The pedagogical power of the campus coffee shop

We have come together as a final year psychology student at the University of Leeds and a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Leeds to reflect on shared spaces, campus belonging, and staff-student the university coffee shop.

Seetal's story

It's mid-November in the last year of my degree and I have retreated to my safe haven on campus – the cosy Cafe Nero in the Leeds University Business School. I've committed a betrayal by choosing a space to work within that is outside of my designated Psychology building, but I find this semi-reformed 19th century British church-turned-cafe too compelling to resist. Tucked away on the edge of campus, the cafe offers a break from the chaos of the main concrete-clad part of campus. It's personal, almost intimate… and the biscuits are nice too, which helps.

Across the room, I notice two students catching up over a coffee and oat cookie, hushed tones and soft laughter alternating in their conversation. Sitting here, I start to realise how the architecture of this building invites a sense of comfort, and how unusual this is in a university campus of its size. There is natural light and sage green walls and long shelves of books, and a sense of busyness, productivity, and calm. The ever-growing length of the queue for a latte may be mildly infuriating, but the comfort and familiarity of the building makes up for this.

As an undergraduate psychology student who would always rather spend my free time in cafe meet ups instead of night outs, I recently became interested in the role that coffee shops might play in student belonging. To me, this specific Cafe Nero provides a sanctuary where I can study, chat, write, read and, of course happily catastrophise about the imminent end of my degree. Crucially, however, it does a bit more than that too. It provides me with a space where I feel welcomed, where I feel inspired, and where I feel fully myself – a space where I belong.

Maddi's story

'Time-management skills for this assessment are really important', I tell my students, a group of 30 psychology undergraduates in the second year of their degree. I check the time on phone. We're running way over. Damn. The time has gotten away from me and I'm having one of those days where a 50-minute meeting becomes 1.5 hours, becomes the whole morning, becomes the whole day gone. I'm anxious about a deadline and flustered about my teaching and in need of a break. I retreat to the Café Nero.

I walk into the coffee shop, greet the familiar friendly barista, order my flat white and a salted caramel brownie, and squeeze myself in between a bench of smiley faces tap-tap-tapping away at their laptops. There is something oddly comforting about working against the soundtrack of coffee machines groaning and keyboard clacking and side plates clanking. It does more for me than just provide a space to refuel and escape the office. It's a sanctuary, of sorts. A shared space where staff and students and visitors coexist happily, armed with laptop chargers and loyalty cards, all with the same mission. I find the buzz of the coffee shop so motivating that during the 2020 lockdowns I plugged my headphones with 'cafe background noise' on YouTube in an attempt to artificially create the Nero-esque sense of belonging that I was missing. 

Collective reflections

We write as an undergraduate student and Lecturer in the same Psychology department, sharing a sense of familiarity and comfort with spots on our university campus. During the pandemic, the pivot to online learning also meant a pivot away from coffee shop culture, and we have been reflecting on what this means for the student experience. We have come to the conclusion there is a lot to be said for the campus coffee shop, as a pedagogical tool. They are, we think, powerful hubs that can foster attachment, belonging, community.

Our stories are connected by what Ahn and Davis (2020) would call a close sense of 'place attachment', a bond that ties a person and place together. From our perspective, having a go-to-spot like this on campus is vital for a sense of academic identity and wellbeing. For Seetal, this is particularly true as a woman of colour, with Caffe Nero offering a safer and more welcoming refuge as opposed to pubs which can sometimes feel intimidating and alienating (Thomas, 2006). We also note that certain places on campus can feel quite oppressive just from their exterior, such as the various concrete-grey brutalist buildings of our lovely campus. This is especially pertinent for people belonging to marginalised social groups who may not feel inherently connected to their campus (Isik et al., 2021). So, the familiar campus Neros may offers a sense of inclusivity that provides sanctuary from the oppressive buildings and what they represent.

Therefore, we think that coffee shops may be a particularly useful space to take seriously, particularly as universities continue to attempt to improve student and staff sense of belonging and feelings of connectedness. And there is research to support our hypothesis! Research has shown that a sense of 'place attachment' is encouraged in places referred to by sociologist Ray Oldenburg as 'third spaces' (Oldenburg, 1999). A concept first coined in the late 1990s, 'third spaces' are physical locations that are separate from the home and work, offering a break from the structure of everyday. They are unifying spaces that bridge different domains, like work and play, and include places like gyms, libraries, leisure centres, and parks.

So, much more than a merely functional, transactional place, coffee shops epitomise the perfect 'third space' at university. When the pandemic hit, third spaces became difficult to access, which affected people in different ways. For some people, online learning meant a removal of these kind of liminal spaces that straddle the academic and the social (you were either studying or you were not, with no in-between). For others, however, the pandemic prompted an ever-present sense of liminality. Online learning was not quite home, but also not quite uni.

Maybe the reason we are so drawn (back) to coffee shops now is because they represent the ultimate 'in between' liminal sites. Research has suggested that the architecture of campus spaces can help students to navigate the psychology of university life (e.g. Knez, 2005; Thompson et al., 2023) and we see this too. There's a danger, perhaps, of losing sight of how important spaces like this are. 

Coffee shops are also important because they provide a campus alternative to the 'sterile library atmosphere' of the library and academic study spaces (Waxman, 2006). They are less threatening, less pressured, and invite a more gentle, slower way of being on campus. Considering how interconnected emotion is with interaction, and belongingness, and how this is related to psychological wellbeing (Scannell & Gifford, 2016), it is useful to consider how students and staff can feel welcomed and invited into their campus.

Importantly, we think that coffee shops also offer a neutral, mutual territory where people can co-exist and 'parallel play' in the same space. Staff and students can huddle around long wooden tables and co-work, happily together yet apart. Whether it is useful or 'right' that campuses tend to be dominated by The Big Names (Costa, Nero, Starbucks, we're looking at you) is one thing. But there is no denying the sense of familiarity and mutuality that these spaces offer.

Therefore, we encourage educators, academics, and psychologists to consider the potential pedagogical power of spaces on campus. Coffee shops are, to us, so much more than a space to get your daily flat white. They can be sites of collaboration, community, and comfort, that could be instrumental in building sense of belonging at university.

References

Ahn, M. Y., & Davis, H. H. (2020). Four domains of students' sense of belonging to university. Studies in Higher Education, 45(3), 622-634.

Isik, U., Wouters, A., Croiset, G., & Kusurkar, R. A. (2021). "What kind of support do I need to be successful as an ethnic minority medical student?" A qualitative study. BMC Medical Education, 21(1), 1-12.

Knez, I. (2005). Attachment and identity as related to a place and its perceived climate. Journal of environmental psychology, 25(2), 207-218.

Oldenburg, R. (1999) The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (2nd edn). New York: Marlowe & Company

Scannell, L., & Gifford, R. (2017). Place attachment enhances psychological need satisfaction. Environment and Behavior, 49(4), 359-389.

Thompson, C. A., Pownall, M., Harris, R., & Blundell-Birtill, P. (2023). Is the grass always greener? Access to campus green spaces can boost students' sense of belonging. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.