Context for Belonging

Sense of belonging is important to student success, from enrollment to graduation and beyond. Belonging also facilitates inclusive student success, by supporting student identities who often feel marginalized or excluded from university–particularly in STEM (Student Experience Project 2022). Here, I describe concepts and approaches I apply to cultivate a sense of belonging during an intensive field course program I lead each spring. The program depends on close student collaboration, which benefits from a sense of belonging shared by each participant. The approaches described here are adapted to this context, but many could be applied in individual campus-based courses in less intensive contexts.

Sense of belonging underlies many measures of academic performance (Zumbrunn et al. 2014). Most departments, programs, and courses articulate student learning outcomes (SLOs) that emphasize content knowledge and skill development. Explicit SLOs rarely include outcomes in the affective domain (Krathwohl et al. 1964). Affective outcomes may result from academic experiences, but these may be coincidental or dependent on student context factors predating the course (O’Connell et al. 2022). For many students, affective factors are pivotal because they facilitate achievement of outcomes in the cognitive and psychomotor learning domains (Bloom et al. 1956) by reinforcing student motivation, persistence, and resilience. Among affective outcomes, a sense of belonging to a group, program, or profession is particularly influential. A sense of belonging supports both individual efficacy and group achievement, when students with strong team identity achieve more as a group than they could as individuals. I recognize the importance of belonging, and impacts of its absence, from both experience in cohesive teams and conversely in a department with an entrenched culture of “othering” (Wise 2022). Accordingly, I invest heavily in cultivating belonging in my courses while simultaneously supporting students’ cognitive and psychomotor development.

Instruction in Teamwork

Working in groups can increase a sense of belonging and inclusion. Academic environments tend to emphasize individual achievement, even as most STEM innovations result from collaborative teams. Many academic programs now include group projects and other contexts in which students work in teams, but few provide direct instruction in teamwork skills or team management (Alwin et al. 2021). Most courses, including WWU’s STEM curricula, seem to assume implicitly that students will develop teamwork skills organically by working in teams (Nyarko and Petcovic 2023b). Empirical evaluations suggest students develop some skills through teamwork, but skill development is inconsistent and rarely includes higher order skills (Nyarko and Petcovic 2023b). Comprehensive teamwork development and its attendant sense of belonging require explicit instruction in teamwork. Instructor or leader framing is essential to support innovation and low-stakes failure as steps toward success. This framing supports a culture of psychological safety that enhances team performance (Edmondson 2019).

ESCI Field Camp

Each spring I teach a 15-credit program of field courses designed to transform students into scientists in the context of an inclusive community (McLaughlin 2023). The program begins with welcoming activities that encourage students to bring their whole selves and to establish social and intellectual context for working and living together. We co-create program norms and codes of conduct to provide emotional safety while taking on individual and group challenges. Most meetings occur outdoors, originally as a strategy to mitigate in-person infection risk during the COVID pandemic, which continues as a way to strengthen connection to each other and to place. Students work in teams to design original field research projects, which they implement during two group expeditions in remote places lasting ten days each. Prior to the program, most students have completed instructor-designed projects but few have conducted their own “authentic” research. Consequently, I mentor students closely throughout project development and implementation to facilitate their transition from student to scientist. I provide similar training and mentoring in outdoor skills, gear, and behaviors. The program helps overcome privilege-based barriers to participation in outdoor activities and field sciences, where entry requires specialized skills, training, and equipment (Homyack 2014, Stafford 2020). I provide those assets regardless of personal identity, leading to confidence, competence, and experience that can change students' lives. The instructional approach diminishes academic hierarchy: my role becomes collaborator more than judge, leading to greater student ownership of their scholarly achievements. Challenge serves to strengthen student community: students work to help each other through physical adversity, they collaborate closely to achieve scientific goals under tight timelines, and they overcome personal insularity to bond socially.

I implement a rigorous system of outdoor risk management, which contributes physical safety as a complement to psychological safety (Leemon et al. 2019, Smith 2021). We give priority to student safety over scientific goals, consistent with recommendations for inclusive field science (Demery and Pipkin 2021). Details on this system and its outcomes are in McLaughlin (2022). I emphasize skill development, experience with outdoor and scientific gear, peer mentorship, and scaffolded experiences help to support comfort outdoors regardless of students' prior backgrounds. Daily shared meals lead to deeper connection, particularly when appetites are raised by physical exertion. We work in teams -- for research, cook groups, and expedition travel -- which builds connections as people subordinate individual desires to achieve group goals. After returning from expeditions, we analyze the data to evaluate project hypotheses. The projects culminate in scientific papers and presentations during Scholars Week. Subsequently, some students have presented their work at international conferences or published in scientific journals (e.g., Johnson et al. 2023). The results have been profound, expressed in student outcomes. They identify as scientists who belong in the scientific community. Many pursue graduate school or professional careers they had not imagined for themselves. Students form such a community that they do not want the program to end. Many continue to share adventures with each other long after the program concludes.

Resources and Training in Belonging

I draw on resources, training, and experiences from diverse groups and sources including those listed in Table 1, below. (I also maintain additional training in wilderness medicine and rescue not listed here.) Many of these resources and trainings are available at no cost to other members of the WWU community.

Strategies for Belonging

Many strategies I deploy to cultivate belonging are neither unique nor untested. At other universities, these strategies have increased student retention, performance, and graduation rates (Jones and Washko 2021, Race et al. 2021). I use all recommendations for field courses in the following table, from Zavaleta et al. (2020). (The sole exception is “Hire a diverse staff”–resource limitations preclude hiring additional instructors, and graduate teaching assistants generally cannot leave campus for the course expeditions. I am exploring options to include undergraduate TAs, who could bring identities and backgrounds complementary to mine.) These strategies also apply all Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines (CAST 2024), although there has been limited need to date to support multiple languages or dialects.

Cultivating Belonging in Practice

To review a detailed implementation outline of the strategies listed in Table 2 that are specific to my program, see: Operational Features, Practices, and Interactions.

Outcomes Resulting from Belonging

For those fortunate enough to observe ESCI Field Camp students, their sense of belonging is conspicuous and palpable. For everyone else, many products of the program demonstrate multiple benefits of cultivating belonging. These products include student scholarship, news coverage about the program, an energized student community, and alumni with greater personal and professional aspirations and achievements. Some students seek guidance from other WWU faculty, who have been generous in their support of student scholarship. (Thank you to Rebecca Bunn, Greg Green, Marco Hatch, Jim Helfield, Abe Lloyd, Merrill Peterson, Chris Templeton, and others I may have overlooked.) These outcomes help fulfill all four goals in Western’s Strategic Plan, and they align with all three priorities in the College of the Environment’s Strategic Vision. For a detailed list, see Student Products and Outcomes from Investing in Belonging.

References

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