Carol Edwards
The first Saturday of October is always booked out in my diary. It is the day I ride pillion on my partner’s motorbike joining hundreds of other likeminded people “Riding to the Wall” (RTTW) at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA). RTTW raises funds for the NMA, but for many, it also provides an opportunity to pay their respects to the fallen. This year the weather was kind, which encouraged people to come out and support, waving from bridges and lining the roadside. Riding side by side, responding to the supporters provides a massive feeling of being part of something. Once at the NMA the proceedings follow the same pattern. This year the Rev’d Huw Evans gave a short speech talking about his experiences in France attending the D-day commemorations and the importance of listening, laughter and sharing.
The idea of listening, laughter and sharing is key to so many aspects of life including education, and this can be a way in which students can start to feel a sense of belonging to studies. Belonging is important in so many facets of our lives. Maslow (1943) identified that it was one of the hierarchy of needs which impact on our motivation. If we do not feel we belong we will not meet our esteem and self-actualization needs, which are the higher order needs which allow us to feel fulfilled.
On the ride home I reflected on this and realised this was key to The Open University Law School Belonging Project.
So, what is belonging?
Goodenow and Grady (1993) reflect upon belonging as the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included and supported by others. While Mahar, Cobigo and Stuart (2013) consider it to be a subjective feeling of value and respect derived from a reciprocal relationship to an external referent that is built on a foundation of shared experiences, belief, or personal characteristic. In both cases we can see that belonging comes from having the opportunity to engage with others and build relationships that provide opportunities for support. While riding to the wall there is the opportunity to engage with other riders and we build our relationships as we support each other on the ride. This is equally valid in the educational setting where students can have the opportunity to engage both within and outside of the classroom and develop the relationships that will support them during their studies.
However, is this possible in the distance learning environment?
Within the Open University Law School we take belonging seriously. The Law School is one of the largest providers of distance education in Europe offering flexibility and a second chance for students who would otherwise never have the opportunity to study at degree level. However, studying at a distance can be isolating which can impact on wellbeing and motivation. Our students have very limited opportunities to meet other students and staff in person and start to develop the relationships which can lead to a sense of belonging. Furthermore, work undertaken by Jones at al (2019) has shown that law students have some of the highest wellbeing issues in universities. For the project team this was sufficient reason to start work on our belonging project.
Over the last four years the project team have manufactured opportunities for students to meet online at a programme level. The project offers a range of opportunities to allow students to meet both staff and students and develop a sense of belonging. These include:
· Guest Lectures – delivered by academics on legal topics or skill development.
· Student Coffee Events – themed drop-in virtual coffee events, run by the students for the students.
· Academic coffee events – an opportunity to meet members of staff informally and learn about their lived experiences in law.
· Law School Blog – an outward facing blog open to staff, students, and alumni.
· Law School competition – providing an opportunity for students to suggest how the law school could improve its equality, diversity, and inclusion.
· Mentoring project – Open to students on the introductory module, a many to many model using WhatsApp.
Key to all our projects is the student voice and responding to their ideas. This was very evident in the Law School competition where students were asked to suggest how the School could be more inclusive, ten finalists presented their ideas at an online presentation evening in front of a panel of judges and an audience from the Law School staff and student body. The first-place student explained how coming from a care background can influence your sense of belonging within education and the impact of the lack of support networks. While the second-place student talked about the importance of using cameras to support students with anxiety. Both of these students have gone on to work with teams within the Law School to improve the student experience. Of the ten ideas, seven have been implemented, showing how students can have a voice in their Law School.
Another aspect to this project was a questionnaire asking students about their understanding of belonging. Unfortunately, due to the timing of the questionnaire (just after final assessments) the response rate was poor. However, a number of themes did develop from our analysis. Students felt belonging was about “togetherness” and used words such as sharing and inclusion. Community was key, with students stating it was important to learn from each other and a community provided space for this. However, some students talked about how not feeling they belonged could be impacted by confidence level. If you had low confidence, it was less likely you would feel you belonged to a community. Finally, they were very clear about the need for institutions to provide opportunities, in the distance environment, for students to start to form communities beyond the formal tutorials.
Conclusion
For me, the concept of confidence is important and as I reflect back to my first Saturday in October riding to the wall. Riding a bike provides anonymity yet you can be part of something, just as lurking or observing in a virtual community can provide a sense of belonging and allow an individual to develop confidence. As the confidence develops the opportunity to listen, laugh and share grows until you feel part of something.
By Carol Edwards (Project team – Liz Hardie and Katie Ritchie)
References
Goodenow, C, and Grady K. (1993) “The Relationship of School Belonging and Friends’ Values to Academic Motivation among Urban Adolescent Students.” The Journal of Experimental Education 62, no. 1 (1993): 60–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20152398.
Jones, E., Samra, R. & Lucassen, M. (2019). The world at their fingertips? The mental wellbeing of online distance-based law students. Law Teacher, Vol.53(1), p.49-69. DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2018.1488910
Mahar AL, Cobigo V, Stuart H. Conceptualizing belonging. Disabil Rehabil. 2013 Jun;35(12):1026-32. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2012.717584. Epub 2012 Oct 1. PMID: 23020179.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396.https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346
Comments