The classroom environment contributes to students’ sense of belonging (1). Belonging has been identified as an extremely important influence on student motivation, retention, and attainment (2). Most significantly, Kirby and Thomas (2022) found that:
“the associations between classroom-level belongingness and academic success are often stronger than those reported in investigations of the benefits of campus-level sense of belonging” (pg. 370)
Belonging and relationship building are foundational to critical disability pedagogy.
IACP is one of the only supported learning options that creates active sustainable relationships between students, the Lead Advisor, and instructors. Understanding our students is central to the pedagogy. Instructors, not a third-party facilitator, are the ones who help create safe places that help facilitate relationship building including relationships with their students.
Paulo Freire (1997) states that instructors need to “understand the concrete conditions” of student’s lives and without this understanding, “we have no access to the way they think, so only with great difficulty can we perceive what and how they know” (pg. 58). Freire’s philosophy helps form the foundation for Critical Disability Pedagogy.
In order to truly understand the conditions of student’s lives as Freire insists, one must develop relationships with students. Mentoring is a key aspect to IACP and is a two-fold process between instructor and student and between instructors. Mentoring involves an active relationship where individuals receive guidance and modelling that helps them enhance their professional growth and development (3). Norma Mertz (2004) recognizes three functional categories in her hierarchy of mentoring framework that are associated with different roles: (a) modeling, (b) advising, and (c) brokering.
(a) Modelling involves the roles of peers as well as teachers with psychosocial development. It has well been documented that undergraduate students who have a relationship with a mentor experience a greater sense of belonging and being connected to the university which further facilitates academic success (4).
For students from equity denied and underrepresented groups, including those who have not excelled in academics, the relationship they develop with a faculty member becomes central to their learning and success (5) superseding even the influence of their past experiences on their learning (6).
Critical Disability Pedagogy is involving all three categories and subsequent roles. The instructor-student relationship is transferred into the classroom and provides the foundation for student-peer relationship building and mentorship. Relationship building becomes a key learning outcome and is an important aspect to IACP.
(b) Advising is associated with professional development and (c) brokering is with career advancement. Mentoring teachers has been identified as an important part of teacher education, recruitment, and retention (7) and can become a “catalyst for transformative leadership” (Tillman, 2005: 614).
IACP is offering what Wang and Odell (2002) call a critical constructivist mentoring relationship where together, the instructor/mentors are actively challenging existing teacher practices with the goal of teaching transformation. Instructors are mentored in transforming their teaching in order to be able to reach a wide range of learners. These instructors then become instructor/mentors for other faculty, therefore having the potential for influencing wider systems change.
Foot Notes:
1 Mulrooney & Kelly, 2021; Titichkosky, 2011; Thomas, 2012
2 Kirby & Thomas, 2022; Pedler et al, 2022; Thomas, 2012
3 Cokley, 2000; Mertz, 2004; DeFreitas, 2007
4 Cokley, 2000; Lundberg & Schreiner, 2004
5 Leggett, 2003; Stocks, Ramey, and Lazurus, 2004
6 Lundberg & Schreiner, 2004; Tillman, 2005
7 Wang and Odell, 2002; Tillman, 2005
References
Cokley, K. (2000). Perceived Faculty Encouragement and itsIinfluence on College Students. Journal of College Student Development, 41(3), 348-352.
Friere, Paulo. (1998). Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach. Boulder Colorado: Westview Press.
Kirby, L. I. & Thomas, C.L. (2022) High-impact teaching practices foster a greater sense of belonging in the college classroom, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46:3, 368-381.
Lundberg, C. A., & Schreiner, L. A. (2004). Quality and Frequency of Faculty-Student Interaction as Predictors of Learning: An Analysis by Student Race/Ethnicity. Journal of College Student Development, 45(5), 549–565. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2004.0061
Mertz, Norma T. (2004). What’s a Mentor, Anyway? Educational Administration Quarterly. Vol. 40, No. 4, 541-560
Mulrooney, H.M., Kelly, A.F. (2021). Belonging, The Physical Space of the University Campus and How it is Perceived by Students: A Quantitative Analysis Among a Diverse Student. In, Journal of Learning Spaces (pp. Volume 10, Number 2.
Pedler, M.L., Willis, R. & Nieuwoudt, J.E. (2022). A sense of belonging at university: student retention, motivation and enjoyment, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46:3, 397-408.
Tillman, Linda C. (2005). Mentoring New Teachers: Implications for Leadership Practice in an Urban School. In Educational Administration Quarterly Vol. 41, No. 4 (October 2005) 609-629Mertz, Norma T. (2004). What’s a Mentor, Anyway? Educational Administration Quarterly. Vol. 40, No. 4, 541-560
Titchkosky, T. (2011). The Question of Access: Disability, Space, and Meaning. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Thomas, L. (2012). Building Student Engagement and Belonging in Higher Education at a Time of Change: Final Report From the What Works? Student Retention & Success Programme. Higher Education Academy, London.https://www.phf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/What-Works- Summary-report.pdf Retrieved February 10, 2024.
Wang, J., & Odell, S. (2002). Mentored Learning toTteach According toSstandards-Based Reform: A Critical Review. In Review of Educational Research, 72(3), 481-546.