Retention of first-year students was a problem at a private 4-year university in the Southeastern United States. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the reasons entering first-year students who were part of the Promise Program withdrew from the university during their first year. Tinto's model of student attrition provided the conceptual framework for the study. Research questions addressed students' rationale for selecting the school, their perspectives on the main causes of first-year attrition, their expectations of campus support services, and their recommendations for how to decrease student attrition. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 7 students from the spring 2016 and fall 2016 semesters. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using manual coding and coding software. Findings indicated that students' sense of belonging was the most influential factor in their decision to withdraw from college. Recommendations included a training program for administrators and staff on customer service techniques. This study can bring positive social change to the profession by seeking out systemic changes to promote entering freshmen's college completion. Conclusively, the implications of positive social change is most benefical to students when more students are able to earn a degree, and better their livelihood. The university would benefit by graduating more students and the success of their college graduates could be seen as their own success of addressing student's social and academic needs. Finally, the positive social change for externalities would benefit from the investment in human beings and human capital as a critical input for change and innovations to society.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the feeling of belonging that students may or may not have and the relationship of student sense of belonging to the overall academic achievement of a school. Students were surveyed on their sense of belonging in selected middle schools. The students scored themselves on the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, which revealed an overall mean score of belonging. Students from high-performing schools were compared to students from low-performing schools in regard to their sense of belonging. Additionally, teachers were asked to rate their perception of the students’ sense of belonging. The teachers’ scores were compared to the students’ scores in both high- and low-performing schools. Lastly, teachers were asked to provide qualitative information about the schools’ role in creating a sense of belonging. An extensive review of the literature regarding sense of belonging reveals support of the importance of sense of belonging in student achievement. There is also extensive evidence regarding variation of sense of belonging among minority groups and the important role of teachers in creating a sense of belonging for students. This study found that there is no significant difference in students’ reported sense of belonging between high-performing schools and low-performing schools on the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale. There is a significant difference between the teachers’ perception of the students’ sense of belonging and the students’ reported sense of belonging on the Psychological Sense of School Membership scales. Teachers reported important roles in creating an environment of belonging. The qualitative data provided by teachers support evidence from the literature review indicative of schools with sense of belonging. High-performing schools do not report much information regarding discipline and routine as being important parts of creating belonging. However, low performing schools often report these as important to creating a sense of belonging for students. Implications of the research include: Teachers may not have an accurate understanding of students’ sense of belonging and how to create a sense of belonging in schools. Further study should try to gain better understanding of the relationship between sense of belonging and minority status.

