Barriers to Belonging: Belonging Issues in Higher Education for Minoritized Student Populations

• In Event: How to Create Environments of Belonging for Students: New Perspectives on School Belonging Research

Abstract

Despite a plethora of interventions and programs to foster belonging, minoritized college students continue to espouse lower school belonging than their peers. Thus, a critical question remains: Why are higher education institutions unable to foster and maintain a strong sense of school belonging among their student populations? We propose that this complex question can be explored by examining barriers to belonging in postsecondary institutions. Our review of the literature suggests five primary barriers to fostering a sense of school belonging among minoritized college students: (1) unidimensional conceptualization of minoritization (2) lack of an intersectional identity approach to understanding school belonging (3) individualistic understanding of school belonging (4) missed opportunities in sub-cultures and counter spaces of school belonging and (5) troubled historical exclusion of minoritized populations in higher education.

Authors

• Nidia Ruedas-Gracia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Jernesha Walls, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign