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DOI: 10.1002/he.20427
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A socio-ecological perspective on sense of
belonging among racially/ethnically
minoritized college students: Implications for
equity-minded practice and policy
Royel M. Johnson
Rossier School of Education, University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, California,
USA
Correspondence
Royel M. Johnson, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Email: royelmjo@usc.edu
Abstract
In this chapter, I offer a socio-ecological perspective
on sense of belonging, which is designed to aid insti-
tutional actors in facilitating equitable opportunities
for racially and ethnically minoritized students to fulfill
their belonging needs. Though important, individual,
and relational-level interventions alone run the risk
of pathologizing racially and ethnically minoritized
students (REM), prioritizing student-level changes
over changes in institutional structures and poli-
cies. A socio-ecological perspective, however, broad-
ens the aperture to account for organizational phe-
nomena that conspire in the othering of institutionally
marginalized groups. I delineate three ecological levels
for equity-minded leaders to consider in their efforts to
promote student belonging: individual, interpersonal,
and institutional.
INTRODUCTION
Sense of belonging – the extent to which one feels cared about, accepted, respected, val-
ued by, and important to their campus community (Goodenow & Grady, 1993; Strayhorn,
2012) – is one of higher education’s most important values and goals. And for good reason.
Lauded scholar Abraham Maslow (1943) contends that belonging is a basic human need
that all people are motivated to fulfill within social contexts such as college and university
campuses. There is even evidence that suggests that our desire to experience belonging is
observed at the biological level (Slavich & Cole, 2013). In other words, we all want to belong.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits
use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial
purposes.
© 2022 The Authors. New Directions for Higher Education published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
New Dir High Educ. 2022;2022:59–68. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/he 59
60 IMPLICATIONS FOR EQUITY-MINDED PRACTICE AND POLICY
Satisfying this need is a requisite for optimal learning, development, and student success.
Research suggests that sense of belonging is positively associated with academic achieve-
ment, retention, and persistence toward one’s educational goals (Hausmann et al., 2007;
Rhee, 2008; Strayhorn, 2012).
Though belonging is clearly important to student success, it is not equitably experi-
enced among all groups. Racist and oppressive institutional structures, particularly at Pre-
dominantly White Institution (PWIs), coalesce in the othering and unbelonging that so
many racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) students consistently experience. That
Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other minoritized students are expected to “find” a sense
of belonging at institutions that are normed on white, Christian, heterosexual, cisgender
men, is problematic. It is the responsibility of college and university leaders and other insti-
tutional actors to undertake reforms that root out inequitable policies, practices, and pro-
cesses that thwart students’ sense of belonging at colleges and universities. Instead, many
opt for diversity and inclusion programming and rhetoric, what Stewart (2017) refers to as a
“language of appeasement,” to quell student concerns about “chilly” and “hostile” campus
climates, while their institutional structures and policies remain unchanged.
In this chapter, I present a socio-ecological perspective on sense of belonging, which is
designed to aid institutional actors in facilitating equitable opportunities for REM students
to fulfill their belonging needs. Though important, individual and relational-level interven-
tions alone (see, for example, Walton & Cohen, 2011) run the risk of pathologizing REM
students, prioritizing student-level changes over changes in institutional structures and
policies. A socio-ecological perspective (Allen et al., 2016; Bronfenbrenner, 1993), however,
broadens the aperture to account for organizational and societal-level phenomena that
conspire in the othering of institutionally marginalized groups. I delineate three ecological
levels for equity-minded leaders to consider in their efforts to promote student belonging:
individual, interpersonal, and institutional.
Across each nested context, I briefly synthesize insights from research and present
recommendations for institutional policy and practice. I draw on the notion of “equity-
mindedness” to underscore the role and responsibility of institutional actors in advancing
racial equity in higher education through the remediation of racist and oppressive logics,
policies, and practices (Bensimon, 2005; Bensimon & Malcom, 2012; Dowd & Bensimon,
2015). Equity-mindedness refers to a cognitive frame for professional practice and learn-
ing that is (a) race conscious, (b) institutionally focused, (c) evidenced based, (d) systemat-
ically aware, and (e) action oriented (Bensimon & Malcom, 2012). In the following section,
I present a brief overview of the foundations of sense of belonging in higher education lit-
erature.
