Thesis advisor: Richard M. Jackson / Belonging in schools is an often-researched topic. However, the lived experiences of students with disabilities as related to belonging have not been explored in great depth. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to begin to understand the lived experiences of belonging for middle school students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) through a relational lens (relational here was meant as more than just focusing on relationships). This phenomenological approach allowed for an in-depth exploration of how participants understand belonging and how it impacts their lives. Ten student participants were interviewed over a series of four interview sessions in which they discussed their experiences with and understanding of belonging in school. Findings revealed complex and multifaceted subjective lived experiences of belonging. Findings are presented here through participant summaries, across participants in broader descriptive themes, and through the creation of a participant model. Interpretive themes are also presented to help guide further analysis and understanding of the findings. Considering the qualitative nature of this study, these themes are not meant to be reductive, but rather to generate additional questions. In keeping with this purpose, a Generative Model of Belonging was created from the broader literature base on middle school belonging, and this model was revisited and revised based on the findings of this study. It was also used to create the aforementioned participant model. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

archives@tulane.edu / In response to extant literature on college students’ sense of belonging that analyzes the concept as a relatively siloed phenomenon, this study offers a mixed methods exploratory analysis of college students’ sense of belonging that examines multiple domains of college life simultaneously. Quantitative results reveal that students fall within three classes of sense of belonging – Low, Medium, High – and that sense of belonging to a campus organization is least impactful on the classes whereas sense of belonging to a friend group is most impactful. Key factors impact a students’ probability of being in a particular class of sense of belonging: Students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds as well as non-Honors students are most likely to experience a low sense of belonging, and students from relatively high socioeconomic statuses are least likely to experience a low sense of belonging. Qualitative results analyze students’ definitions of sense of belonging and unpack aspects of the quantitative results. First, students’ definitions reveal four categories of sense of belonging: Self-Centrics, Co-Creators, Seekers, and Conformists. Second, campus organizations offer a framework by which students meet friends, and the importance of this structure goes largely unnoticed by students. On the contrary, students highlight the importance of sense of belonging to a friend group as instrumental to developing sense of belonging in other domains. Third, the theme of exclusion operates as a foil to the similarity that informs interviewees’ sense of belonging. Exclusion refers to perceptions that one is an insider or outsider, and a key component of exclusion is the degree to which students have agency in their experiences of exclusion. Fourth, Gateways of Belonging and Conduits of Belonging offer a means by which students strengthen sense of belonging in various domains. Gateways of Belonging refer to frameworks that bring together students around shared experience or purpose. Conduits of Belonging refer to specific roles that people fill in such a way that they model what sense of belonging can look like in a specific domain. Keywords: College students’ sense of belonging; mixed methods; latent class analysis; semi-structured interviews; Gateways of Belonging; Conduits of Belonging / 1 / Robert Alexander Ellison

