ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the narrative is problematic in two ways. First, that it promotes a reductive and exclusive understanding of belonging in the context of a diverse contemporary student body, including mature part-time undergraduates, a heterogeneous cohort who have become increasingly peripherally positioned in the English higher education (HE) sector. Second, that it articulates a direct association between belonging in HE and student retention, juxtaposing a linear, institution-centric measurement with a phenomenon far less tangible and within a highly stratified and complex space. The chapter introduces the strategy of borderland analysis, the principle of which is to link multiple theories ‘to portray a more complete picture of student identity.’ Gloria Anzaldua argues against fixed positions of binary thought and states of being, simultaneously distilling the experiences of individuals occupying a rich territory of ‘space between’ and problematising the power relationships defining that space.
