Science for Society: Benefits of Community and Belonging

It is no secret that instituting a culture of belonging is an essential step to providing a feeling of inclusion and support for any community. But how can belonging be fostered? And what kinds of impact does it have on different types of communities? 

Educational psychologists DeLeon Gray and Ebony Melzak walked through examples of research and applied strategies of belonging with presentations that focus on students and early career teachers in this webinar.  

DeLeon Gray is an associate professor of educational psychology and equity in the College of Education at North Carolina State University.  

“Belonging is complex, it’s squishy, it’s messy at times,” Gray said, “but it’s also a popular subject.  

Gray walked through three categories of opportunities to create a sense of belonging, using students from a community group called Black and Belonging to help illustrate examples.  

The first category focused on interpersonal opportunities to belong, such as by facilitating social ties between students. He shared videos of young people relaying words of affirmation and advice for incoming students at their middle school. He also showed other novel interpersonal techniques, such as conducting press conferences with middle school athletes and displaying student photos on motivational billboards.  

The second category touched on instructional opportunities such as receiving meaningful feedback and offering safe spaces to express emotions.  

“Sometimes you need to vent,” Gray said. “You need to get things out.” He added that many students are better able to focus on lessons after they have an emotional release. 

The final category was institutional opportunities to belong, such as providing ways for students to practice being citizens at school. He recommended mixing fun activities with more serious learning objectives and allowing students to offer suggestions on how activities could take place.  

Ebony Melzak is a provisional psychologist and PhD Candidate within the School of Educational Psychology and Counselling at Monash University. Melzak focused her presentation on the experiences of early career teachers in the workplace.  

By facilitating a culture of belonging in schools, research has shown that teachers show improvements in self-efficacy, boost commitment, reduce feelings of burnout, raise their resilience, and maintain feelings of satisfaction with their jobs.  

“We need to be a little bit more creative about which strategies we can use in our early career teacher communities,” Melzak said. 

Creating this type of culture can be as simple as displaying microinclusions, or small, everyday acts that promote inclusivity. Examples include reflective dialogue, moments of recognition, role clarity, mentorship opportunities, and supporting established networks.  

Though many new teachers can feel overwhelmed with the demands of their busy schedules, Melzak said it is important to support their involvement in the community of educators as much as possible.  

“We know early career teachers are really innovative,” Melzak said. “They have really fresh ideas.”