Transition in Context: identifying and responding to the needs of different enabling populations

Widening the participation of traditionally underrepresented and marginalised students through enabling education has been a key part of Australia’s higher education equity agenda since the 1970s (Bradley et al., 2008). Pre-degree enabling programs aim to support students’ acquisition of academic literacies and prepare them for university study. However, these programs typically suffer from high attrition rates compared with undergraduate programs (Baker et al., 2022), due to the unique challenges faced by non-traditional students including developing a student identity, cultural transition, and anxiety from previous educational experiences (Stokes, 2021). Transformational and critical pedagogical approaches value students’ incoming skills, knowledges, and capital, and allow for a growth-mindset approach that sees students to develop a sense of belonging and capability within the university. These approaches are therefore vital for enabling educators when aiming to address the challenges of widening participation and increasing student retention through entry pathways.

This presentation examines the perceived demographic, motivational, and behavioural differences between cohorts within four unique enabling programs at Flinders University. Though each of these programs share vast curriculum similarities, they each target different demographics of ‘non-traditional’ students. This paper argues, therefore, that in order to better empower students transitioning to Australian universities, educators must value and respond to their diverse incoming skills, knowledge, and capabilities. To do this, we must understand who our students are, what capitals they bring into the classroom, and what unique challenges they face as non-traditional students. In doing so, we can better adjust our pedagogical approaches to meet the differing needs of each cohort and better facilitate their success in Higher Education.