Belonging as situated practice

This article offers a rethinking of a fundamental area of higher education research and practice: the concept of belonging. Extending the considerable international research attending to belonging, we suggest that normative narratives often contain a number of omissions. Such omissions include a con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in higher education (Dorchester-on-Thames) 2022-07, Vol.47 (7), p.1386-1396
Main Authors: Gravett, Karen, Ajjawi, Rola
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Belonging
College Students
COVID-19
Creative Teaching
Distance Education
Educational Research
Electronic Learning
Group Membership
Group Unity
Higher Education
Interpersonal Relationship
Pandemics
Power Structure
Sense of Community
sociomateriality
space
Student Adjustment
Student Attitudes
Student Experience
Teaching
timescape
Well Being
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Summary:This article offers a rethinking of a fundamental area of higher education research and practice: the concept of belonging. Extending the considerable international research attending to belonging, we suggest that normative narratives often contain a number of omissions. Such omissions include a consideration of the experiences of those students who may not wish to, or who cannot, belong, as well as a questioning of the very boundaries of belonging. Crucially, our reconceptualisation occurs within the context of the post-Covid-19 times in which we now live. Such times have seen a rapid move to emergency remote teaching, and, we suggest, offer an opening in which belonging can no longer be taken-for-granted as uniform and, as located within fixed times and spaces. Engaging generative concepts from the work of Massey, and Braidotti, and drawing upon Adam's notion of timescapes, we propose a reframing of belonging as situated, relational and processual. Within this lens, belonging can be understood as a sociomaterial practice that shifts within, across and beyond online and face to face timespaces. At the end of this article, we examine the implications of such a reframing for educators seeking to develop belonging, and we also offer suggestions for further research.
ISSN:0307-5079
1470-174X
DOI:10.1080/03075079.2021.1894118