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College belonging : how first-year and first-generation students navigate campus life

"College Belonging reveals how colleges' and universities' efforts to foster a sense of belonging in their students are misguided. Colleges bombard new students with the message to "get out there!" and "find your place" by joining student organizations, sports teams, clubs and the like. Nunn shows that this reflects a flawed understanding of what belonging is and how it works. Drawing on the sociological theories of Emile Durkheim, College Belonging shows that belonging is something that members of a community offer to each other. It is something that must be given, like a gift. Individuals cannot simply walk up to a group or community and demand belonging. That's not how it works. The group must extend a sense of belonging to each and every member. It happens by making a person feel welcome, to feel that their presence matters to the group, that they would be missed if they were gone. This critical insight helps us understand why colleges' push for students simply to "get out there!" does not always work"--

Online EBSCO Academic Comprehensive Collection

College belonging : how first-year and first-generation students navigate campus life

Online DeGruyter

33 simple strategies for faculty : a week-by-week resource for teaching first-year and first-generation students

Designed to offer university faculty simple and straightforward ways they can interact with students both during class time and during office hours that will help mediate some of first-year students' most stressful challenges. The suggested strategies require just 5-15 minutes a week. Every suggestion is rooted in first-year students' own voices, gathered during research at one four-year private and one four-year public institution. The strategies pay particular attention to the additional needs and challenges that low-income, ethno-racial minority, and first-generation college students face in the transition to university academics and college life more generally. Including strategies like Introduce yourself as a person to your students rather than list your professional qualifications, Have students fill out a time log over the course of a week so that you can talk about time management, Help students find study partners among their classmates, All the suggestions came directly from students themselves in one-on-one interviews, where the students described their experiences with professors in and out of the classroom, and articulated things that professors do that they found helpful to their learning, their confidence, and their success, and vice versa as well. For any professor just starting out, or for someone who wants to incorporate techniques to reach first year or first generation students, these short, simple suggestions will prove easy to implement, and will increase student success in any class.

Online EBSCO Academic Comprehensive Collection