Not Just Fitting In: Belonging Opportunity Structures for Black, Latiné, and Indigenous Students in STEM

• In Event: Exploring Cultural Cost Among Students with Minoritized Identities Across Varying Sociopolitical Contexts

Abstract

Perspectives and Purpose
Black, Latiné, and Indigenous students continue to face exclusion in STEM—not only through underrepresentation, but through classroom environments that often fail to affirm their belonging. Although belonging is linked to persistence, most interventions target student beliefs rather than examining whether classrooms meaningfully afford belonging (Zumbrunn et al., 2024).

We use Belonging Centered Instruction (BCI; Matthews et al., 2021) to conceptualize instructional and interpersonal “opportunity structures” that are theorized to foster belonging. However, little is known about whether racially minoritized students perceive these supports—or how stereotype threat and other racialized experiences shape that perception. To address this gap, we conducted a convergent mixed-methods study of racially minoritized undergraduates in large STEM courses. We ask:

How do students’ motivation beliefs and stereotype threat shape their perceptions of instructional and interpersonal belonging opportunity structures?
Do students’ perceptions of opportunity structures predict their end-of-semester sense of belonging?
What do students identify as helpful or supportive when explaining their responses to belonging opportunity structure items?

Because STEM fields often reflect white, Western epistemologies that marginalize non-dominant ways of knowing (Sorell, 2013; Patton, 2016), we draw on Critical Race Theory (CRT; DeCuir-Gunby, 2024) to inform our qualitative analyses and interpretive lens. CRT’s core tenets—the permanence of racism, the centrality of experiential knowledge, and the need to challenge dominant ideologies—guide our attention to how stereotype threat and other racialized experiences shape how belonging supports are perceived by racially minoritized students.

Method
The sample (N = 238) included Black, Latiné, and Indigenous undergraduates in 18 large STEM courses. Surveys measured motivation, stereotype threat, belonging, and perceptions of classroom climate using items aligned with BCI dimensions via the Integrative Motivation Design Principles (Linnenbrink-Garcia et al., 2016). See Table 5 for construct alignment and survey items.



Results
Path estimates and model fit indices are presented in Figures 1–3. Relational and competence climates significantly predicted peer and instructor belonging, with relational climate showing the strongest effects. Prior motivation predicted perceptions of value and autonomy climates, while stereotype threat negatively predicted relational climate. Content analysis of open-ended responses (N =104; Table 6) identified rich and informative examples of instructional and interpersonal practices. Students commonly described instructors who “always ask if we have questions,” “answer all questions with patience and care,” and “adjust to the class rather than power through a lesson plan”.

Significance
Findings suggest that belonging in STEM is shaped less by students’ prior motivation and more by how they interpret classroom experiences. Although interest and self-efficacy predicted perceptions of value and autonomy climates, these were not associated with end-of-semester belonging. In contrast, relational and competence climates were strong predictors of belonging, and qualitative findings reveal why: students emphasized encouragement to ask questions, instructors answering clearly and kindly, and frequent checks for understanding. This form of instructional attentiveness blurred the boundaries between relational and competence support and mirrored their high correlation in the quantitative models. Together, they emerged as the most consistently recognized and valued belonging opportunity structures.

Author

• Sanheeta Shankar, McGill University