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School Belonging Consquences of Feeling a Sense of Belonging Factors That Contribute to the Sense of Belonging Implications for Teachers Consquences of Feeling a Sense of Belonging
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Goodenow, Carol |
| Abstract | The term school belonging refers to students' subjective perception of being accepted and respected in their particular school setting. Some researchers have also examined the parallel perception in relation to specific classes; typically using the term class belonging. Baumeister and Leary (1995) have proposed that all people have an innate need to belong to social groups and to form positive interpersonal relationships with others. Given the amount of time children and adolescents spend in educational settings and the societal importance attached to school-related activities, students' sense of belonging in those settings is particularly important for their healthy development. Carol Goodenow (1993) defined students' sense of belonging as the sense of " psychological membership in the school or classroom, that is, the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school environment " (p. 80). Other researchers have studied similar perceptions using terms such as school connectedness or bonding to school; however, these terms are less common (see Ander-man & Freeman, 2004 , for a review). The fact that different researchers have examined similar psychological constructs using different terms can make it difficult to synthesiz e the findings of studies related to students' sense of belonging. Furthermore, this difficulty extends beyond simply the terminology that is used to include differences in both the psychological theories or models that researchers use and the specific ways in which they measure individuals' perceptions of belonging. Because the sense of belonging or connectedness is a subjective perception, it is best measured using students' self-reports. This is done, most commonly, through the use of questionnaire measures, although interviews with students can also be used (e.g., Kester, 1994). Even within the use of questionnaire measures, however, considerable differences exist in the specific measures available. Perhaps the most widely known measure of school or classroom belonging is the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM; Good-enow & Grady, 1993). This measure includes 18 items and was originally developed for use with students in middle school, focusing on students' sense of being liked, included, and respected in their school. More recently, several researchers have adapted the PSSM to develop shorter versions and for use with college-age students. In contrast to the PSSM, other researchers have used measures that include somewhat broader constructs that include the sense of belonging in conjunction with other perceptions and attitudes (such as valuing academic activities or holding … |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.education.com/pdf/school-belonging/ |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
