Staff Perceptions of First-in-Family Students in Higher Education: A Case Study of a Belgian College

ABSTRACT

First-in-family students, otherwise known as pioneers, are crucial in shaping educational spaces globally. This paper investigates staff perceptions of pioneer students in a Belgian college, HOGENT. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with six staff members explored how they perceive and engage with pioneer students, and how HOGENT could better support them. Participant responses revealed themes: culture of HOGENT, unfamiliarity with pioneer experiences, preference for universal design, and suggested interventions. The takeaways of analysis are: tension between universal design and targeted support, framing of obstacles and strengths, culture of asking for help, making implicit ideas explicit, and pioneer students as multi-dimensional.

KEYWORDS:

• First-in-family students
• pioneer students
• HOGENT
• staff
• hogescholen
• higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributors

Gina A. Elkin: Conceptualization; Recruitment — contacting participants via e-mail and in person; Interviewing — writing questions, conducting, and transcribing; Analysis — coding; Writing — original draft; Writing — review & editing. Lilian A. Zabel: Conceptualization; Recruitment — contacting participants via e-mail and in person; Interviewing — writing questions, conducting, and transcribing; Analysis — coding; Writing — original draft; Writing — review & editing. David Van Bunder: Conceptualization; Recruitment — contacting participants via e-mail; Interviewing — reviewing questions and translating transcriptions; Analysis — coding; Writing — review and editing.