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.