This brief reports findings from a survey with middle and high school youth in a midsize district in the Mid-Atlantic. We find that belonging varies by race and ethnicity for young people. Overall, Black and Latino/x youth report lower belonging when compared to their White peers in a pro-diversity and inclusion district. Implications for policy…

Sense of school belonging has been shown to contribute to a range of academic and psychosocial outcomes, especially among adolescents, and may have particular salience for immigrant students of color, due to their ethnic-racial positionality and frequent marginalization in school. In this study, we examined the ways that immigrant and island-born…

The purpose of the study was to better understand how international school middle school teachers can help cultivate a student's sense of belonging by creating a space for students to explore factors shaping their gender identity. The Participatory Action Research (PAR) study took place at an international school in South Korea that enrolls…

The middle school years are marked by a critical interplay of biological, cognitive, and social development, which collectively shape adolescents' experiences and developmental trajectories. Recognizing the complexity of these processes is crucial for creating nurturing environments that support adolescents' academic, social, and emotional…

This phenomenological study examines the experience of middle school youth at a small public school in New Hampshire as they engaged in youth participatory action research (YPAR) designed to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within their predominantly White suburban community. This study centered the 22 participants' perspectives…

This paper highlights a study (2022) conducted in a Canadian school division which explored the perceptions of classroom teachers (n=4) in middle schools. The purpose of the study was to highlight ways in which middle school teachers successfully connected with middle years aged students in their classrooms. Participants spoke of the importance of…

This community-based participatory research case study demonstrates how Dakota Wico?a? utilized Indigenous and feminist epistemologies to create, implement, and evaluate a cultural intervention, the Mni Sota Makoce: Dakota Homelands Curriculum, to increase Native 6th- and 10th-grade social studies students' peoplehood sense of belonging (Tachine…

Adolescence is a developmental stage during which American students are typically disengaged (Pianta, Hamre, & Allen, 2012), yet learning depends upon engagement (Finn & Zimmer, 2012; Reschly & Christenson, 2012). For middle school students who struggle to read, school-based reading support represents a last chance to help them succeed…

This study seeks to critically examine perceptions of urban school climate from a predominantly white teacher workforce and discuss the role that white identity, as the Dominant culture, plays in maintaining the status quo of racialized school climate. Participants included 145 teachers from a large southwestern urban setting. Teachers'…