Author: Bonnie
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Belonging: Solidarity and Division in Modern Societies (Montserrat Guibernau, 2013)
This book explores belonging within a globalized society through a political lens, framing the multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings of the boundaries of identity in multi-national and multi-cultural contexts. It focuses specifically on the concept of belonging by choice, and positions this as a distinctive feature of modern society. It explores how symbols operate in…
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College students’ sense of belonging: A key to educational success for all students (Strayhorn, 2012)
A higher education-focused book with a specific lens on students’ social identities – particularly race, gender, and sexual orientation – as critical dimensions of how belonging is experienced and success is fostered (or not fostered) institutionally. Belonging is presented as a basic human need shaping students’ academic goals, achievements, and retention, and as being particularly…
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Topologies of Belonging in the Digital University (Gravett et al., 2023)
The article examines how students experience and enact belonging and non-belonging within the digital university. Drawing on empirical data from students in the UK and Australia, the authors demonstrate how belonging is a complex, fluid, and relational concept by mapping how it shows up. Students describe the materiality of belonging, curating specific spaces, objects, and…
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Belonging as Situated Practice (Gravett & Ajjawi, 2022)
This article engages in a ‘rethinking’ of the concept of belonging in higher education, from a sociomaterial perspective. The paper suggests that dominant narratives around belonging often contain omissions, such as a lack of consideration for students who may not wish to or cannot belong. The authors argue that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted taken-for-granted spaces…
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Cartographies of Belonging: Mapping Nomadic Narratives of First Year Students (Guyotte et al., 2021)
The research explores first-year students’ experiences of belonging through the lens of nomadism, problematizing conceptions of belonging as bounded and static. Drawing on feminist poststructuralism, the paper conceptualizes belonging as a dynamic process and experience that is continually negotiated. The analysis produces a narrative mapping of the connections, relations, and flows of belonging that resist…
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Four Domains of Students’ Sense of Belonging to University (Ahn & Davis, 2020)
The study found that students’ sense of belonging at university is multidimensional, encompassing not only academic and social engagement, but also their surroundings, such as living space and geographical/cultural location, as well as personal spaces related to life satisfaction, attitudes, identity, and interests. Both positive and negative experiences demonstrate the complex nature of belonging in…
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Storying Students’ Becomings into and Through Higher Education (Gravett & Winstone, 2019):
This article examines the concept of student transition into and through higher education, critiquing the normative and linear narratives that often permeate this area. Employing a theoretical framework that conceptualizes transitions as troublesome, rhizomatic, and as processes of becoming, the findings highlight several key themes. Firstly, students described the need to unlearn previous approaches to…
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Relational Thinking in Education: Topology, Sociomaterial Studies, & Figures (Decuypere & Simons, 2016)
This foundational paper does not focus overtly on belonging, but is important in the topological literature in relation to educational studies. It traces trends in relational forms of thinking, making connections between sociomaterial and sociotopological forms of thinking that it asserts are not common in educational research, at least at its time of print. It…
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Adolescent School Belonging and Mental Health Outcomes in Young Adulthood: Findings from a Multi-wave Prospective Cohort Study (Allen et al, 2024)
This quantitative study connects secondary school belonging, or connectedness, with longterm benefits into young adulthood. Belonging is framed via dimensions such as positive affect towards school, meaningful relationships with teachers, and feelings of being socially valued. Previous research had indicated immediate benefits to belonging, for mental health and wellbeing, however, this study used data from…
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Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health With Compassionate Challenge (Cavanagh, 2023)
This book, grounded in psychology and pedagogy, addresses the current youth mental health crisis. While not centrally focused on belonging, the book argues for environments for youth characterized by compassion and belonging, alongside the creation of practices that encourage challenge. The book focuses on supporting overall youth mental health in supportive, safe, and playful ways. Cavanagh, S. (2023).…
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Safety and Belonging as Explanations for Mental Health Disparities Among Sexual Minority College Students (Wilson & Liss, 2022)
This study builds on the psychology-based minority stress model to explore the risks that sexual minority students identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or asexual (LGBA+) experience in relation to mental health during college. The study confirms lower levels of safety, belongingness, and happiness among sexual minority students, as well as higher levels of reported depression…
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School Belongingness, Well-being, and Mental Health among Adolescents: Exploring the Role of Loneliness (Arslan, 2021)
This paper, based in data from Turkish schools, approaches the need to belong as a fundamental psychological construct related to multiple key adolescent school‐based and quality‐of‐life outcomes. The study investigates the mediating effect of loneliness on school belonging constructs such as social inclusion and exclusion on well‐being and mental health challenges. Findings suggest that loneliness…
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Rethinking Belonging through Bourdieu, Diaspora and the Spatial (Thomas, 2015)
This paper examines the discourse of belonging in relation to retention strategies for part-time, mature undergraduates in English higher education, through a sociomaterial, spatial lens. The paper argues that the dominant institutional narratives of the ‘typical’ or ‘authentic’ student as young, full-time and residential serve to position part-time, mature undergraduates on the periphery of higher…
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Being ‘at’ University: The Social Topologies of Distance Students (Bayne et al, 2013)
This paper takes a topological perspective on how online distance students understand and enact the idea of the university. Located within the ‘new mobilities’ paradigm, this analysis overviews how online students conceive of the University of Edinburgh. It suggests that even for students who never physically go to campus, the material campus remains both symbolically…
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Impact of Transitioning to Remote Learning on Student Learning Interactions and Sense of Belonging Among Public Health Graduate Students (Zamora et al., 2023)
The article discusses the importance of student learning interactions and a sense of belonging in distance education settings, particularly in the experiential field of public health. The paper examines how the sudden shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Master of Public Health students’ interactions with peers, instructors, and course content, as well…