How did the landscape of student belonging shift during COVID‐19?

Abstract

BackgroundBelonging is a fundamental human motivation associated with a wide range of positive psychological, educational, social, and job outcomes. Frequent and predominantly conflict‐free interactions within a stable, relational framework of caring are required to facilitate belonging.PurposeThe goal of this study was to understand if and how emergency remote teaching (ERT) used during the COVID‐19 pandemic changed the ways in which instructional support and interactions were linked to belonging among engineering students.Methodology/ApproachThis study used survey data from a cross‐sectional dataset at a single large institution comprised of sophomore to senior‐level students (n = 1485) enrolled in engineering courses between 2016 and 2021. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to study relationships among instructional support, instructor interactions, and belonging.Findings/ConclusionsHLM models of ERT and traditional learning differed dramatically. In traditional classroom learning, race, interactions with faculty and teaching assistants (TAs), and instructional support were important factors in belonging. In ERT, certain motivations to study engineering (altruism, desire to build things) had nuanced associations with belonging, while race and interactions with faculty and TAs became largely irrelevant. Most concerning, faculty interactions in traditional learning were negatively associated with belonging.ImplicationsRather than returning to pre‐pandemic traditional learning, a hybrid model that offers a more level playing field for marginalized students to find belonging in the classroom is recommended. In developing such models, faculty must take special care to avoid having a potentially negative impact on student belonging.

Belonging in engineering: Exploring the predictive relevance of social interaction and individual factors on undergraduate students' belonging in engineering

“…Our proposed and validated model provides novel insights into undergraduate engineering students' belonging that contribute to the ongoing conversation in engineering education around fostering students' sense of belonging. In light of isolation and remote teaching necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, students' sense of belonging has become a greater focus (see, e.g., Buckley et al, 2023;Fletcher et al, 2023;Misra et al, 2023), and we aim to provide theoretical and empirical implications that advance ongoing work to better support engineering students by highlighting the role of peer and faculty interaction and the mediating role of students' satisfaction with and valuation of their discipline.…”

“…In the following sections, we briefly highlight important correlates that contribute to students' sense of belonging in their academic discipline. The following correlates are discussed in order to build upon both foundational research (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) and recent research (Misra et al, 2023) that highlighted the importance of social interaction for sense of belonging. Specifically, this previous work has shown peer and faculty interaction to be important for fostering sense of belonging in academic contexts.…”

“…Belonging has implications for students' mental health, which is an ongoing challenge within the engineering stress culture (Jensen & Cross, 2021) and undergirds students' emotional and psychological well-being within their academic community (Anderman, 2002). During the COVID-19 pandemic and shift to remote teaching, (lack of) belonging among undergraduate engineering students came into sharp focus with its effect on persistence and performance (Buckley et al, 2023;Misra et al, 2023). Amid ongoing calls to better support students from backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented in engineering (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2023), sense of belonging has been shown to be important for students with minoritized or marginalized identities to develop an engineering identity and persist in their studies (Fletcher et al, 2023;Ong et al, 2020;Patrick et al, 2023).…”