Broadening participation in engineering has been a pressing focus of engineering education research for decades. Despite efforts to improve engineering access for historically underrepresented groups, progress has been slow. The National Academy of Engineering and other governmental and professional agencies have voiced the need to increase the presence of women in engineering as a national priority. Women have always been underrepresented in engineering spaces and are too often told either explicitly or through negative treatment that they do not belong in engineering. This messaging is a barrier to broadening engineering participation for women; when women do feel like they belong, conversely, they are more likely to enter and remain in engineering spaces. My study was designed to understand women's experiences of belonging at different organizational levels. I investigate women's perceptions, competencies, motivations, and opportunities for belonging both within their engineering programs/colleges and outside of engineering at their institutions. Using this multi-level approach, I identified connections between belonging components at each level and found that the source of women's belonging and engagement matters for their overall levels of belonging and intentions to persist in engineering. The results of this study revealed that women experience higher levels of belonging outside of engineering than within their engineering programs. However, belonging in engineering related to students' intentions to persist toward their engineering degrees, but belonging outside of engineering did not. I also found that different activities relate to women's belonging at each level, which could have implications for how we support students in finding belonging. My findings present an opportunity for educators to be intentional about how and where they help students cultivate belonging. If we can help women find greater belonging in their engineering programs/colleges, we may be able to influence the likelihood that they persist in their engineering program in a way that belonging initiatives outside of engineering may not. / Doctor of Philosophy / Broadening participation in engineering has been a pressing focus of engineering education research for decades. Despite efforts to improve engineering access for historically underrepresented groups, progress has been slow. The National Academy of Engineering and other governmental and professional agencies have voiced the need to increase the presence of women in engineering as a national priority. Women have always been underrepresented in engineering spaces and are too often told either explicitly or through negative treatment that they do not belong in engineering. This messaging is a barrier to broadening engineering participation for women; when women do feel like they belong, conversely, they are more likely to enter and remain in engineering spaces. My study was designed to understand women's experiences of belonging at different organizational levels. I investigate women's perceptions, competencies, motivations, and opportunities for belonging both within their engineering programs/colleges and outside of engineering at their institutions. Using this multi-level approach, I identified connections between belonging components at each level and found that the source of women's belonging and engagement matters for their overall levels of belonging and intentions to persist in engineering. The results of this study revealed that women experience higher levels of belonging outside of engineering than within their engineering programs. However, belonging in engineering related to students' intentions to persist toward their engineering degrees, but belonging outside of engineering did not. I also found that different activities relate to women's belonging at each level, which could have implications for how we support students in finding belonging. My findings present an opportunity for educators to be intentional about how and where they help students cultivate belonging. If we can help women find greater belonging in their engineering programs/colleges, we may be able to influence the likelihood that they persist in their engineering program in a way that belonging initiatives outside of engineering may not.

This is a case study about how a class in the first years of elementary school works with the part of inclusion work - that has to do with social belonging and kinship. The study aims to learn about how the selected school works to support social contacts and kinship, and also to identify the obstacles that can stand in the way for interaction between the pupils.The starting point for the study is a class where one of the pupils has disabilities. The class was observed during two days, interviews took place with teachers and parents and document studies were conducted.The result shows that the selected school tends to conduct an integration work that has more to do with physical placement than social kinship and participation. In conclusion, the study shows that there was small possibilities of situations of interplay that contribute to interaction and communication between the pupil with disabilities and other pupils. I hope that my study can contribute to improving other learning environments to become more inclusive.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / I set out to rethink the ongoing conflict in North Kivu and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I highlight two problems with regards to the current conceptualisation of the conflict in North Kivu and South Kivu. The first is a theoretical problem and here I demonstrate that the Banyarwanda and Banyamulenge’s quest for belonging has so far been restricted to citizenship. Congolese Banyarwanda and the Banyamulenge find themselves in a peculiar situation, at various times in the postcolonial Congolese state they had recognition from above but lacked recognition from below. It is in this context that a politics of belonging developed. The second problem is with regards to the history of the conflict. I argue that most scholarly works take the 1993 conflict in North Kivu as the starting point of the conflict, but the conflict can be traced back to an earlier date. It was with this in mind that I pose the following question: Can the conflict in North and South Kivu in the DRC be considered as a politics of belonging between indigenous Congolese and Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese, and a contest for survival between Hutu and Tutsi elites?

How do we maintain our own authentic voice while still being a productive member of a group? How do we not lose our voice and our meaning to the collective? This thesis is a series of stories that examines one student's experience with the intersection of music, education, technology, and personal life. It is a document of resonance, identifying interdisciplinary events and ideas that amplify each other, helping the student to extract and apply meaning in times of hope and challenge, peace and chaos, and serenity and sorrow, using the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) approach. The chapters shape the explorations. The first chapter of this thesis expresses the importance of Listening to our own voice. Chapter 2 explores Dissonance, the tension that challenges us to examine what we believe to be true in our own voice. The third chapter examines Empowerment, looking to the head, heart and gut, carried on our breath, to find success by using our own authentic voice. Chapter 4 looks at Liberation, and the steps we take to reclaim our voice when it is being suppressed. Chapter 5 shares the healing power of music, examining its relationship to Memory. The last chapter attempts to pull all of these ideas together by exploring the relationship between personal Identity and Belonging.