Sense of belonging in higher education literature
Most scholars trace the origin of the study of college students’ sense of belonging back to
Sylvia Hurtado and Deborah Faye Carter’s (1997) study, though it is important to acknowl-
edge that psychologists have long devoted scholarly attention to this area of research (see,
e.g., Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Bollen & Hoyle, 1990; Goodenow, 1993a, 1993b; Maslow,
1943). Analyzing data from the National Survey of Hispanic Students (NSHS), Hurtado and
Carter examined the antecedents of sense of belonging among a sample of Latinx college
students. Their results indicated that perceptions of a hostile racial climate have direct neg-
ative effects on students’ sense of belonging in their third year. Sense of belonging, they
argued, is a more culturally conscious concept for understanding students’ academic and
social experiences and their impacts on students’ educational outcomes – an alternative to
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 61
Tinto’s (1993) problematic notion of academic and social integration, which suggested that
students must sever ties with significant others from their past communities. Hurtado and
Carter’s (1997) pioneering research – the most cited publication on college students’ sense
of belonging – catalyzed a new generation of research on the topic (see, e.g., Johnson, 2007;
Johnson et al., 2007; Johnson et al., 2020; Maestas et al., 2007; Pittman & Richmond, 2007;
Strayhorn, 2008a,2008b; Walton & Cohen, 2007).
Arguably, the most significant contribution to research on sense of belonging in higher
education literature since Hurtado and Carter’s work is Terrell Strayhorn’s (2012) book, Col-
lege Students’ Sense of Belonging: A Key to Educational Success for All Students. This book
(now in its second edition; see Strayhorn, 2019) offers the field a robust theoretical treatise
on the concept at the postsecondary level, as well as insight into factors that facilitate and
thwart belongingness among racially and ethnically minoritized students. Synthesizing lit-
erature and theory, Strayhorn advanced a model of college students’ sense of belonging
that includes seven core elements:
1. Sense of belonging is a basic human need;
2. Sense of belonging is a fundamental motive, sufficient to drive human behavior;
3. Sense of belonging takes on heightened importance (a) in certain contexts (b) at certain
times, and (c) among certain populations;
4. Sense of belonging is related to, and seemingly a consequence of, mattering;
5. Social identities intersect and affect college students’ sense of belonging;
6. Sense of belonging engenders other positive outcomes;
7. Sense of belonging must be satisfied on a continual basis and likely changes as circum-
stances, conditions, and contexts change. (Strayhorn, 2019, p. 39)
Strayhorn’s model, and the book more generally, is widely used in educational research
and practice (e.g., it had been cited over 1800 times by February 20, 2022, according to
Google Scholar). Scholars frequently draw on Strayhorn’s work to conceptualize sense of
belonging in their studies of student, faculty, and staff, especially for racially minoritized
populations (see, e.g., Dortch & Patel, 2017; George Mwangi, 2016; Means & Pyne, 2017;
O’Meara et al., 2017; Rainey, Dancy, Mickelson, Stearns, & Moller, 2018;Vaccaro,Daly-
Cano, & Newman, 2015). References to his work can be seen in dozens of campus strategic
plans, enrollment management plans, and faculty development workshops, among other
higher education policy and planning venues (see Strayhorn, 2019 for examples).
Though scholars have nodded to institutional factors that influence students’ sense of
belonging among REM students, like campus climate and culture (Maramba & Museus,
2013; Stebleton et al., 2014; Strayhorn, 2012), the construct has still been narrowly framed
as an individual- and relational-level phenomenon. As a result, student success interven-
tions that aim to foster sense of belonging have prioritized student-level changes over insti-
tutional transformations. Additional work is needed to extend our understanding of sense
of belonging as a construct and bring into focus the constellation of institutional factors
within campus environments that impact it.
