The COVID-19 Pandemic has ushered in significant challenges for supporting community and belonging in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). This paper seeks to provide key recommendations to strengthen such activity, through a critical evaluation of a set of innovative community and belonging enhancement projects undertaken in a modern Scottish…

Historically marginalized students, especially urban students attending under-resourced schools, experience lower levels of belongingness than their white peers in suburban, well-resourced schools. Much research highlights that student belongingness increases student outcomes such as on-time graduation, standardized test achievement, and lifetime…

Background/Context: Community colleges are seen as malleable institutions that work closely with high schools, vocational programs, employers, and community organizations to provide an education for all members of their local community. As an extension of the community, the education provided must address larger social changes (i.e., Affirmative…

School sense of belonging is critical for students' academic achievement and emotional well-being. The development of a sense of school belonging is influenced by direct and indirect factors within the school environment. Categorization into low and high achievement groups based on academics is a process largely outside the direct control of a…

The author describes their experience, as a Black woman, during the beginning of their teaching career. The author describes experiences in school as a young student, within their community, and as an adult out in public and in their early career. The author discusses their assimilation from childhood, and eventual transition to teaching within a…

Schools are chief among the social institutions impacted by migrant flows as key sites of integration and support for migrant children. This article focuses on micro- and meso-level interactions and their importance to experiences of belonging and socio-educational integration for migrant children. It explores outcomes from qualitative research in…

Latina students have been enrolling in colleges at increasing rates but experience disproportionate levels of STEM major declaration and persistence, even at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). This qualitative study explored the first-year experiences of Latina students at a newly designated HSI to gain insights into how to serve them better as…

Recent insights have underscored the role of context in cultivating intelligence mindsets' influence on students' academic outcomes. Psychological affordances of the social context may encourage an adaptive perspective (i.e., growth mindset). Expanding this novel area of investigation, we examined how students' sense of belonging, as an affordance…

The expansion of higher education has led to greater diversity among students, with a significant portion of them aged 25 and above. This demographic group represents a range of intersecting identities associated with their different roles, responsibilities, and life trajectories. While older students face obstacles to engagement, persistence, and…

This quantitative study investigated the impact of campus climate on the ethnic identity development and sense of belonging among Middle Eastern and North African/Southwest Asian and North African (MENA/SWANA) college students. This student population has largely been absent from research due to their classification as White in the U.S. Census and…

For nearly 60 years, doctoral student attrition has been a cause for concern (Berelson, 1960; Council of Graduate Schools, 2010; 2015). Studies have shown that approximately 40-70% of doctoral students do not finish their degree, and 20% of those who advance to candidacy do not complete the dissertation phase (Lovelace, 2016). Additionally,…

This action research study examined student success at a private, faith-based graduate business school by aiming to cultivate a community of belonging for graduate students through a staff development approach. As the action for this study, a three-part professional development series was created to foster a collaborative community of graduate…

Scholars have put a great deal of effort into studies focused on the undergraduate student experience, during this time the empirical literature on graduate and doctoral student experiences has been largely ignored; specifically studies on the positive aspects of Black women's doctoral journey. Hence the purpose of this qualitative study was to…

Leeward Community College is committed to supporting Native Hawaiians, the Indigenous people of Hawai?i. It aims to become a "model indigenous-serving" institution (University of Hawai?i, 2012) as part of the University of Hawai?i system's efforts to empower Hawai?i's Indigenous scholars and their communities. This single-site case study…

Schools play a crucial role in shaping resettled refugees' sense of belonging and access to citizenship rights. Education is a pathway to social integration, civic participation, and meaningful employment. Teachers can be seen as 'boundary workers' who broker a sense of (un)welcome and (un)belonging, mediating the relationship between resettled…