How School Racial Climate Creates Opportunity Structures for Belonging: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

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

Abstract

School belonging is a fundamental need that describes how much one feels they fit in, are valued, and accepted within a school. In this presentation, we explore how racialization and racism contribute to opportunity structures for belonging (Gray et al., 2018) through school racial climate and report on a meta-analysis of the associations between dimensions of school racial climate and school belonging in primary, secondary, and postsecondary settings around the world. A literature search resulted in 6,396 citations, with a final sample of 77 studies and 276 effect sizes. Most (83%) of the studies were conducted in the United States, with 45% in primary/secondary schools and 55% in postsecondary settings. Analyses consisted of three-level random-effects models with tests of moderating effects of country, marginalized group membership, school level, and publication type and showed significant correlations between belonging and discrimination-personally experienced, general negative interactions, equal status/positive interactions, cultural socialization, intercultural competence socialization, critical consciousness socialization, mainstream socialization, positive interaction socialization, commitment to diversity, general socialization, and general racial climate. There was not a significant association for color-evasive socialization. We note the need for more longitudinal research, more research outside of the U.S., and more ethnic-racial socialization research in higher education. We conclude by discussing challenges in the measurement of school racial climate and call for more nuanced investigations on belonging as a product of students’ embeddedness within racialized systems.

Authors

• Christy M. Byrd, North Carolina State University

• Alisa Sas, Independent Scholar

• Renata A. Halls-Gordon, North Carolina State University

• Jacqueline Cerda-Smith, North Carolina State University

• Jaylene Patterson, University of Kentucky

• Stella Jackman-Ryan, North Carolina State University