Why is it Important for Students to Feel a Sense of Belonging at School? | Ask the Expert

Main ideas and lessons

• Who the speaker is and what they study

  • Deleon Gray is an associate professor in educational psychology and equity.
  • Their research focuses on belonging and motivation, working to improve student engagement and learning productivity.
  • They study how belonging affects students, parents, teachers, and community stakeholders.

• Why belonging matters for students

  • Belonging is linked to multiple positive outcomes for students, including:
    • Higher motivation
    • Being more energized
    • Spending more time on tasks
    • Returning to activities
    • Choosing to be in learning environments where they feel they “fit”

• What “sense of belonging” means in school

  • It involves students feeling:
    • Acceptance
    • Respect
    • Inclusion
    • Support
  • It’s tied to the student’s learning environment and how safe/valued they feel there.

• How academic content can support belonging

  • Students can feel “at home” when learning content provides:
    • Continuity (a sense that school connects logically to life and identity)
  • For historically marginalized students, continuity can mean:
    • Connection to ancestral heritage
    • Connection to community
    • Making school activities feel more meaningful and valuable

• Strategies teachers can use to connect classroom learning to students’ communities

  • The speaker describes three main approaches:

  • Bring community members into the classroom

    • Use community members to reinforce concepts taught in class.

  • Connect learning content to real-world resources

    • Bring in information, artifacts, and news that connect directly to the classroom material.

  • Help students imagine connections to their outside lives

    • Allow students to consider how the content relates to their lived experiences, not just school-based examples.

• Apply “cultural relevance” by grounding it in students’ realities

  • Cultural relevance should go beyond broad ideas and instead recognize:
    • Where students are
    • Their specific cultural and community context

• Example of culturally relevant learning

  • In Durham, “sneaker culture” was integrated into a lesson about building shoes for Mars.
  • Students were able to:
    • Express creativity
    • Design shoes that honored their culture
    • Connect this work to imagining the future (e.g., “Mars”)

• Core principle

  • These strategies aim to help students understand:
    • They have a place in the classroom
    • They have rights
    • The classroom is centered on their experiences

Speakers / sources featured

• Deleon Gray (Associate Professor of educational psychology and equity)