Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2022)

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Peer Partnerships in a First Year Transition Programme During Covid-19: Unmasking Student Voices

Authors
S. Pather1, *, C. Johannes1, O. P. Abiodun1, L. Bota1, R. Chitongo1, M. Davids1, B. A. Goldberg1, M. Jaftha1, N. Manie1
1University of the Western Cape Princeton, Cape Town, South Africa
*Corresponding author. Email: Supather@uwc.ac.za
Corresponding Author
S. Pather
Available Online 7 February 2023.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_14How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Student Partnerships; Mentors; Mentees; First Year Experience; Transition
Abstract

Student voices have the potential to increase student engagement; encourage collaboration and partnerships among students, academics and student support units. This paper focuses on students as mentors, mentees and transition officers who engage with each other as partners within an institution-wide First Year Transition Programme (FYTP). The FYTP is a peer partnership intervention that is founded on the idea that students connect with other students who can identify and understand their particular experiences in adjusting to university life. This model is a collaborative peer-mentoring partnership that provides a dual layer of support that is offered to first year mentees in the transition programme. The transition programme plays an important role in creating a sense of connectedness, partnerships and self-agency that could support students in their first year. This paper highlights the partnership of the First Year Transition Officers (FYTOs) and first year mentors in supporting mentees towards a successful virtual first year university transition. Qualitative data was collected and analysed from the FYTOs and mentors’ reports and a world café activity during the pandemic. The study highlights the challenges and successes of the partnership during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper draws on Leach and Zepke’s conceptual organiser on student engagement to analyse the data within a broader social context on student experience. It provided us with actionable focus on how challenges could be addressed and partnerships strengthened.

Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2022)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
7 February 2023
ISBN
978-2-38476-006-0
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_14How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - S. Pather
AU  - C. Johannes
AU  - O. P. Abiodun
AU  - L. Bota
AU  - R. Chitongo
AU  - M. Davids
AU  - B. A. Goldberg
AU  - M. Jaftha
AU  - N. Manie
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/02/07
TI  - Peer Partnerships in a First Year Transition Programme During Covid-19: Unmasking Student Voices
BT  - Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 161
EP  - 173
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_14
ID  - Pather2023
ER  -