Truth Telling, Renarrativisation, and Belonging: The Peregrination Pedagogical Framework for Supporting Equity Students in Higher Education

Abstract

Students entering higher education through Enabling programs frequently experience themselves as outsiders in the academic field. These individuals often feel unfamiliar with, and excluded from, the norms, expectations, and practices of university study, with these perceptions shaped by prior educational experiences and internalised deficit narratives. In contrast, becoming an insider involves developing a sense of legitimacy, confidence, and familiarity with the academic environment, affording students to participate more fully in its practices. While belonging is widely recognised as central to student engagement and persistence, less attention has been given to the pedagogical practices that support the development of belonging among students who initially feel marginalised in higher education. Drawing on qualitative data from eight students enrolled in an Australian Enabling program, this paper examines how educator practices support students’ journeys from outsider to insider in the field of university. Building on the Peregrination of Belonging model (James, 2024), the paper introduces the Peregrination Pedagogical Framework, which identifies three interconnected processes through which educators foster belonging and agency: truth telling, renarrativisation, and the development of a subversive habitus. Situated within pedagogical environments characterised by care and dialogic engagement, these processes support students to reinterpret their educational experiences and reconstruct their identities as legitimate participants in higher education.