This research examines the difference in civic participation between Korean and Canadian citizens in two categories – social engagement (participation in general social groups) and political activity by using the Korea Social Integration Survey (SIS) and the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS). According to the results of this study, Canadians show higher social engagement than Koreans, while Koreans exhibit higher political activity, showing higher combined civic participation between individual citizens. This heightened civic participation by Koreans also reflects a stronger sense of collectivism. The results of the analysis on the effect of civic participation for each country show that, in Korea, both trust and sense of belonging were positively associated while in Canada, trust was negatively associated, and sense of belonging more positively associated than in Korea. The difference between the two countries can be attributed to the negative association found in institutional confidence as well. In Canada, active participation in politics implies that civic participation is part of more forward-looking action that shows greater individual preference and intention in comparison to civic participation of Korean citizens influenced more by collectivism. As such, this research implies that Korea needs to enhance individual civic identity in order to overcome collectivism. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Persistently high attrition rates from STEM majors present a stubborn challenge for researchers, administrators, and faculty alike. To approach this problem, my dissertation examined the socialization processes by which students develop a sense of belonging to both their institution and their discipline. Previously identified as an important factor in students' persistence and overall satisfaction with their undergraduate experience, belonging is a critical piece of the retention puzzle. However, not every student experiences or develops belonging in the same way. This dissertation applied the theoretical lens of socialization to deepen the understanding of how social interactions help or hinder students' belonging to their university and chosen major alike. My dissertation work was grounded in the synthesis of two theoretical frameworks: Conrad et al.'s (2006) model of socialization and Strayhorn's (2018e) conceptualization of sense of belonging. The study took the form of an embedded case study of two similar disciplinary contexts within a large public land-grant Research 1 institution, with four students from each context for a total of eight participants. By leveraging four years of interview data from each participant, supported by institutional documentation, I addressed the question: In what ways does a student's socialization experience influence, if at all, their sense of belonging to both their chosen discipline and their university? Data analysis included qualitative coding, trajectory mapping, and thematic analysis. Trajectories were produced for each participant before expanding the analysis to examine patterns across and between the contexts. My findings addressed the mechanisms of socialization at the undergraduate level and how they evolved over time. The primary outcome of my work was a set of three distinct socialization trajectories, named the Anchored, who built strong socializing relationships early and maintained them throughout their undergraduate years; Independents, who neither sought nor wanted such relationships; and Wanderers, whose socializing relationships tended to be short-lived and inconsistent, although desired. Fourteen unique groups of socializing agents were identified, along with five common drivers for intentionally engaging with specific agents: personal and academic support, research and industry aspirations, and finding a path. Pre-college socialization experiences were salient for developing anticipatory belonging, as students who were exposed to their discipline or institution prior to arriving as students had an easier time becoming integrated to their communities. Once students arrived, their socialization trajectories tended to shape their feelings of belonging to the institution, with close ties forming for the Anchored, appreciation for general support among the Independents, and a mix of happiness and frustration for the Wanderers. By contrast, disciplinary belonging was more reliant on the individual participant's goals and interests. Disciplinary differences between the two contexts were identified but were limited in scope and generally linked to the career outcomes students associated with their chosen major rather than their experiences in the major. Finally, my research revealed that a strong sense of belonging in one domain of undergraduate life could be sufficient for a student to persist to degree completion despite weak or absent feelings of belonging in other areas. / Doctor of Philosophy / For decades, students have been leaving STEM majors at alarmingly high rates despite the efforts of researchers, administrators, and faculty. To approach this problem, my dissertation examined how social interactions and relationships can help students feel like they belong in their chosen major and university. Previous research identified such feelings of belonging as an important factor in helping students persist to the completion of their degrees, and my work added onto this body of work by specifically examining the role of students' social connections. My dissertation utilized data from eight total students. Four of the students were chemical engineering students, with the remaining four from chemistry and biochemistry, together called the "chemical sciences." The data for this work included four years of interview data supported by institutional documents. Such documents provided information like curricular requirements, demographic and population information, and course information, which helped provide background for the students' interviews. Leveraging these data, I addressed the aforementioned interaction of students' social interactions and their feelings of belonging on campus and in their major. My data analysis was based around the creation of trajectories that would capture the evolution of a student's experiences over the course of their undergraduate career. Once trajectories were generated for each student, I was then able to look across the trajectories and identify patterns between and within them. The primary finding of my dissertation work was the emergence of three distinct patterns of how students' social interactions evolved over time, labeled the Anchored, who built strong and consistent networks that they maintained over two or more years; the Independents, who neither sought nor wanted such relationships; and the Wanderers, who had relationships and interactions that were often short-lived or inconsistent, but wanted more. Fourteen unique groups with whom students interacted were identified, along with the respective impacts said groups could have on students' feelings of belonging. Additionally, five drivers for seeking out interaction with these groups were identified: personal and academic support, research and industry aspirations, and finding a path. The experiences students had with their university or major prior to enrolling were found to be important for shaping the way students perceived their future, and those with greater exposure to their institution or discipline had an easier time seeing themselves fitting in and finding a place for themselves on campus once they enrolled. Once students arrived, their trajectory of interaction tended to shape how they felt about their institution, with close ties forming for the Anchored, appreciation for general support among the Independents, and a mix of satisfaction and frustration for the Wanderers. By contrast, belonging within the discipline was more reliant on the individual participant's goals and interests. Disciplinary differences between the two contexts were identified but were limited generally linked to the career outcomes students associated with their chosen major rather than their experiences in the major. Finally, my work revealed that when students felt like they belonged in one area of their undergraduate life, those feelings could support lacking feelings in other areas, helping them to persist to graduation.

