Reimagining Sense of Belonging in Community Colleges: Student Perspectives

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Belonging, Mattering, and a Sense of Community

Abstract

Community colleges are important mechanisms for social mobility because they disproportionately serve racially and socioeconomically diverse students. However, large numbers of community college students do not persist to completion. Sense of belonging offers an important theoretical explanation of students’ persistence in higher education, but this concept has been applied less frequently to students attending two-year commuter institutions. This paper draws on survey and focus group data collected at six community colleges to investigate how students talk about their sense of belonging. Our analysis points to four nonacademic elements of the community college experience that contribute to students’ sense of belonging: interpersonal interactions with non-faculty staff members, opportunities to make connections with others, well-maintained facilities, and financial support and resources.

Authors

• Selena Cho, Community College Research Center

• Susan Bickerstaff, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Elisabeth Barnett, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Andrea Lopez Salazar, Teachers College, Columbia University