A socio-ecological perspective on sense of belonging among REM
students
College students’ sense of belonging is a social-ecological phenomenon that is shaped by
both proximal factors, such as interactions, and distal ones, such as cultural norms and
institutional policy. Yet, the weight of empirical evidence has almost exclusively focused on
62 IMPLICATIONS FOR EQUITY-MINDED PRACTICE AND POLICY
individual- and interpersonal-level processes, overlooking broader institutional-level fac-
tors that powerfully affect sense of belonging among REM students. The proposed frame-
work, which is undergirded by an ecological systems perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1993),
is designed to aid college and university leaders in undertaking reforms that transform
their institutional policies, practices, and processes in ways that foster sense of belonging
among REM students. In the following section I synthesize insights from research across
each nested context.
Individual level
Research suggests that institutional efforts that normalize students’ uncertainty and
increase their academic motivation, self-efficacy, coping skills, self-regulated learning, and
confidence in transition to college, to name a few, can effectively foster sense of belonging
(see, e.g., Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Johnson, 2012; Pittman & Richmond, 2007; Strayhorn,
2012; Strayhorn et al., 2015; Walton & Cohen, 2007; Won et al., 2021). For instance, one
study found that a brief intervention aimed at reducing psychological perceptions of threat
on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient increased Black students’
sense of belonging (Walton & Cohen, 2011). However, the social challenges that Black stu-
dents and other marginalized groups experience at PWIs are far from normal and should
not be normalized.
Strayhorn’s (2012) model notes that “social identities intersect and affect college stu-
dents’ sense of belonging” (p. 39). Said differently, the confluence of one’s race, gender,
class, and sexual orientation, among other social identities, coalesce in the subordination
that REM students experience on college and university campuses, which is sustained by
social structures and systems (Crenshaw, 1991). Thus, an intersectional-grounded praxis
among higher education professionals is essential for understanding how REM students
“show up” on our college campuses. For instance, one might wrongly interpret a Black stu-
dent’s lack of motivation to connect and experience belonging as evidence that the stu-
dent lacks interpersonal competencies. An equity-minded perspective, however, considers
the ways in which students’ historical and contemporary experiences with marginalization
and systemic exclusion can shape their perceptions of “fit” within a campus community,
thus undermining their motivation or interest in belonging. Likewise, exposure to racial-
ized stereotypes about REM students and their academic abilities (for example, “Black
girls don’t do well in science or math”) can negatively affect their self-efficacy and reduce
sense of belonging. Equity-minded practitioners invest in and affirm the existing abilities
of REM students, while also acknowledging and addressing the role that other factors, such
as inequitable experiences, play in intra-level phenomena.
Interpersonal level
Positive interactions and relationships with peers, staff, and faculty, especially those from
backgrounds that are different from those of REM students at PWIs, have been consis-
tently linked to sense of belonging (see, e.g., Maestas, et al., 2007;Nuñez,2009; Pittman &
Richmond, 2008; Strayhorn, 2008a, 2008b; Strayhorn, Bie, Dorime-Williams, & Williams,
2016). That REM students are expected to interact with and develop relationships with
white students, faculty, and staff, who way too often are the perpetrators of harmful
racialized stereotypes and abuse, to feel a sense of belonging on campus is an inequity,
as I have argued elsewhere (Strayhorn & Johnson, 2014). Equity-minded practitioners
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 63
should facilitate opportunities for white faculty and staff to engage in inquiry-based
professional learning opportunities (see Dowd & Bensimon, 2015) that foster their crit-
ical consciousness and their understanding of whiteness and intersecting systems of
oppression and remediate problematic practices and ideologies that result in negative and
harmful interactions with REM students.
Scholars have advanced several culturally conscious and equity-minded practitioner
frameworks to aid institutional actors in supporting REM students, such as Cultural Nav-
igators (Strayhorn, 2015) and institutional agents (Stanton-Salazar, 1997). Adopting these
frames as part of one’s praxis can facilitate more humanizing and culturally affirming inter-
personal relationships with REM students. For instance, Strayhorn’s notion of cultural nav-
igation is a student-centered, equity-minded perspective that encourages student affairs
professionals and others to affirm the indigenous knowledges and cultural identities of
REM students, while supporting them in navigating an educational context that may be
markedly different from their culture of origin.
