We intend to examine two concepts that involve asking students about their experiences:
feeling at home and cultural congruity. Previous research has shown that students
are more likely to feel at home in student-centred and small-scale learning environments
(Thomas 2002; Zepke et al. 2006). Feeling at home in a learning environment refers to
feelings of fitting in, it is indicated by comfortable connections with other students and by
an enthusiasm to actually be in the learning environment. Students who feel they fit in, tend
to drop out less often. Fitting in is important for adjustment and academic success (Harvey
et al. 2006). These findings can be interpreted in terms of conditional factors: if students
feel at home in their (student-centred) learning environment, then they perform well. A
second concept providing insight into the experience of the learning environment concerns
cultural congruity (Gloria and Robinson Kurpius 1996; Edman and Brazil 2007). This
concept refers to the so-called cultural fit of students within the university environment. It
resembles the more general concept of ‘‘feeling at home’’ but zooms in on feelings that
may surface more often among students from ethnic/cultural minority backgrounds. Gloria
and Robinson Kurpius describe how students from minority backgrounds (in this case
Latino students) often need to perform a balancing act between their home culture and the
university culture in order to be successful at university. Being in a minority position and
having to choose between one’s own culture and mainstream white culture can result in
isolation (p. 536). We chose to include this concept in our study, given the diverse
backgrounds of the student population in the course programmes we intended to examine.