Event information

Practices of Becoming: What and how do first-generation students learn when transitioning to university?

Friday 8th November 2024, 12:00-13:00 GMT

This event is hosted by the Centre for Higher Education Transformations (CHET), based at the School of Education, University of Bristol.

Venue – School of Education, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol, BS8 1JA

Registration 

Sign up for this event on the Eventbrite page.

 

About the event

Flora Petrik's presentation explores the learning experiences of first-generation students in higher education. While existing studies highlight the risks of social exclusion, they tend to overlook what and how first-generation students learn in their transitions to university.

By utilising a theoretical framework that integrates biographical and practice-theoretical perspectives on learning, this study addresses a gap in research on how these students navigate their transition to university by learning. Empirically, the study is based on 24 biographical case studies conducted over three years (2019–2022) across universities in Austria and Germany.

The findings reveal that biographical learning is embedded in concrete practices of becoming: collective becoming, engagement, and pedagogical accompaniment. These practices of becoming a student simultaneously transform and reproduce social inequalities. The presentation concludes by emphasising the importance of understanding first-generation students’ learning experiences in relation to social inequality, higher education, and societal change.