Belonging and Community

Why is a psychological sense of community important for children and young

people in schools?

What are the possible effects on outcomes for children if they do not experience
a good sense of community in school?

Do insights from psychological research help us understand how children

develop a sense of community in school?

What are the risks for a child who fails to develop a sense of community and
belonging at school? How can educational psychologists help ensure that
children develop their sense of belonging at school?

Aims and objectives:

 Develop an awareness of a psychological understanding of community
 Highlight why developing community and a sense of belonging in schools
matters
 What is a psychological sense of community?
Why should we be interested in a sense of belonging?
 We all belonging to one or more communities – e.g. online groups, family,
political groups, friends
 We behave differently in different communities
 Belonging is a common denominator for considering inclusion in
relationships, learning, and wellbeing – in school and beyond
What is a community? (Gusfield, 1975)
 Geographical: Territory, locality, place
 Relational: relationships irrespective of place
What does a community mean to a sociologist?
 A group
 Sharing a relationship
 Common ties/experiences
 A shared area for some of the time
 Develops over time
What does a community mean to a psychologist
 Seymour Sarason (1974) – “psychological sense” of community
emphasizes experience rather than structure
 It is one of the major bases for self-definition and the overarching
criterion by which to judge any community effort
Supporting psychology theory
 Maslow’s (1943) theory of motivation and hierarchy of needs – suggests
that belonging is part of the hierarchy of needs, not just a “nice” thing to
have
 Bowlby (1969) attachment theory – infants form attachments with
caregivers, and it is the same in schools – children need to make
attachments with their caregivers in schools so they feel that they belong
 Baumeister & Leary (1995) – belongingness hypothesis
  Bronfenbrenner & Morris (2006) – bioecological theory
A sense of belonging or sense of community?
 Belongingness is the extent to which individuals feel personally accepted,
respected, included, and supported by others in their social environment
(Baumeister & Leary, 1995)
 Risks of focusing on “within-child” factors
 Belonging is only one facet of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986)
Four significant characteristic of a community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986)
 Fulfilment of needs (values and value)
 Membership (boundaries, belonging, emotional safety)
 Influence (and power) – need to feel like you have some influence
 Shared emotional connection (contact, quality, shared events)
Why should school staff care about a sense of community? A political imperative
 Community and cohesion agenda, 2001
o Young people and schools are a key concern
 Home office, 2004
o Close the achievement gap between students from different
backgrounds
o Promote common values of citizenship
o Build good community relations
o Remove barriers to access and participation
 Education and inspections act, 2004
 DofE, 2011 – explicit duty on Ofsted to report on school’s contribution to
community cohesion is to be removed BUT community cohesion will
remain within the scope of inspection and the duty on schools to promote
community cohesion remains in place
 The Prevent duty, Department for Education, 2015 Counter Terrorism
and Security Act
Caring about sense of community: a psychological imperative
 Community underpins the following:
 Learning and achievement (e.g. Baumeister et al., 2002)
o Belongingness is linked to motivation, engagement, interest in
school, achievement, completion (eg. Furrer & Skinner, 2003)
o Process: positive relationships with one or more teachers, being
valued
o Self-perpetuating motivational model
 Positive mental health (e.g. Royal & Rossi, 1996) and as an adult (e.g.
Bond et al., 2007)
o Belongingness is a protective factor against negative mental health
o Increased risk of impaired social functioning, aggression,
depression, thoughts of self harm
o Relationships – low peer belongingness is the strongest predictor
of depression
 Positive behaviour (e.g. Payne et al., 2003) – Without belonging:
o Not engaged and poor relationships – reduced social competence,
increased socially disruptive behaviour (Bond et al., 2007
o Children may seek acceptance elsewhere, potentially in risk taking
and negative relationships (Maddox & Prinz, 2003)
 o Improve social experience of school (Catalano et al., 2004)
Doing something about a sense of community in school
 Improve social experience of school by training teachers (Catalano et al.,
2004)
 Appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider et al., 2001)
 The Child Development Project (Lewis et al., 2001) includes:
o Buddying
o Home-involvement activities
o Whole-school community-building activities
o Class meetings
o Cooperative learning
o Developmental discipline