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Why Higher-ED Institutions must Revise the Core Focus of their First-Year Seminar Courses?

Published March 1, 2020 By Simin Saba Royesh

Last updated on May 21, 2020

by Simin Saba Royesh

“Am I good enough for this institution? Am I competitive enough for my peers? Am I smart?” were thoughts that haunted me every night of my sophomore year until 2:00 or 3:00 AM in the morning while a dim light from the street was the only hope I could possibly see for a brighter future.  

Being lost and overwhelmed is a common feeling for many students transitioning from high school to college. According to data collected by the American College Health Association in Spring 2019, 46.2% of college students that felt too depressed to function were first and second-year students. In particular, students who identify as members of historically oppressed identity groups such as low-income, LGBTQ, students of color, and international students are more prone to experience microaggressions and emotional trauma during their college career. To help students with their transition, colleges should carefully design their first-year seminar classes, across multiple disciplines, around topics of identity development and learning as a life-long journey. Such a curriculum will teach students about the art of discourse and skills to bridge the information gap in their knowledge. 

You might wonder how academic performance and intersectional identities are two dominant factors to cause depression and anxiety in college. For most students, college is the very first time that they interact with peers who come from different socioeconomic, cultural, financial, and academic backgrounds. Therefore, they have the opportunity and independence to embrace their different identities either in their social circles or in their academic courses. Differences in backgrounds are not only factors for classification; they are also reasons for biased ideologies and perspectives that individuals might hold towards one another. 

In addition to having diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds— and sometimes because of it— students also come into college with different levels of academic preparedness due to discrepancies in their previous educational opportunities. While entering college, a large number of students are not prepared for college-level courses. When I took my first Neuroscience class in college, despite taking only one biology class during my freshman year in high school, I was excited to explore ways I could combine my knowledge in science about the brain with my background in psychology on students’ learning process. I worked hard for that specific class, yet at the end of the semester, I was only able to complete the gap in my initial knowledge resulting in receiving C. When all students are expected to perform at the same level academically regardless of their knowledge backgrounds, some start to question why achieving certain expectations are easier for their peers than for them. For most students like me, the gap results in feelings of self-doubt and personal incompetence.

Similarly, when students start to take college-level courses about systematic oppression from an intellectual perspective, they start to notice the patterns between intersectional identities and systematic oppression. Such observations incite feelings of anger and defensiveness amongst oppressed identities because they hardly find diverse circles to claim their identities without the need to explain themselves and justify their choices. Therefore, despite administrations’ emphasis on discussions around “inclusion” and “diversity”, when students with biased views do not willingly participate in enriching and informative discourses, students with oppressed identities start to isolate themselves from diverse social circles. When social circles are formed with individuals of similar identities, each group naturally develops a biased view toward their outside circles. As a result, when students are forced to interact in diverse settings such as class discussions and extracurricular activities, students with oppressed identities are more prone to experiencing microaggressions. 

Knowing that college is often a pivotal point for a student’s identity development and preparation for real-life, it is important to consider the ways in which higher-ed institutions can support and encourage these moments of transition. Many colleges already offer first-year seminars (FYS) as part of their first-year curriculum; however, they are mostly focused on developing discipline-centered knowledge and academic skills which students have already experienced in four years of high school. Instead, liberal arts colleges should dedicate the core focus of their first-year seminar courses to help students with understanding learning as a life-long journey and constructing the environment for identity development across multiple disciplines. 

Cultivating the ideology of life-long learning can help students to stop criticizing their potential and future based on four years of college. If students are taught to view life as a journey to constantly seek for knowledge, it will shift the dominant narrative from “being lost” to emphasis on “curiosity”, which is only fed by the joy of learning and researching. As John Locke believed, “the instructor should remember that his business is not so much to teach all that is knowable, as to raise in him a love and esteem of knowledge; and to put him in the right way of knowing and improving himself.” (Theaetetus) The FYS- Identity Development model teaches students to view college as an opportunity to bridge the gap in their academic preparation through learning new ideas and enhancing their current understanding instead of measuring one’s individual competence. Similarly, a first-year seminar, that is focused on identity development, can also inspire a climate of discussion and dialogue amongst students on campus. This model allows students to confidently claim their individual identities and participate in enriching conversations around “diversity” and “inclusion” with respect to one another’s social location. 

A number of higher-ED institutions have already implemented the FYS- Identity Development model and the result has been extremely effective. At Eastern Connecticut State University where FYS course topics include improving academic skills, utilizing library resources, time and stress management, it was found that retention to the second year was higher for students in the FYP than those who did not participate in the FYP (81% to 72% for Class of 2003 cohort)” (Lashley, 2005). Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, too, offers an FYS course that utilizes common pedagogies and learning outcomes, such as beginning the process of understanding critical thinking and establishing a network between staff, faculty, and other students. In evaluating the FYS course, it was found that “retention to the second year was higher for students who took an FYS course than those who did not participate in an FYS course: 69% to 60% for the Class of 2002 cohort” (Jackson, Williams, & Hansen, 2005).

If learning is introduced as a life-long journey, the conversation around identity development and intersectional identities do not necessarily end during college life. Instead, students carry on the art of discussion and discourse to their own communities and their future environments. They constantly either raise awareness on the topic of oppression or learn more about it. Most importantly, such a perspective in learning can change thoughts like “Am I good enough for this institution? Am I competitive enough for my peers? Am I smart?” to “How can I make the most out of my college career? How can I use my peers as a support resource? And how can I fill the gaps in my knowledge?” 

About the Author

Simin Saba Royesh is a first-semester senior at Smith College pursuing her B.A. in Education & Child Studies. Her research interests lie in the development of STEM identity for middle school students and redefining education philosophy for socioeconomically diverse communities. 

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