Academic Belonging in Higher Education

Eréndira Rueda is associate professor of sociology and the director of the Latin American and Latinx Studies multidisciplinary program at Vassar College.Candice Lowe Swift is associate professor of anthropology and serves on the steering committees of Africana Studies and International Studies at Vassar College.

"This timely volume rightly charges colleges and universities with responsibility for cultivating belonging among the increasingly diverse students they admit and offers much needed insight and direction related to systemic approaches that foster academic belonging. Every student encounters faculty while in college and thus faculty, with the right tools and approach, can have a major positive influence over students’ sense of belonging—this solutions-oriented volume provides instructive guidance and novel ideas for how faculty can do that. On-going challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts underscores the importance of this volume in advancing higher education’s duty to ensure diverse students’ sense of belonging and success in college."Joseph Kitchen, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor, University of Southern California"Academic Belonging in Higher Education is a must-read for anyone who cares about student success in college. This book draws from an array of real-world efforts in various college contexts and provides practical advice and guidance on centering student belonging through intentional institutional-level actions. The authors and editors have offered an informative resource for anyone interested in creating more inclusive and equitable learning environments at colleges and universities."Michael Steven Williams, Ph.D., University of Missouri

• 1. Introduction PART I. Pedagogies of belonging 2. Sense of belonging in the college classroom: Strategies for instructors 3. What women want: Pedagogical approaches for promoting female students' sense of belonging in undergraduate calculus 4. “We’re all in”: Fostering inclusion and belonging through culturally sustaining and anti-racist pedagogy PART II. Promoting academic belonging via the first-year seminar and department-wide interventions 5. The first-year seminar as a vehicle for belonging and inclusion for underrepresented college students 6. Strengthening learning communities: Belonging in a UK physics department 7."What's your major?": How one department addressed belonging and equity through a curriculum overhaul PART III. Fostering academic belonging through integrative and supportive learning communities 8. Building community for men of color through sense of belonging 9. Fostering belonging in a university research community of practice PART IV. Campus-wide strategies to address belonging at minority-serving institutions 10. Asset-based strategies for engagement and belonging among Latinx students at an open-access, research-intensive Hispanic-Serving Institution 11. Creating high-touch environments for belonging in touchless times: A Black college case study amid COVID-19 PART V. Exploring the opportunities and limits of belonging 12. Reflections on the walking interview approach to examining university students’ sense of belonging 13. Reviving the construct of “mattering” in pursuit of equity and justice in higher education: Illustrations from mentoring and partnership programs