“A little bit better”: Compassion, coordination, and becoming in the first-year experience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56433/6js5m176Keywords:
First-Year Experience (FYE) , transformational pedagogy, relational pedagogy, critical reflection, belongingAbstract
Though it comprises the foundation for both the academic and social experience of university, the processual, relational nature of being a first-year university student is often overlooked in favour of a focus on academic standards and scholarly rigor. In this vignette, I describe the philosophy of “a little bit better,” an iterative, processual approach to first-year coordination that foregrounds small acts of compassion as a means for advancing becoming, belonging, and freedom as goals in themselves. Through a lens of critical reflection and radical liminality, I encourage educators at the first-year stage and beyond to explore smaller ways to make a difference in higher education.
References
Brookfield, S. (1990). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Clegg, S. (2010). Time future - the dominant discourse of higher education. Time & Society, 19(3), 345-364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X10381528
Gravett, K., Taylor, C. A., & Fairchild, N. (2024). Pedagogies of mattering: Re-conceptualising relational pedagogies in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 29(2), 388-403. doi: 10.1080/13562517.2021.1989580
hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.
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