89: Building Academic Tenacity: It's All About Belonging

This is Part 3 in a series about building academic tenacity in our students. Throughout this series, I will explore empirically-validated interventions shown to promote long-term learning and achievement. This post will focus on the importance of fostering a sense of belonging in the development of academic tenacity.

Academic tenacity consists of the mindset and skills that allow students to focus on long-term or higher-order goals and withstand challenges in pursuit of these goals. It's about working hard, working smart, and working for a long time. It allows students to look past their immediate wants and needs and focus on long-term goals. It gives them the will to withstand challenges and persevere in pursuit of their goals. In this post, we will dive into how a student's sense of belongingness can positively impact their academic tenacity and overall well-being.

Belongingness
Belongingness is a fundamental human need. It was recognized by Maslow as being essential to one's self-actualization. Deci and Ryan identified connectedness as essential to the development of self-determination. Other research indicates that people who feel connected experience increased levels of positive emotions, less depression, increased achievement, higher levels of motivation, and an increased sense of purpose.

Social belonging is an essential part of the human experience; both within and outside of the school environment. A sense of belonging at school involves feelings of acceptance, respect, inclusion and support (Bowen, 2021). Students who feel like they belong are more engaged, more likely to embrace academic challenges, and experience greater well-being. It is one of the most important protective factors against every measured form of adolescent risk and distress (Dweck et al, 2014, p. 30).

Fostering a Sense of Belonging
This past November I had the opportunity to attend one of my favorite conferences, NCSS. Excited to get started, I arrived a day early to attend a pre-clinic session at Rutgers University-Camden. I am so glad that I did! During this clinic, Dr. Andrew Abeyta shared his research on the importance of belongingness in a post-secondary environment - especially as it relates to students from historically-marginalized groups. This was an amazing session! Plus, I was in the middle of writing this post so the timing was perfect.

Here are some things that I learned:

• A student's background plays a significant role in their sense of belonging.
• If a student isn't sure if they belong, they turn to their environment for cues to help them decide if they belong or not.
• Just creating a "friendly" environment may not be enough.
• We must be cognizant of (and confront) any negative beliefs that a student might have about their education and abilities. 
• We must also identify psychological strategies that promote positive beliefs and the ability to succeed.

There are research-based interventions that can facilitate this process and promote positive beliefs within students. They are called "wise interventions."

Wise Interventions
1. Identify the Shared Nature of Belongingness Worries
Wise Interventions target a student's negative thinking patterns by normalizing belongingness worries. One way to do this is to ask students who have experienced success to share their own stories of belongingness worries and how they overcame them. Abeyta teamed up with a documentary filmmaker to record students sharing their own process of change and adjustment. This process emphasized the shared nature of the problems faced by students. Here is an example of one of the videos:

Abeyta found that 70% of students who watched the videos felt an increased sense of belonging and 66% were more confident about their academic abilities as compared to the control group. You can find out more about his body of research here.

2. Identify and Individualize the Meaning in Education
Another Wise Intervention focuses on helping the students find meaning and purpose in education. In this invention, Abeyta challenged his students to answer the following questions:

1. How will your education help you become the person that you want to be?
2. In what ways does your education contribute to your sense of personal accomplishment?

This is a meaningful question for ALL of our students. It's their WHY. This helps pull them into the future, assists them in goal-formation and provides them with the fortitude to withstand challenges.

3. Identify the Value System at Play
There are a number of other psychological interventions that can promote belongingness and achievement. Dweck, Cohen, Walton et al (2014) recommend a Values Affirmation. This is a simple activity in which students look at a list of values and either circle or rank the values that are important to them. They then write a short essay about why these values are important. Research has shown that African-American students who received the intervention earned higher grades in the immediate years following the intervention. Researchers believe that this process reminds students about what they value in themselves and how those values could translate into the school setting.

Building social connections can be tough. Every teacher connects differently with different students; but there are commonalities. Their teachers have high expectations but they also provide the support necessary to succeed. They are both warm and demanding. Lastly, they genuinely care about their student's success.

Thank you for joining me for this series! I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Also, if you have any resources that you would like to share please drop them in the comments section.

Be Well,
Cori

Previous Posts in this Series

#85 Building Tenacity: It's All About the Mindset

#86 Building Tenacity: It's All About the Goals

#88 Building Tenacity: It's All About Self-Regulation

Have you checked out my new podcast? Learn more here!

#87: Special Edition: The Teach in Ten Podcast

Resources

Abeyta, A. (2022, December). Psychological Strategies to Help Underrepresented Students Answer the Question of Belonging. NCSS. Camden; Rutgers University. 

Bowen, J. (2021, October 21). Why is it important for students to feel a sense of belonging at school? 'students choose to be in environments that make them feel a sense of fit,' says associate professor Deleon Gray. College of Education News. Retrieved January 8, 2023, from https://ced.ncsu.edu/news/2021/10/21/why-is-it-important-for-students-to-feel-a-sense-of-belonging-at-school-students-choose-to-be-in-environments-that-make-them-feel-a-sense-of-fit-says-associate-professor-deleon-gra/

Dweck, C., Walton, G., & Cohen, G. (2014). (publication). Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-Term Learning. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://ed.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/manual/dweck-walton-cohen-2014.pdf

 Finding belonging: A discussion guide - promotingprogress.org. Finding Belonging: A Discussion Guide . (n.d.). Retrieved January 8, 2023, from https://promotingprogress.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/finding_belonging_discussion-guide.pdf

Hagan, E. (Ed.). (n.d.). On belonging. Psychology Today. Retrieved January 8, 2023, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201704/belonging 

Murphy, M. C. M. M. C., Boucher, K. B. K., & Logel, C. L. C. (n.d.). How to help students feel a sense of belonging during the pandemic. Greater Good. Retrieved January 8, 2023, from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_help_students_feel_a_sense_of_belonging_during_the_pandemic

Stereotype threat. Center for Teaching & Learning. (2022, May 10). Retrieved January 8, 2023, from https://www.colorado.edu/center/teaching-learning/inclusivity/stereotype-threat