In engineering and STEM, internships are upheld as "high impact" practices and recommended to students by faculty, staff, and peers. Furthermore, there is a significant amount of research focused on the positive outcomes and benefits of participating in internship programs. Due to the calls to increase the quality and quantity of internships for students, it is important to explore and deepen our understanding of students' experiences in such programs. Through this dissertation, I explored engineering undergraduate students' experiences in a particular research-focused internship program. Specifically, I explored the influence of programmatic elements on students' experiences, students' perceptions of situated learning, and students' perceptions of sense of belonging in relation to their intent to return. The overarching study and resulting manuscripts provide additional detail to underlying phenomena and mechanisms that contributed to students' experiences in one program. The two most salient findings from the overarching study were the importance of both social interaction and learning in students' experiences. This work suggests key questions for practitioners and those who work with STEM students or internship programs. Future work should be conducted to continue to explore students' experiences in engineering internships and to continue to increase our understanding of how to better educate and train our students. / Doctor of Philosophy / Internships provide an important hands-on and professional development opportunity for undergraduate students in STEM. There have been many studies focused on the positive impacts of doing internships, however, it is important to understand what leads to and supports positive impacts. This study focused on three different areas of an internship program. Specifically, I looked at how program design influenced students' experiences, students' perceptions of learning, and how sense of belonging influenced intent to return after the internship program. The results of this work added to our knowledge of how internships support students' experiences. Through conducting the three studies, social interaction and learning emerged as two important aspects in students' experiences. In the discussion, this study provides key questions for practitioners and people who work with STEM students or internship programs. Lastly, future work should be conducted to continue to explore students' experiences in engineering internships and to continue to increase our understanding of how to better educate and train students.

This study aims to explore the experiences of women students with non-European background of inclusiveness of teaching practices in higher education (HE) in Sweden, and the potential relationship with sense of belonging and mattering. This may inform how the unique challenges and needs of this group can be better met, subsequently facilitating related positive outcomes. This was achieved by conducting qualitative individual interviews with six woman student participants with non-European backgrounds. Their experiences were reviewed and depicted aligned with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to gain insight to each authentic individual account separately. This was followed by both individual as well as collective analysis, using Thematic Analysis, to go beyond personal experience, to additionally explore overarching patterns, similarities, and differences across cases, placing them in the specific context and factors that were of interest. Collective themes emerged, and findings from this inductive approach were consistent with the application of Critical Race Feminism as a theoretical framework to evaluate and interpret the meaning of the results. Common themes and factors were identified that may affect the inclusiveness of teaching practices, as well as affect sense of belonging and mattering. The themes and subthemes were; relationships (classmates, HE- and private-life separation), cultural differences (social differences, teaching practices differences), belonging and mattering, discrimination (language, microaggressions, reaction and coping), and inclusive teaching practices. Positive experiences of inclusive teaching practices seemed to be positively related to sense of belonging mainly, while mattering seemed to be dependent on specific situational factors, or meaningful relationships. Experiences of implicit racial and gendered discrimination in form of microaggressions were prevalent, and may influence experiences and perceptions of teaching practices. Additionally, participants may have adopted passive reactions and coping mechanisms that ignore, trivialise, or normalise this, which may create barriers from achieving equality, diversity, and inclusion as it allows implicit discrimination to remain concealed. Thus, this may potentially give the impression to majority groups that there is no apparent need to improve and implement inclusive teaching practices further. While in reality, the findings indicated that more active and conscious efforts to design and implement inclusive teaching practices that are underpinned by student-centred and relational pedagogies with additional aspects of culturally responsive, transformational, and anti-racist feminist pedagogies, are necessary to improve experiences of inclusion, sense of belonging, and mattering, while mitigating implicit forms of discrimination. Implications of the findings include that they may inform design and implementation of effective inclusive teaching practices that address the unique challenges and needs of this group in the Swedish HE context, and ultimately reduce the negative effects of discrimination. It was concluded that while most participants described overall positive experiences of inclusive teaching practices in Swedish HE, there were simply more implicit and concealed forms of discrimination, emphasising the importance of the institutions and teachers to take responsibility and actively design and implement inclusive teaching practices that also address implicit discrimination, since they have mainly been concerned with explicit forms so far. This may help remove barriers from improving sense of belonging and mattering further.

