Students with low-educated parents deserve extra support
Students who are the first in their family to pursue higher education benefit from teachers recognizing their background. "My mother never read to me, but she is proud now."
Picture: Fred van Diem
Martijn Dozy, teacher in the pedagogy course at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, has already had many intermediate vocational students with language problems in his mentor group, but Lisa Rokven says there was more to it, he says in an online conversation to which the part-time student himself participates. “Language was important to her issue, but she also had trouble building a logical argument. Lisa actually had to learn to write, ”says Dozy. “Based on the reports I read, I thought: it will be exciting if she will make it to the first year. Not because I thought she couldn't, but she really had to make a big leap. ”
Lisa Rokven started the part-time pedagogy course in September 2018. Before that she had completed an MBO education in the hospitality industry, but she saw no future in that profession. “I had a part-time job in the catering industry since I was thirteen. In the beginning it was nice and cozy, but when you get older, you think: I have to work every evening and every holiday. Then I switched from catering to pedagogy. ”
That was quite a change. “I came into a very deep hole the first year, my grades were a real drama,” she says. “I got twos and threes back. In the beginning I thought: what is the cause? What am I doing wrong? I do everything in the assignment. Then I went to look for help from classmates and found out that it is the reporting. ”
Lisa Rokven. Picture: Fred van Diem
In Lisa's reports, Dozy encountered colloquialisms that seemed a bit Old Dutch. Where that came from only became clear when he read her pedagogical life story. “All students make them halfway through the first year. In it, they talk about their family, their toddlerhood, their school days, work and study and make a link with the study material, ”he explains. When he discussed Lisa's story with her, everything fell into place. “Martijn asked me about my environment,” says Lisa. “Do you have people around you with higher vocational education experience? What kind of work do your parents do? ” This made it clear that Lisa is a first-generation student who has reached higher professional education entirely on her own.
Caravan family
Lisa's parents come from a caravan family, her mother has completed domestic science school, her father only has primary school. They broke up before Lisa was born. Her father stayed in the trailer. Lisa moved with her mother and her older brother who is autistic to a house in the North Holland village where her grandparents also lived. "As a child I was there every day." When Lisa was about ten, her mother got a new partner and "went back into the car," as Lisa calls it.
“My mother never read to me or read with me. Neither do my grandparents. They read to themselves before going to sleep. Then they would go to bed at ten o'clock and read for another half hour. That is a thing of the past. My grandmother would read a book, my grandfather the Donald Duck or something."
Spelling, language, math, I was in a separate group for everything. Every time I was taken out of class, I was allowed to go with another teacher. That's not good for your self-confidence
Lisa could not keep up well in primary school. “They didn't really know what it was. Later I turned out to have a little dyslexia, language was very difficult for me. I did group 3 twice and then I got through the other groups with a lot of support. Spelling, language, arithmetic, I was in a separate group for everything. I was taken out of class every time, I was allowed to go with another teacher. That is not good for your self-confidence, ”says Lisa soberly.
Still she struggled on. Via the VMBO framework “that actually went well”, she moved on to a level 2 training in MBO. “I had to take an entrance test for level 4 and I didn't pass it. I completed level 2 in six months, I was through that in no time, but I had to sit out level 4 completely. ”
Martijn Dozy. Picture: Fred van Diem
Then she wanted to continue, to higher vocational education. Very unusual in her family. “They have not stimulated learning at all. They have a completely different mindset. You finish level 2 and then you go to work, earn money. But my mother is now proud that I did it. ”
Taboo
“The educational level of parents in the Netherlands is increasingly determining for the educational opportunities of pupils,” says Fiona Veraa, teacher at the master's degree in pedagogy and researcher at the Professorship of Promising school careers at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. “Students with highly educated parents move on to higher education one and a half times as often. The educational level of parents is also an important predictor of study success. ”
But there is a taboo on developing policy for students who are the first in their family to study, Veraa noted when she started the summer bridging program two years ago. tune in set up for first-generation students. "Many colleagues already have a cramp when they hear the word." Fear of stigmatizing plays the leading role, while calling the animal by its name can be an eye-opener. “The fact that students with a migrant background drop out much more often has more to do with the fact that they are the first in their environment to go to higher education than with their cultural background or religion,” says the researcher. An estimated 40 percent of college students have parents who have not studied.
The fact that students with a migration background drop out much more often has more to do with the fact that they are the first in their environment to go to higher education than with their cultural background or religion
It is a mixed company. Many first-generation students have a secondary vocational education, but there are also HAVO and VWO students who are the first in the family to take the plunge to higher education. There are many urban students with a migration background, but also 'white' students from the countryside such as Lisa Rokven. “Still, first-generation students feel connected,” Veraa has noticed. “They recognize themselves in each other's life stories. This transcends the boundaries of prior education, field of study, gender and ethnicity. Sharing their experiences, reflecting on their own roots helps them discover what skills they already have, such as resilience, perseverance or multilingualism, and where to seek help. ”
Legs
Lisa Rokven was happy that Martijn Dozy asked about her roots. "That made it fit for me too." She now realizes that her mother speaks Dutch poorly. “Knowing and being able to switch and lie and lay, things like that. It is strange that I now hear that she is speaking wrong. I also hear it in my six-year-old sister. She now also receives extra reading support. ”
Lisa especially liked that Dozy was looking for an explanation for her poor performance and not immediately judged her. The confidence that this showed and the attention and time he put into contact with her dragged her through the first year.
Dozy, in turn, admires Lisa's persistence. “You accept feedback that is not nice and then you work hard to improve it. Until you get it done. The final report of the course you did with me was really a lot better than the initial version. There was quite a bit of feedback, but it was a bit better with every step.
You accept feedback that you don't like and then work hard to improve it. Just as long as you get it done
She has worked hard, but she also owes a lot to her classmates, Lisa says modestly. “Because we are part-timers, we have a lot of older students in the classroom and I have asked a lot for advice from them. They helped me a lot. They read my texts and then add in red what needs to be improved and only then do I see my mistakes. ”
But it's a struggle, she admits. Go to school one day a week, work two days a week, do an internship, study. To top it off, she also had a son a year and a half ago - not planned but very welcome - and she just had her second child. “You have to plan your studies and work very well, but luckily I can do that,” she laughs.
Get on
The experience with Lisa has been very educational for Martijn Dozy. “Of course I knew that there are many first-generation students in higher professional education, but you don't always think about it. Thinking about their qualities and what they encounter takes effort. And translate that into the guidance too. It's a credit that Lisa appreciated that. ”
Lisa hopes to complete her education next year. Then she wants to work with difficult children, remedial education. But maybe she will do further education first. At least she wants to try. “I've always had good perseverance. Maybe I got that from my mother. She has always been on her own, has earned a living and has always carried on. ”
