‘Maybe I can do this. Maybe I should be here’: evaluating an academic literacy, resilience and confidence programme

ABSTRACT

It has been well documented in research that students from so-called ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds can experience significant difficulty in accessing higher education, in part due to a lack of cultural capital. This is further reinforced by ‘invisible pedagogic practices’ such as ‘critical analysis’, ‘structure’ and ‘argument’, which uphold the prestige of disciplines without adequately inducting students into such practices. Through the evaluation of an academic literacy intervention (‘ARC’) designed to improve the academic resilience and confidence of students on an undergraduate degree programme, this paper demonstrates that ‘literacy’ is as much a social practice as it is a set of applied skills. Thus, ‘academic literacy’ should constitute both study skills and academic socialisation. This paper further argues that the acquisition of ‘academic literacy’ necessitates the adoption of an ‘academic identity’, which is an emotional as well as an intellectual endeavour. This requires institutions to move away from the deficit model of ‘academic literacy support’ towards models which enable the construction of a shared academic identity and cultivate a sense of belonging to the university environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic literacy
• identity
• widening participation
• higher education
• belonging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘FastTrack’ is a seven-week intensive access to HE course combining academic skills and subject-specific knowledge. The course is aimed at those who do not hold necessary qualifications to access HE.

2. At the time of writing, there are currently 122 students enrolled on the programme, of whom 15 are male.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christina Donovan

Christina Donovan is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, Edge Hill University. During this time, she also developed the ‘ARC’ sessions discussed in this paper. Her doctoral research focuses on perceptions of trust and the process of building trust in Further Education settings, a sector where she was a practitioner for several years in student services, leading on student voice and welfare activities.

Marianne Erskine-Shaw

Marianne Erskine-Shaw is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University. At the time of data collection, Marianne was a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at Edge Hill University investigating group influences and alcohol use in relation to risk-taking behaviour. Her research interests surround social and contextual influences on alcohol-related behaviours and decision making from a psychological perspective.