Improving Student Belonging
When students enroll at a broad-access institution, a college or university that accepts more than 75 percent of its applicants, how can the students feel as if they belong? That question and others related to feelings of belonging can affect students’ outcome, like persistence and degree attainment, according to recent research.
A new study found that interventions that aimed to improve first-year students’ sense of belonging at a broad-access university increased the likelihood of students of color and first-generation students’ continuous enrollment in the next two years, as compared to their peers who did not receive these interventions. Students who received these interventions also reported that their feelings of social and academic preparedness increased.
For the last decade, research on belonging interventions have become more popular, but usually studies are focused on elite, selective institutions, said Mary C. Murphy, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University at Bloomington and founder of the Equity Accelerator, an interdisciplinary group of staff and scholars who test, develop, and implement strategies to create more equitable learning and corporate environments.
Murphy is the lead author of a study on belonging interventions at a broad-access college that was recently republished by the think tank Third Way.
In the study, researchers worked with college administrators and upperclassmen to create reading materials for the test group. The materials outlined ways for younger students to strengthen their sense of belonging. The stories from upperclassmen described some of the academic and social challenges they faced, and provided solutions or strategies to help their peers to cope. For example, in the reading materials provided to The Chronicle, some students wrote that they worried about their belonging status because they commuted to campus. An upperclassman advised peers in the reading materials to use the commute productively and work on the long train ride. The student also suggested that students get to know fellow commuters and form a “little commuter family.”
These stories also aimed to help students understand that belonging is something a student can work on and build over time, not a sensation achieved overnight, Murphy said.
Eighty-six percent of Black, Latina/o, Native American, and first-generation students who received this intervention maintained continuous enrollment over a year. Their peers who did not receive this intervention saw continuous enrollment at a 76-percent rate.
Similar results were seen for college persistence over two years. Students who received the intervention maintained persistence over two years at a 73-percent rate. Students from the control group who did not read the belonging stories maintained college persistence at a 64-percent rate.
When many colleges and universities were first established in the U.S., Black, Latina/o, Native American, and first-generation students were excluded from them. This historical context is one more challenge that students from marginalized backgrounds face to experience a sense of belonging, Murphy said.
Murphy and her colleagues found that a lack of belonging correlated with lower persistence rates for racial-minority and first-generation students compared to racial-majority and continuing-generation students, even at institutions where these students were more represented.
This study was needed, in part, because so much existing research focuses on elite, selective institutions, and students at broad-access institutions have different barriers to feeling a sense of belonging, she said. Unlike some students at elite institutions, students at broad-access colleges may have to commute from neighboring cities or states, have multiple jobs, or families obligations, she said.
At an elite institution a belonging strategy may be for a student to join a club, Murphy said. While broad-access colleges have clubs and student organizations, many students, especially those with barriers to belonging, may not have the time or resources to attend evening meetings.
“We don’t want to send these messages about belonging and potential for belonging to students if it’s not true,” Murphy said.
Understand Your Campus
Though this study produced successful results, Murphy cautioned against colleges applying these exact materials at their campuses. Instead, colleges should investigate and study students’ specific barriers to belonging, she said. After understanding the student context and local opportunities and resources, then administrators and researchers can begin to offer students solutions and inventions. In an email Murphy encouraged using the customization method described in the paper.
Kyle Lane-McKinley, a program manager at the Belonging Project in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, said that colleges should first assess what they can do to improve student belonging and not put the burden solely on students to achieve this feeling.
Though there’s evidence that community centers or ethnic research centers can foster belonging, some colleges may not have the funding or capacity to take on those projects, he said.
At the Belonging Project, scholars use a framework, called the social-ecological model that starts small and then zooms out to help improve belonging, Lane-McKinley said. In an email, Lane-McKinley wrote that the Belonging Project works to “identify changes that individuals can make, or that small groups can undertake through culture change, as well as those changes which require institutional or even societal policy shifts.”
Many scholars and researchers may underestimate how important and top of mind belonging is for students, Murphy said. Students can clearly articulate their challenges and the strategies that they found helpful to navigate challenges.
Colleges should also know that they can foster belonging at different moments, Murphy said. For example, how colleges respond after an identity-threatening event, like when a racist slur or symbol is posted outside a building or in a residence hall, can cultivate or detract from the institution’s culture of belonging.
Many institutions are defensive after these events. Instead, administrators can use these moments to listen to students’ needs and build stronger relationships with the student body.
