ERIC Number: EJ1135195
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jul
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1931-4744
EISSN: N/A
A Sense of Belonging: How Student Feelings Correlate with Learning about Race
Kernahan, Cyndi; Zheng, Wei; Davis, Tricia
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, v8 n2 Article 4 Jul 2014
Learning about race and racism can be a difficult process. Previous work has shown that courses in this area can help to increase awareness of racial bias and discrimination, but less work has focused on how that change occurs. We hypothesized that feelings of belonging within the classroom could correlate with student learning and our results indeed showed a strong correlation among these factors. Across three courses, all focused on race and diversity, feelings of belonging predicted not only perceptions of learning, but also graded forms of learning and increases in racial awareness. Results are discussed in terms of the larger literature on feelings of belonging.
Descriptors: Group Unity, Group Membership, Student Attitudes, Racial Attitudes, Race, Racial Bias, Racial Discrimination, Attitude Change, Learning Processes, Correlation, Sense of Community, Undergraduate Students, Pretests Posttests, Attitude Measures, Peer Relationship, Racial Relations, Regression (Statistics)
Centers for Teaching & Technology at Georgia Southern University. IJ-SoTL, Georgia Southern University, Henderson Library 1301, Statesboro, GA 30460. e-mail: sotlij@georgiasouthern.edu; Web site: http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A