Belonging in Education: Lessons from the Belonging Project

RMIT University is Australia's second largest higher education provider and has a very diverse student body. Taking a holistic approach and capturing the entire student life cycle, the RMIT Belonging Strategy outlines a rationale and plan for delivering belonging interventions across the whole institution. An institution wide strategy requires economic, political and global considerations; however, as grassroots academics, our work is informed by the philosophy that education can affect positive communitarian and individual change, and that meaningful and authentic relations with staff and students enable genuine collaboration and growth (Chickering, Dalton, & Stamm, 2006; Kreber, 2013). Guided by these principles, we identified five drivers that impact student belonging at the university, and proposed a measurement framework to form an 'index' of belonging that can be tracked and reported. This paper focuses on the innovative and collaborative work of developing an enterprise wide strategy for inclusive belonging and presents a roadmap of the process. We argue that grassroots, practical responses through learning experience interventions have the greatest potential to influence student engagement.

The Belonging Project is a longitudinal learning and teaching research project seeking to develop and define a new approach to enhancing student engagement and graduate outcomes in the School of Media and Communications RMIT University. The project, bound by the theoretical concept of belonging, grew from collaborative work undertaken within the School to develop and document a common pedagogical approach and create a unified learning and teaching narrative. Importantly, the project was aligned with the whole of undergraduate degree structure in order to achieve findings with transferability to other schools and higher education institutions. The project sits within the context of the continually evolving nature of the higher education sector which presents numerous practical opportunities and challenges, not least of which is the changing role of higher education in civil society more broadly. Contemporary universities are both educational institution and broker between diverse stakeholders with complex and, at times, competing interests: secondary institutions, students who increasingly exercise their authority as knowledge consumers,and industries.

Research and Development in Higher Education: [Re] Valuing Higher Education, 2018

Belonging emerged in the 1990s as a conceptual framework to promote student success, retention and engagement in Higher Education (Tinto, 1993; Hurtado & Carter, 1997). Belonging is the sense of mattering and interpersonal connectedness: a basic human need, it enhances motivation and drives behaviour (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Strayhorn, 2012). Generally, its application within higher education has been to discrete student cohorts, often based on ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status or first-year transitioning status (Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Strayhorn, Bie, Dorime-Williams, & Williams, 2016; Ribera, Miller & Dumford, 2017). RMIT University, Australia’s second largest higher education provider, has a diverse student body. Student retention at RMIT University remains relatively high, however, recent evaluations have indicated that students believe the university is not doing enough to help foster a sense of belonging and friendship. In response, the university has positioned student belonging as a major strategic focus area in 2017-2018, and has developed a whole of institution RMIT Belonging Strategy. The strategy emerges from an extensive internal stakeholder consultation process and builds on the research of The Belonging Project (Clarke & Wilson, 2016). The strategy identified and tested five drivers that impact student belonging at the university, and proposed a measurement framework to form an ‘index’ of belonging that can be tracked and reported using existing university data sets. This paper focuses on the innovative and collaborative work of developing an evidence based, data driven enterprise wide strategy for inclusive belonging, and presents a roadmap of the process.

New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, 2019

Belonging is multidimensional, personal and geographical in nature. Establishing a sense of belonging benefits students and institutions. This study sought to explore aspects of belonging from the student perspective. Data were collected using open text boxes within a questionnaire and an optional focus group. A total of 617 students participated of whom 85% completed the questionnaire. One focus group with 3 participants was held. Qualitative data highlighted personal and social aspects of belonging, and the benefits of belonging for successful study. The importance of belonging was not agreed universally but most students identified it as important, and felt that they personally belonged. Understanding what belonging means and what influences it is important to enhance student engagement and retention.

Scottish Educational Review, 1970

This paper explores Whitchurch’s (2008) notion of the ‘third space’ in the context of articulating students from Further Education to Higher Education. This research appropriates the term ‘third space’ and applies it to the emergent territory occupied by college students ‘crossing the boundary’ to university. The concept of the ‘third space’ allows us to explore the notion of belonging in relation to direct entrants seeking to establish their role in the unfamiliar zone between college and university. Research examines the implications for college students of this ‘blurring of boundaries’ and how they establish a sense of belonging and creditability in the university context. Empirical research makes use of focus groups involving articulating students from Further Education directly into the third year of an adjacent degree course to determine if and why a ‘sense of belonging’ is important, what affect it has on performance, and to establish barriers to, and strategies for, successf...

