Overview:
School belonging is essential to student engagement, mental health, and academic success, and schools can rebuild it through intentional relationships, inclusive cultures, and supportive learning environments where every student feels seen, valued, and connected.
There is a crisis of student disengagement. Many students feel disconnected from peers, teachers, and their school community. Elevated rates of absenteeism, depression/anxiety, and loneliness among students worries teachers, administrators, and parents. Students spend a large portion of their time in schools. Students learn best when they feel seen, valued, and connected. Teachers and administrators play a critical role in supporting students’ well-being by creating a positive school climate. Academics and well-being are inseparable. School belonging is the foundation for student engagement, mental health, and lasting academic success. Belonging matters now more than ever.
Why is Belonging Important?
All people are motivated to seek belonging and connection with others. People need to feel accepted, valued, respected, and included. School belonging focuses on relationships with teachers, administrators, and peers, along with connection to the values of the school community. It is affected by:
- Student characteristics (motivation, anxiety, social skills)
- Interpersonal relationships (connections with teachers, administrators, and staff, peer friendships, and emotional support from parents)
- School characteristics (building characteristics and administrative norms), and society (economics, culture, status).
It all comes down to whether a student feels like they are important and matter in their school.
School belonging goes beyond simple participation in activities or number of friendships. You cannot just count up extracurricular activities, attendance metrics, and graduation rates. Belonging means that a student feels a genuine connection with the mission of the school. They feel that they are making a contribution to the school culture and that their presence is a necessary part of their classroom and school.
In the most simple of summaries of the research: belonging is good and not belonging is bad. Belonging is one of the strongest predictors of student engagement. School belonging affects mental health, well-being, motivation, academic achievement, resilience, self-esteem, academic confidence, persistence, engagement, social inclusion, student conduct, absenteeism, school dropout rate, life satisfaction, and future occupational success. Belonging is fundamental.
Recent Changes in School Belonging
School belonging has been declining. The COVID-19 pandemic magnified a problem that already existed. Students who were already feeling disconnected spiraled even further away from school connectedness. The mental health challenges among adolescents affect their ability to form connections. Increased screen time and social media can affect belonging if students use technology to replace live interactions rather than sustain connections with others. There has also been a rise in family mobility that has increased the number of schools a student might attend. Extended family and community structures are lost, which can contribute to chronic absenteeism.
Which Students Are at Most Risk?
The students who are at greatest risk for low school belonging are those that struggle to find similar peers. This includes neurodivergent students, twice-exceptional learners, students from marginalized backgrounds, immigrant populations, and new students. There is also greater risk during transition years such as the move from elementary to middle or middle to high school. Students may struggle with navigating multiple peer groups and building connections both with their small cultural or affiliation group and connecting with the school as a whole. This can be particularly difficult if the school norms seem at odds with the needs of their community. Students may form peer connections and a sense of belonging by being in opposition to school. This can be improved by inclusive school cultures that focus on educational equity. Students simply want to see themselves in others and have important aspects of their identities be valued and respected. Teachers, administrative leaders, counselors, and staff members can all work together to build school belonging.
The Role of Teachers in Rebuilding Belonging
A positive school climate begins with relationships. Students’ experiences and performance in school are mainly shaped by their relationships with teachers. Students need to feel that their teachers are kind and that they care about each of their students as valued individuals in the classroom. Small daily interactions matter. Perceptions of teacher fairness have a large effect on students’ sense of belonging. Students should believe that their teacher treats everyone fairly and justly and that there are no favorites who get more positive feedback and interaction. The following classroom practices can help build connection:
- Greet students by name: build interpersonal relationships
- Collaborative learning: use to teach peer interaction skills
- Student choice and voice: empower students to have agency in the classroom
- Discussion-based instruction: use to teach metacognitive skills of reflection and prediction
- Connective instruction: help students connect what they are learning to their daily lives
- Availability: students should feel their teacher is available for academic and social support
- Classroom environment: access to natural light, nature, ample seating, and room to move
Teachers increase school belonging by creating emotionally safe classrooms. Emphasize the importance of respectful disagreement and that mistakes are part of learning. You are seeking to create a classroom community where teacher-student relationships are prioritized and students have a voice in their education.
Quick Wins for Teachers
- Two-minute relationship check-ins
- Interest surveys
- Cooperative learning structures
- Celebrating student strengths publicly
How School Leaders Can Build a Culture of Belonging
School leaders play an important role in creating a positive school climate that fosters a culture of belonging. Administrators set the overall tone and structure of a school through policy and organization. There are several ways that school leaders can build school belonging:
- Build Emotional Literacy: provide opportunities for direct instruction in social-emotional skills for both students and teachers.
- Support Teacher Well-Being: be mindful of teacher burnout and teachers’ sense of belonging.
- Embed Belonging Into School Improvement Plans: make belonging a strategic priority for long-term culture change and measure belonging intentionally.
- Emphasize Partnership Over Hierarchy: focus on collaboration with faculty, staff, and students for major decisions over rigid policy rules.
- Give Students Leadership Opportunities: allow students ownership of their extracurricular activities to give them a chance to build leadership.
- Create Cooperative Spaces: review the physical layout of the school to make sure there are spaces for gathering, cooperation, and connection, such as in the library and common areas.
- Recognize Positive Academic Behaviors: spend as much time and energy on lifting up positive behaviors as is spent addressing misconduct.
Addressing misconduct can often overwhelm other concerns. Help students learn to take responsibility for behavior through communication, reflection and repair rather than simple punishment. Shift from conversations about “problem students” to greater compassion for possible student needs. Encourage peer observations so that educators can see each other in action and discuss what worked.
It is important that both faculty and students have a sense of agency and ownership of their school culture and environment. The most successful schools are those that have strong alliances between students, teachers, and administration. Everyone needs to have a sense that they can contribute to building belonging. Be sure to give teachers the skills and confidence to focus on school belonging through professional development and coaching. Rebuilding school culture can take time, but it is worth the effort.
Quick Wins for School Leaders
- Increase visibility during transitions
- Create welcoming school spaces
- Review exclusionary discipline policies
Take-Away Message
Belonging is a prerequisite for learning and thriving. It involves connections with teachers and other adults. Students need to believe that adults will listen to them, respect their ideas, be fair, and encourage their development. There should be space for connection with peers and a school culture that allows every student to be their authentic selves. Schools should intentionally cultivate engagement, achievement, attendance, and well-being, so that everyone in the space feels a sense of agency and connection to the school community. Changing culture can be challenging but:
What would change if every student believed, every day, that they mattered at school?
