Students’ Sense of Belonging in Mathematics at a Majority Hispanic High School

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 9:45am
  In Poster Session: Student Learning in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Sense of belonging involves one’s feelings of membership and acceptance to a community. Good et al. (2012) developed a scale to measure college students’ sense of belonging in mathematics and found a positive association between students’ sense of belonging and their performance and future plans in mathematics. This study applied their instrument to study high school students at a majority Hispanic school in Southern California. Using multi-group factor analysis, gender differences were examined, and results indicated that female students had a significantly lower sense of belonging in mathematics compared to their male peers. Notably, the gender difference found was eight-times larger than the difference found in the original study.

Authors

• Marie Stevenson

• Dalton Marsh, California State University - San Bernardino