Guest editorial

School belonging – Why are our students

S
CHOOL BELONGING is commonly 2017)? This statistic transcends continents
defined as: ‘the extent to which students and has become an international concern.
feel personally accepted, respected, included Why are so many of our students longing to
and supported by others in the school social belong to school?
environment’ (Goodenow & Grady, 1993). Loneliness has been brought to the fore
It has been found to be a predictor recently both in the UK and elsewhere,
of a range of broad academic, psycholog- heralded as a burgeoning issue for both
ical and physical health benefits in young teenagers and the elderly that requires
people. A sense of school belonging can not critical attention (Goossens, 2018). Given
only buffer the effects of student anxiety and the compelling research demonstrating
depression but also boost academic engage- the moderating power of a sense of school
ment and motivation. It has been related belonging for loneliness (e.g. Benner et al.,
to a myriad of further beneficial outcomes 2017; Cavanaugh & Buehler, 2016), should
including resilience, gratitude, sleep, and not schools and society at large be making
self-esteem. School belonging has also been a concerted and targeted reproach to address
shown to decrease the incidence of factors the loneliness epidemic in teenagers through
that are not conducive to education, such school belonging interventions? After all,
as bullying, misconduct, school dropout schools are often a constant feature for most
and truancy. And it does not take much people, perhaps fulfilling a similar function
to increase a sense of belonging. There is to places of worship in creating a catalyst for
a plethora of brief interventions that demon- social bonds and community connections.
strate that with very little cost and effort, It seems that there is no one panacea
the issue can be effectively addressed. (e.g. for students who do not have a sense of
Booker, 2018; Craggs & Kelly, 2018; Diebel belonging. Race, ethnicity, culture, indi-
et al., 2016). vidual psychological assets, the family
There are a range of factors that strongly context and other systems involved in
predict connectedness, with teacher support fostering school belonging may all have
and social and emotional competencies a role. A sense of school belonging is an
taking a strong lead in fostering this for individual experience – for the student and
young people (Allen et al., 2018). With all for the school. Given that these multiple
this evidence regarding the importance of variables have a significant relationship with
school belonging, and the fact that even school belonging, our understanding of the
brief interventions have been shown to make concept can be unclear. It is for this reason
a difference, why is it that international data that ongoing research into school belonging,
suggests that one in four students do not with high utility for practitioners, has never
feel a sense of connection to school (OECD, been more important.

6 Educational & Child Psychology; Vol. 36 No. 2

This issue of Educational and Child build positive connections between students,
Psychology is notable, not just for the breadth handing over to them in a structured format,
of the articles on school belonging, but also responsibility for the inclusiveness of the
the international scope of contributions. The classroom. The qualitative element of this
importance of feeling connected to school research indicated an increase in inclusive
is clearly an area of concern globally with and considerate behaviour.
authors not just from the UK but also across So far, papers have highlighted the
Australia, the United States and Hong Kong. impact of school connectedness for school
The issue begins with the voice of the climate, self-worth and behaviour but there
child. Midgen et al. explored the views of is also evidence that students will be more
pupils, aged 3 to 16 who had a range of engaged with learning where they feel
special educational needs. They found four welcomed, wanted and valued. The second
themes that contributed to school belonging: paper by Slaten and colleagues makes links
the quality of relationships, the provision of between school connectedness and learning,
extra-curricular activities, the school envi- specifically a correlation between belonging,
ronment and the curriculum. Cockerill self-regulated learning and self-efficacy.
also honours student experiences by asking Many of the papers in this issue have used
pupils, whose education was split between various surveys to measure school belonging
a mainstream school and a special unit, what and often found these wanting in some
school belonging meant to them. Interest- way. Parada has developed a new scale – the
ingly, the comparison of feeling more valued School Belonging Scale – introduced in this
in the off-site setting than in mainstream final paper where he explores the psycho-
led to poorer behaviour in the mainstream. metric properties. His study shows this to be
Whiteway’s research on the views of teenage internally consistent and reliable and appli-
fathers about feeling connected within cable to both genders, offering researchers
education also unearthed some important a further resource in this ever growing and
findings; namely that primary school often important field.
compensated for a lack of security and In essence school belonging is good
belonging at home but this disappeared once educational practice and should be regarded
pupils were in secondary school. Becoming as part of the wider inclusive approach to
a father had, for several of these young men, education (Anderson & Boyle, 2015). It
provided a role and a sense of belonging in is essential that all students feel a sense of
a new family situation, somewhere where belonging to their school. Many students
they could experience pride and feel valued. at different stages require some level of
Slaten and colleagues used an eco-systemic support, whether it be minor or towards the
model to look at the various influences on other end of a continuum. This special issue
school belonging and its impact on bullying highlights many of the approaches which
behaviour. They discovered that home and highlights good practice as well as facilitating
school environment were more significant a new method of assessing the level of school
than peer relationships. This contrasts with belonging. There are many arguments for
the following paper that focuses on peer to and against support in schools (Boyle, 2007)
peer connection. According to Gowing, rela- but the main issue remains that success is
tionships between students are the driver for dependent on a positive school ethos which
school connectedness. This raises the issue of facilitates belonging for all students.
what happens for pupils who are isolated and
have few other supports. Dobia and colleagues Guest Editors
write about an intervention that specifically Sue Roffey, Christopher Boyle
addresses this issue. Circle Solutions aims to & Kelly-Ann Allen

Educational & Child Psychology; Vol. 36 No. 2 7

References
Allen, K., Kern, M.L., Vella-Brodrick, D., Hattie, J. & Craggs, H. & Kelly, C. (2018). School belonging:
Waters, L. (2018). What schools need to know Listening to the voices of secondary school
about fostering school belonging: A meta-analysis. students who have undergone managed moves.
Educational Psychology Review, 30(1), 1–34. School Psychology International, 39(1), 56–73.
Anderson, J. & Boyle, C., (2015). Inclusive education Diebel, T., Woodcock, C., Cooper, C. & Brignell, C.
in Australia: Rhetoric, reality, and the road ahead. (2016). Establishing the effectiveness of a gratitude
British Journal of Support for Learning, 30(1), 4–22. diary intervention on children’s sense of school
doi: 10.1111/1467-9604.12074 belonging. Educational & Child Psychology, 33(2),
Benner, A.D., Boyle, A.E. & Bakhtiari, F. (2017). 117–129.
Understanding students’ transition to high Goodenow, C. & Grady, K.E.(1993). The relation-
school: demographic variation and the role of ship of school belonging and friends’ values to
supportive relationships. Journal of Youth and academic motivation among urban adolescent
Adolescence, 46(10), 2129–2142. students. The Journal of Experimental Education
Booker, K. (2018). The high tide raises all ships: 62(1), 60–71.
Middle grades teachers’ perspectives on school Goossens, L. (2018). Loneliness in adolescence:
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41(8), 1–15. Child Development Perspectives, 12(4), 230–244.
Boyle, C.M. (2007). An analysis of the efficacy of doi:10.1111/cdep.12291
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Cavanaugh, A.M. & Buehler, C. (2016). Adolescent e-iii_9789264273856-en#page121
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