Before studying in the humanities, what do students need?

Abstract

What enables success for students studying in the humanities can be a contested space; dependent not only on the view taken on the content and purpose of specific subjects, but also on the nature of teaching and learning. This paper examines the process of redeveloping an elective unit in a Tertiary Enabling Programme to prepare students for study in undergraduate humanities areas. The research involved consulting with academics from different disciplines in a regional university and analysing their views on what enhances student success. These discussions are reviewed in light of literature on best practice in teaching and learning for foundation and first-year university students, particularly exploring Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of extending ‘cultural capital’ while expanding ‘habitus’ to emerge confidently into the field of academic life. We conclude that fostering students’ awareness of personal perspective on historical and contemporary events, alongside encouraging awareness of the constructed nature of meaning in particular events is central to developing the kind of thinking valued by lecturers in humanities subjects.

Keywords:

• Enabling
• curriculum
• critical
• university
• cultural capital
• habitus

Notes

1. This type of programme reflects an international trend to provide equity in access to higher education, as evident in European nations and the shifting trends globally to encourage entry to university by people who are outside traditional entry groups (Gidley, Hampson, Wheeler, & Bereded-Samuel, 2010).

2. Within TEP, there are essential components of teaching, reading and writing skills needed for English for Academic Purposes. Ways to support writing in the humanities see Wrigglesworth and Mckeever (2010) and Wingate (2012).

3. A TEP may also be known as university preparation programme or pre-tertiary studies or other similar names. They usually involve study for six months to a year.

4. The Northern Territory has an overall population of 260,000 people and Darwin constitutes about 50% of that population. There is a high proportion of Indigenous and migrant population within the NT (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014).

5. Blackboard Collaborate is a teaching tool within an online teaching and learning platform that is based and distributed from the United States (Blackboard, 2015).

6. Within the School of Academic Language and Learning from which this unit is facilitated, each unit undergoes a biannual evaluation based on student feedback and lecturer experience. The internal evaluation group is comprised of the unit coordinator, the TEP theme leader, the quality assurance officer and other lecturers who may be interested or have a vested interest in the unit.