In this report detailing Phase Three Focus on the Interdisciplinary Experience (2013) we discuss the rationale for interdisciplinary learning within the broader context, how we have mapped and modelled interdisciplinary practice within the School of Media and Communication and propose a range of strategies and recommendations for embedding interdisciplinarity within student lifecycles.

As a participant in 'What Works' (2013-17), an HEA led programme that aims to enhance student success and retention in higher education, the University of Brighton is conducting an ongoing evaluation to investigate students' experiences of starting their degrees, including retention interventions in three disciplines: Business Management , Applied Social Science (Hastings) and Digital Media courses. This article presents findings of the 2013-14 University of Brighton qualitative study, which accompanied the UK wide What Works survey led by Mantz Yorke. Findings suggest that learning, teaching, assessment and interventions helped to enhance students' engagement, confidence and sense of belonging to peer learning communities in each discipline. However, data also identified transitional challenges that students faced and highlighted suggestions for positive change. This has helped inform further discipline related developments in teaching, curricula and interventions in 2014-15, contributing to the university's commitment to providing an engaging and successful experience for first year students.

South African journal of higher education, 2022

This article explores the intimate entanglement of students Becoming and Belonging in the informal spaces of higher education. In so doing, it raises the many possible ways of belonging and becoming at a South African university. The entwined relationship's contribution to student identity construction and the potential to exercise agency [or not] is discussed. The theme of Belonging and Becoming emanated from a PhD study that employed visual methodology, specifically photography, to capture students in informal spaces on campus that were of significance to them. The data arose from interviews with student participants and a larger body of students who viewed the photographs as part of an exhibition on campus. The article draws on the concepts of mobility and spatiality, recognising the dynamic nature of campus spaces that are constantly in a state of being socially reproduced. The article recommends that higher education's obligations extend beyond students' academic advancement.

Journal of Further and Higher Education

Meehan and Howells (2017) in the evaluation of first year students' transition into university found that the values of 'being, belonging and becoming' were important in particular within the first few months and within the first year of university. From our previous work, we reported that three things matter to students: the academic staff they work with, the nature of their academic study and the feeling of belonging. This paper provides a further illumination to our work by reporting on the qualitative data collected in the same study. The study included 530 students from five cohorts over a five-year period. As part of the Student Experience Evaluation instrument, open-ended questions probed students about their early experiences of belonging and transition into university. This original research uses rich data to illuminate the scales and items from previous quantitative data analysis to explore 'belonging', triangulated with research from the field. This paper is timely due to increased emphasis placed on learning and teaching with the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework. Student satisfaction is not a simplistic measure and this study articulates the complexity of student belonging in Higher Education.

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2024

Belonging is more than just a buzzword; it is a critical factor that affects students’ academic engagement, motivation, persistence, and overall achievement, especially considering the diversity of students in educational settings. The goal of this paper is to dissect the complexities of belonging, examining its various determinants, the diverse impacts it has on student university populations, and the range of strategies that effectively nurture this sense of belonging. We conducted literature search in August 2023 using the Web of Science database, focusing exclusively on publications from the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. We used a combination of keywords like ‘belonging’, ‘university belonging’, ‘social belonging’, and other related terms, ensuring a comprehensive collection of relevant studies. A total of 133 articles were identified, with 77 selected for detailed full-text review. The final selection process resulted in 33 articles for the systematic review. Key results from our review indicate that belonging in higher education involves four main themes: connectedness to peers, staff, and the institution; feeling safe and part of the community; being valued and accepted; and embracing diversity and inclusion. These themes reflect a holistic understanding of belonging as a multi-dimensional concept, significantly influenced by institution-wide approaches, inclusive environments, educator practices, and quality relationships. The variation of belonging experiences identifies key challenges such as exclusion of diverse groups, lack of connection opportunities, and insufficient support relationships. Effective strategies for fostering belonging include targeting multiple system levels, building relationships, employing diverse educator practices, leveraging technology and creating inclusive environments.