The need to belong to communities is a basic human need and the notion of belonging is central to how we define who we are. But belonging to a national community is not always clear-cut. The paradox of belonging to the German community was made evident in 2005 when a census category—‘persons with a migration background’—was introduced. The new category served to cast some people to the community’s periphery. Instead of ‘Germans’ and ‘foreigners’, the census now records ‘Germans’ and ‘persons with a migration background’. Included in the latter category are German citizens. Germans with a(n obvious) connection to elsewhere who were once counted as ‘German’ are now placed in the newly established census category and counted together with foreigners. This ethnographic study examined how ordinary Germans conceive of Germanness and who they imagine their German community to include. The study asked: What makes a person German? Analysis was couched in historical and contemporary contexts that inform the data. To avoid being mired a priori in the notion of a German Volk, people of various backgrounds having membership in the German nation-state were asked who they take to be ‘German’ and where they draw their lines around the imagined German community. The research data suggests that a penchant for prestige which has long characterized German nationalism continues to influence who is seen as German. Moreover, the boundaries around the characteristics deemed prestigious are guarded by people who feel themselves, subjectively, to be members of the community since they benefit as individuals from the perceived high status of the nation of which they are a member.

This study describes the experiences of belonging of three Grade 6 students with mild disabilities, Jacob, Leah, and Andy, educated in an inclusive classroom. In addition, I gained the perspective of the classroom teacher, Linda, who described her approaches to facilitating belonging in an inclusive environment. Data collection included field observations and interviews with the classroom teacher and with the three focal participants. After completing data collection, analysis of the classroom data and the data of the three individual students was conducted using standard methods of qualitative analysis. Themes that emerged from the classroom data included: developing a trust culture, developing trusting relationships, teaching pro-social behaviours, building competence, and fostering autonomy. The classroom teacher fostered a supportive community environment that encouraged the development of interpersonal relationships, and she actively supported the social-emotional needs and the academic needs of all her students. Each student participant presented a unique case; therefore, the themes for the three student participants varied. Common themes included: sense of belonging, interpersonal relationships, and peer victimization. Themes that varied were sense of academic and social competence and fostering autonomy. For each individual student, belonging was fostered slightly differently and yet to fill this need, relatedness with others and a sense of academic or social competence was necessary. This study emphasizes that a sense of belonging is complex and multidimensional. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-01 08:35:33.991

This thesis explores the topic of belonging: both the sense and experience of it as well as the relationship to individual and collective well-being. Through in-depth interviews with five leaders and advocates in the social justice community, I explore their perspectives on the topic, significant influences, the power of the experience, and the relationship between inclusion and belonging. Further, the capacity for belonging to influence and impact social issues such as marginalization, discrimination, and poverty are explored. Methods for fostering belonging are also considered with a view to suggesting recommendations for promoting a lens of belonging as a means for renewing a commitment to the beloved community. / Graduate

One of the most significant challenges the globalized world encounters is how to build a society that is more at peace with diversity and cosmopolitanism. Further, in a world where highly unequal power relations and a vast plethora of inequalities persist, interrogating and resisting inequalities is key. From this context, this study focuses on interrogating inequalities in addressing an equality agenda highlighting a thesis of belonging; the human need for belonging and security in that belonging and the human right to have these needs satisfied (UDHR, 1948). A thesis of belonging relates to an innate human need for belonging (Maslow, 1943) and it is argued in this thesis that this innate human need for belonging is very important and very much connected to many fundamental human rights which should be driven much more through equality focused social movements and the laws. Clearly, where human rights are not being upheld then action must be taken to uphold them. The research findings of this thesis show the relevance of a thesis of belonging and the relevance of two core theories which have a connection, a marxist theory of racism and a social identity theory of racism. A marxist understanding of racism clearly delineates the inequalities capitalism produces and in this thesis while it is not argued that a marxist understanding of racism alone completely explains all varieties of racism, through a significant number of participants' discourses this thesis shows how capitalism often appears to be a driving force behind discrimination made on the basis of ethnicity. In addition, a significant number of participants' discourses in this thesis also point towards a social identity theory of racism which indicates the significance of what a social group affords an individual where a sense of belonging derived from affiliation and acceptance in group membership provides a feeling of self esteem and security (Tajfel and Turner, 1979; Breakwell, 1986; West, 1993, Aboud, 2008). Importantly, Tajfel (1981) emphasises how crucial it is to interrogate the social and economic context of discrimination and so here is where social identity theory relates to a marxist theory of racism.