Examining Black and Latine Adolescents’ Sense of Belonging within the Mathematics Classroom: A Systematic Review

• In Event: How to Create Environments of Belonging for Students: New Perspectives on School Belonging Research

Abstract

Academic environments that support a sense of belonging, or students’ feelings of being included, valued, accepted, and supported, are positively associated with students’ engagement, persistence, and academic achievement. Sense of belonging is a situated and context-dependent construct that fluctuates over time and interacts with many other motivational constructs (e.g., self-concepts, competence, and persistence). Due to negative stereotypes about who can succeed in mathematics, mathematics classrooms have been historically unwelcoming toward students of color. Such experiences lead many Black and Latine students to experience barriers to their sense of belonging within mathematics learning environments. In addition, adolescence is a critical developmental period for forming students’ identification with mathematics. Thus, we pay special attention to how students’ belonging is supported in 6th to 12th-grade mathematics settings. No prior review has specifically focused on the math-related belonging experiences of Black and Latine adolescents, leaving much unknown about how educators can support Black and Latine students’ sense of belonging in mathematics learning contexts. In this systematic review, we established a foundation for what is known regarding how to support a sense of belonging among Black and Latine adolescents within mathematics classrooms and provide mathematics educators with instructional strategies that can be used to support a sense of belonging within their classrooms. We investigated the type of belonging researchers examined, identified commonly studied sources of belonging and instructional practices used to support belonging, and discussed connections between belonging and other motivational constructs, specifically within mathematics classrooms.

Authors

• Brooke Harris-Thomas, University of Michigan - Dearborn

• Korinthia D. Nicolai, Indiana University

• Xiao-Yin Chen, University of Tennessee

• Christina Areizaga Barbieri, University of Delaware