

• Assessment focused

• Experiential learning opportunities

• Building block approach

• Collaborative learning

• Apprenticeship approach

Learning to teach

• Care, modelling, democratic dialogue

• Attention to lecturer attributes

Sources

Archer, M. 2000. Being Human: The Problem of Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Barnet, R. 2007. A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty. London: Routledge. Barrie, Simon C.2007.'A conceptual framework for the teaching and learning of generic graduate attributes', Studies in Higher Education,32:4,439 — 458.Bernstein, B. 1990. The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. Volume 4. Class, codes and control. London and NY: Routledge.Boni, A. and Walker, M. 2013. Human Development and Capabilities: Re-imagining the university of the twenty-first century. London: RoutledgeClark, R. and Ivanic, R. 1997. The Politics of Writing. London and NY: Routledge. Fraser, N. 2009. Scales of justice: Reimagining political space in a globalizing world. New York: Columbia University Press. Greenhow, C., Robelia, B. and Huges, J. 2009. Learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age – Web2.0 and classroom research: What path should we take now? Educational Researcher, 38 (4) 246 – 259. Gutierrex, K., Morales, P. and Martinez ,D. 2009. Redemdiating literacy: Culutre, difference, and learning for students from nondominant communities. In: V. Gadsden, J. Davis and A. Artiles (Eds) §§, 33: 212 – 245. Reay, D., David, M. and Ball, S. 2005. Degrees of Choice: Social class, race and gender in higher education. Staffordshire: Trentham.Yosso, T. 2005. Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8 (1) 69 - 91