Belonging at What Cost? Identifying and Regulating Costs of Existing and Persisting in Educational Spaces

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

School belonging is strongly linked to students’ academic success, emotional health, and long-term well-being. While belonging has received significant attention in education research, most studies emphasize its benefits and how to promote it. Far less explored are the challenges students may face in attaining that sense of inclusion and how students regulate those challenges of belonging. For students from historically excluded groups, belonging often requires navigating environments not originally built with them in mind, making the experience of belonging more effortful. Through four research presentations and commentary from a leading scholar in the field, our symposium addresses the critical but understudied dimension of the costs of belonging and belonging regulation, aiming to deepen understanding of belonging’s complexity in educational settings.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Motivation in Education

Chairs

• Chris Rozek, Washington University in St. Louis

• Carlton J. Fong, Texas State University

Papers

• A Qualitative Study on the Costs of Belonging in High School - Maegan Barbara Arney, Washington University in St. Louis

• Exploring Costs to Belong Among College Students of Color - Carlton J. Fong, Texas State University; Pedram Zarei, Texas State University

• Belonging Regulation Strategies in High School: Deductive Coding of Student Responses to Low Belonging - Chris Rozek, Washington University in St. Louis

• Putting Up With It: How College Students Reconcile the Costs of STEM Persistence - Emily Quinn Rosenzweig, Teachers College, Columbia University; Patrick N. Beymer, University of Cincinnati; Yichi Zhang, University of Georgia; Halle Jacobs, Teachers College, Columbia University; Heather Putman, University of Cincinnati; Kitley Ann Kern, University of Cincinnati

Session Organizer

• Carlton J. Fong, Texas State University

Discussant

• Jamaal Matthews, University of Michigan