Liminal spaces, resources and networks: Facebook as a shaping force for students’ transitions into higher education

Abstract

As technological developments accelerate, and neoliberal ideologies shift the ways that universities ‘do business’, higher education is facing radical changes. Within this context, students’ need to ‘succeed’ at university is more important than ever. Consequently, understanding students’ transitions within this shifting higher education landscape has become a key focus for universities. It is now pertinent to explore how social-networking sites (SNS) influence students’ experiences as they transition into university. In this article, we offer two ethnographic case studies of how students use one SNS (Facebook) as they travel through their first year of undergraduate study. We suggest that Facebook is used not only for dynamic participation in the social fabric of university life, Facebook is the go-to space to organise their academic and social lives, using it as a hybrid space to negotiate between home and university. As such, Facebook offers student-users a ‘liminal tool’ for negotiating and facilitating resources and networks within the first year at university.

Pre-service teachers’ use of social media for academic purposes

“…Emotional support was also identified in other studies (Selwyn, 2009a;Baker and Stirling, 2016;Bosch, 2009;Madge et al, 2009;Steinbrecher and Hart, 2012;Towner and Muñoz, 2011;Vivian, 2012). In this study, such support involved participants' attempts to socialise and engage in light-hearted interactions with their peers, express their criticism towards authority, and engage in tangential posts (this was true, not only for students that had minimal opportunities for face-to-face networking, such as the ones that had full-time jobs and/or lived in a city far from the university, but also for students that were based in the city where the university is located).…”

“…Overall, participants seemed to create an "underworld of communication and informationsharing invisible to tutors" (JISC, 2007, p. 11). As in other studies (Baker and Stirling, 2016;Deng and Tavares, 2015), participants appeared to prefer to turn to their peers for information sharing, rather than their teachers. In a similar vein, informational support about their future profession was obtained by their participation in sets of people, mostly through Facebook professional groups, where they sought to keep abreast of news of their future profession, access information about conferences and seminars, and explore possible specialisation routes.…”

“…(Madge et al, 2009, p. 148) The study also showed that Facebook was mainly used for social purposes that facilitated students' transition both prior to and after university registration. This is an interesting finding, as it brings to the fore the importance of social media for preparing students' transition into a new environment, which has also been stressed by other researchers (Baker and Stirling, 2016;Stutzman, 2011).…”

“…For some participants this was particularly helpful when they entered university. Building their university network helped with the "settling-in process" (Madge et al, 2009, p.147) and their smooth transition to Higher education (Baker and Stirling, 2016;Stutzman, 2011). This expansion of their network also continued throughout their studies, through the Facebook student group.…”

Finding their Place in the World: Using Digital Storytelling to Understand the Intersections Between Students Technology Use and their Work, Life, Play and Learning

“…Rooted in the imperative to succeed that permeates modern higher education, transition has become a byword for facilitating that success and minimising attrition (and maximising attainment). As Baker and Stirling (2016) note:…”