Recent concerns have arisen about the effects on counselors of working with trauma survivors. Vicarious traumatization may be a normal developmental process of adapting to client trauma material and may ultimately result in vicarious posttraumatic growth, or positive changes arising from vicarious trauma. Most studies have focused on individual variables or clinician coping strategies that predict vicarious traumatization. Taking a feminist approach to vicarious traumatization, this study examined the role of workplace context variables, such as sense of belonging in the workplace and support for vicarious trauma at work, on counselor vicarious traumatization and vicarious posttraumatic growth. Stratified random sampling was used to recruit counselors from domestic violence and rape crisis centers, and recruitment messages were sent to all psychology internship and postdoctoral sites in the United States which were accredited by the American Psychological Association. Surveys were completed by 234 counselors. Counselors reported sub-clinical levels of vicarious trauma symptoms (intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal resulting from work with trauma survivors). Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that amount and intensity of exposure to client trauma material positively predicted vicarious trauma symptoms, and sense of belonging in the workplace negatively predicted vicarious trauma symptoms. Intensity of exposure, work setting, and support for vicarious trauma at work predicted vicarious posttraumatic growth, so that counselors exposed to more graphic details of client trauma, those working in domestic violence or rape crisis centers, and counselors with more support for vicarious trauma at work reported more vicarious posttraumatic growth. The relation between amount of exposure and vicarious posttraumatic growth was moderated by intensity of exposure and by sense of belonging in the workplace. Counselors with low sense of belonging at work reported less vicarious posttraumatic growth when amount of exposure was high, whereas counselors with high sense of belonging reported more vicarious posttraumatic growth with high exposure. Results suggest that counselors’ reactions to client trauma material are normal rather than pathological, are largely due to exposure to client trauma, and can be affected by workplace context factors, especially sense of belonging in the workplace and support for vicarious trauma at work.

abstract: This study explores how a teen center within a local police department in California impacts the lives of local Latinx youth. Through a mixed methods approach of surveys, focus groups, and interviews, the study explores Mexican American youth, the most populous Latinx youth in the United States who are uniquely challenged by varying immigration statuses, mental health, and academic barriers. Theoretically, the study draws out intersections unique to the Latinx youth experiences growing up in America and engages in inter-disciplinary debates about inequities in health and education and policing practices. These intersections and debates are addressed through in-depth qualitative analysis of three participant groups: current youth participants of the teen center’s Youth Leadership Council (YLC), alumni of the YLC, and adult decision makers of the program. Pre- and post-surveys and focus groups are conducted with the youth participants over the span of a full year, while they take part in the teen center program, capturing how the teen center directly impacts their academic achievements, feelings of belonging, mental health, and attitudes towards law enforcement, over time. Interviews with alumni and key decision makers of the teen center further reveal broader patters in how the YLC program positively impacts the lives of Latinx youth and the challenges it faces when federal immigration enforcement complicates local policy relations with local communities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2019

This thesis is an exploratory work into the migration and settlement experiences of highly skilled Turkish migrants who have settled in Canada. It is a qualitative study conducted with sixteen immigrant respondents living in Halifax and Toronto. The focus of this work is on the role of networks, specifically in shaping these migrants’ migration routes, developing belongings and reworking identities. While it is the feminist theory that informs this study, I use the intersectional theory as the theoretical framework. It has been found that the social class not only arose as a central factor that influenced these migrants’ experiences but it also affected the interplay between ethnicity and gender. The findings are analyzed with the help of current literature on globalization and international migration theories. The similarities and differences between the Halifax and Toronto respondents are also highlighted in order to inform provincial and national policies.

The use of social networks, as a business tool is becoming more and more frequent in this day and age. Companies are exploring various ways in which to optimise social media in gaining a competitive advantage. Social platforms give organisations the ability to communicate better with their staff, to market their products more effectively to potential customers and also to drive behaviour within the workplace. Employee engagement, sense of belonging and organisational commitment can be considered as components of employee well-being. Companies are investing large amounts of resources to lower employee turnover by creating an environment that is favourable for the employee. Within the call centre environment a well established technological infrastructure exists. This creates a setting that is very prone to launch a social media platform. The average age of employees is also quite young, which in most cases means that they understand and interact on social networks with ease. The applications for social media also seems to become second nature for younger generations and this also speaks volumes as to implement social network strategies within working environments. The experimental research design included a pre- and post assessment with samples of 74 employees for the pre-test and 36 employees for the post test. A qualitative and quantitative approach was utilised in order to gain better insight of what employees define as social networks and what effect it has on employees. To measure the various constructs, the following instruments were utilised: Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), a self-constructed Sense of Belonging Questionnaire and the Affective Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (AOC). The results indicated that the exposure to a social network resulted in lower levels of employee engagement and lower levels of sense of belonging. The exposure to a social network however increased the levels of participants? affective organisational commitment. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.