Abstract

The University of Auckland prides itself in it year-long bridging programme leading to the award of The Tertiary Foundation Certificate. Students attaining the certificate are extremely well-prepared for undergraduate study and happily report their advantage over other direct-entry students. Programme co-ordinator Stephanie Wyatt and English co-ordinator Dr Nina Nola tutor the course’s compulsory English classes and see their teaching role as complex. Through encouraging introspection and self-analysis – a looking inside to find a core to work from – Wyatt and Nola foster self-worth in each tutorial class. Fundamental to this burgeoning sense of a positive self is the discovery of previously unsuccessful study and behavioural patterns such as procrastination, lack of completion, non-attendance – patterns which Wyatt and Nola endeavour to help the students identify and break. Central to this process is the writing of a journal which is evaluated not academically but in terms of the commitment students make to the journal. More significant than the grade awarded is the revelations students discover in the daily practice of writing. With an extremely multicultural student body – Auckland is the world’s largest Pacific city, a large number of the students are Pasifika or the indigenous Maori, and migrants make up almost half the student population – Wyatt and Nola are constantly challenged to foster student engagement and retention. This paper highlights some successes of the programme and looks at the dynamics of the journal process in the foundation context.