Students' Experience of Belonging and Exclusion Across the Toronto District School Board

• In Event: 66.080 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 66.080-2 - Equity and Accountability in a Major Metropolis: An Exploration of the Toronto District School Board

Abstract

Main Objectives: The main objectives of this research study are to better understand the elements involved in students’ experience of social citizenship and belonging in school. Literature demonstrates that there is a close relationship between the experience of social citizenship and belonging to future actualization of rights and protections (Arnold, 2005; Somers, 2008; Yuval-Davis, 2011). Therefore, it is important to understand how schools can create spaces of inclusion that foster a sense of belonging for all students.

Conceptual Framework: Experiences of disability, racialization, poverty, immigration, gender, and sexuality juxtaposed against defined institutionalized norms and dominant narratives speak to how the experience of belonging is actualized in school. Drawing upon transnational and citizenship theory, this paper proposes employing a new framework of analysis, centralizing the experience of social citizenship and belonging, to more acutely identify and address observed inequities in schools. Theoretical considerations explore how growing market fundamentalism shapes public schools and contributes to the systematic exclusion of students with disabilities, students living in poverty, and students who self-identify as racialized through disabling mechanisms such as reduced academic programs and special education placement.

Methodology: The two-pronged study begins with the development of a measurable scale of self-reported experiences of belonging run across the disaggregated demographic characteristics of 7, 292 secondary students in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Results are disaggregated by students’ experiences with peers, as well as within students’ schools and classrooms. A regression analysis uncovers which identity, achievement, structural, and intrinsic characteristics are most crucial to the experience of social citizenship and belonging in school. The second aspect of the study includes an analysis of the institutional organization of 90, 383 secondary students in the TDSB. It explores how access and participation in privileged and lesser socially valued programming are representative of equally socially stratified identities and experiences of belonging.

Results: Across student groups disaggregated by disability, race, class, and generational status, the experience of belonging was generally equitable among peers. Stratification between the experience of belonging and exclusion began with students’ encounters with their school and was heightened by students’ experiences in the classroom. A converse trend was observed for students self-identifying as other than heterosexual, where the experience among peers led to the greatest sense of exclusion and where the classroom appeared to offer relative safety. The regression analysis presented the relational ties between identified disability, racialization, and economic stress.

Implications: Results hold many potential implications for policy, pedagogy, and school organization. Addressing inequities in the classroom through critical and inclusive pedagogy and praxis as well as purposive, system-wide de-congregation of students may reduce disproportionate experiences of belonging and exclusion.

References

Arnold, K. (2004). Homelessness, citizenship and identity: The uncanniness of late modernity. New York: State University Press of New York

Somers, M. R. (2008). Genealogies of citizenship: Markets, statelessness, and the right to have rights. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Yuval-Davis, N. (2011). The politics of belonging: Intersectional contestations. Los Angeles: Sage Publications Ltd.

Author

• Gillian Parekh, Toronto District School Board