Promoting Belonging in School for Latine Students: The Role of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Asset-based Pedagogy

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

Abstract

School belonging is an important construct given that it is highly predictive of positive academic and non-academic outcomes. Although not usually considered in the belonging literature, ethnic-racial identity includes dimensions of belongingness. Given that belonging and ethnic-racial identity both include cognitive, relational, and affective elements that pertain to one’s identity, these shared conceptual features may explain why minoritized students with higher levels of ethnic-racial identity also have higher levels of school belonging. Using literature-driven conceptualizations of school belonging and ethnic-racial identity for members of the Latine community, we report our findings of a systematic review of 22 papers that include asset-based pedagogies in an examination of students’ ethnic-racial identity and/or school belonging. After a discussion of the themes identified that relate to belonging and ethnic-racial identity, we discuss implications for future research.

Authors

• Francesca López, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Deborah Rivas-Drake, University of Michigan

• Elisa Marisol Serrano, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Giselle Maria Delcid, Pennsylvania State University