“I Feel Like I Won't Be Smart Enough:” The Bidirectional Relationship between Belonging and Academics

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Being, Belonging, and Becoming in School and Community

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that sense of belonging can have a positive effect on achievement, but in this paper we propose that academic success can also contribute to belonging. Using data from an exploratory study of youth and families’ experiences across the transition from middle to high school, we find evidence that youth used indicators of their academic competence, such as test scores or feeling prepared for high school academics, in assessing their belonging at school. We also find that educator practices, such as messaging to students that they are smart, impacted their sense of belonging. These findings demonstrate the potential of academics and pedagogy, in addition to opportunities for social connection, to make belonging more equitably available to marginalized youth.

Authors

• Sebastian Castrechini, Stanford University

• Kristin Geiser, John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, Stanford University