‘I don’t feel like I belong’: first-in-family girls’ constructions of belonging and space during the transition from secondary school into university

ABSTRACT

University spaces can be experienced as unfamiliar and anxiety-inducing by working-class students. Early difficulties adjusting to university can lead to attrition. This article draws from a larger study examining the experiences of first-in-family (FIF) girls in one Australian city as they transition from secondary school into their first year of university. In exploring how FIF girls may experience the affective dimensions of belonging through university spaces, this article seeks to highlight how belonging occurs through gendered and classed meaning-making. The thematic analysis in this article is based on the narratives of two FIF girls, Kate and Christina. Central to this analysis is an exploration of how Kate and Christina navigate feelings of belonging within their universities according to the classed and gendered aspects of the multiple higher education spaces they come to inhabit.

KEYWORDS:

• Belonging
• girlhood
• higher education
• transitions
• widening participation

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the reviewers for their extensive engagement with this paper and for the improvements that resulted from their kind support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah McDonald

Sarah McDonald is a Lecturer based at the Centre for Research in Education & Social Inclusion in UniSA Education Futures, University of South Australia. Her research interests are in gendered subjectivities, girlhood, social mobility, social barriers, and inequalities in education.