‘A real rollercoaster of confidence and emotions’: learning to be a university student

Abstract

Accounts of emotion and affect have gained popularity in studies of learning. This article draws on qualitative research with a group of non‐traditional students entering an elite university in the UK to illustrate how being and becoming a university student is an intrinsically emotional process. It argues that feelings of loss and dislocation are inherent to the students’ experiences of entering university, and that ‘coming to know’ a new community of practice is an emotional process that can incorporate feelings of alienation and exclusion, as well as of excitement and exhilaration. A broader understanding of how students learn then depends not just upon the individual’s emotional commitment to developing a new learning identity, but on the emotional interaction between the student and the learning environment of the university.

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented to the 2006 Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education. Attendance at this conference was funded by a grant from the Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences subject section of the Higher Education Academy.