White students should also be provided opportunities to engage in learning about
race, racism, and whiteness, perhaps through required first-year seminars, to foster more
meaningful and positive cross-racial interactions. Foste’s (2019) research suggests that
some white college students maintain willfully ignorant perspectives about race relations
on campus, writing off incidents of overt racism. Interestingly, participants in his study
reported engaging in numerous diversity trainings, courses, and discussions. Thus, rather
than one-off racial diversity programming, Foste recommends programming that is “devel-
opmentally sequenced and sustained over time” to challenge the conditioning of White-
ness (p. 252). Such an approach is important in remediating the problematic behaviors
and logics some white students exhibit that reduce interpersonal opportunities for REM
students to fulfill their belonging needs on campus.
Family support and engagement is another factor linked to REM college students’ sense
of belonging. While Tinto’s (1993) model of student retention suggested that one must sever
ties with significant others from their past community, including family, in order integrate
academically and socially on campus, numerous scholars have documented how harmful
this can be for communities of color (see, e.g., Nora & Cabrera, 1996; Tierney, 1999). Stud-
ies have illustrated the important role family can play in REM students’ sense of belonging
and success in college (see Hausmann et al., 2009; Sáenz et al., 2020; Tachine et al., 2017).
Museus and Maramba’s (2011) study of Filipino American college students found that the
more students maintained connections with their family and cultures of origin, the greater
ease they experienced in their adjustment to college, which subsequently increased their
sense of belonging on campus. Similarly, Tachine et al. (2017) report that for Native stu-
dents, a connection to culture and family was instrumental in their sense of belonging
on campus. Students in their sample sought support from family to counteract culturally
invalidating campus experiences. Equity-minded practitioners affirm students’ indigenous
ways of knowing, cultures of origin, and family backgrounds. They recognize the important
role that family can play in REM student success and create opportunities to bridge their
family and campus communities.
Institutional level
Common institutional approaches to fostering REM students’ sense of belonging have
been anchored within a diversity and inclusion paradigm (Stewart, 2018a, 2018b). For
instance, campus leaders have prioritized increasing the compositional diversity of REM
faculty, staff, and students; campus programming aimed at generating awareness about
64 IMPLICATIONS FOR EQUITY-MINDED PRACTICE AND POLICY
race and cultural diversity, such as speaker series and cultural celebrations; and creating
identity-based and culturally based groups and centers, among other things. To be sure,
participation in identity-based student clubs/organizations (Harper & Quaye, 2007)and
cultural centers (Patton, 2006; Tachine et al., 2017) can operate as a protective factor that
facilitates student belonging. For instance, Tachine et al. (2017) study of 24 Native Ameri-
can students found that a Native student center provided a “home away from home” envi-
ronment where students experienced a localized sense of belonging, though the broader
campus culture was invalidating. These efforts, however, do not address the inequitable
conditions or structures that make these programs and initiatives necessary in the first
place.
In a diversity and inclusion paradigm, all voices are treated equally. Stewart (2018a) con-
tends that in an equity and justice paradigm; however, one recognizes that all voices will
not be taken seriously under majority-rules decision-making processes (p. 4). Thus, equity-
minded campus leaders should make assertive efforts to center the voices and experiential
knowledge of REM students in their assessment and transformation of institutional struc-
tures, policies, practices, and processes. As Stewart (2017) notes, deep institutional change
to create equity and justice requires that rather than focusing on diversity and inclusion,
we ask alternative questions. For instance, “How can we eliminate policies and practices
that have disparate negative effects on minoritized students’ sense of belonging?” As such,
I offer the concept of structural belonging to aid campus leaders in undertaking trans-
formational change on their campuses to foster belonging among REM students. Struc-
tural belonging refers to institutional conditions, policies, practices, and cultural norms
that demonstrate that one is accepted, supported, respected, valued by, and important to
a community. Fostering structural belonging, thus, requires dismantling and transform-
ing inequitable institutional structures that devalue,dehumanize,disrespect and “other”
minoritized students, especially those who are multiply marginalized.
It is important that leaders articulate a decidedly anti-racist vision and set of values for
their campus that prioritize the belongingness of REM and other minoritized groups. Such
values must be reflected within campus organizational structures for institutional trans-
formation to occur (see Kezar, 2008). Equity-minded leaders can do this by developing
and effectively articulating an inclusive, anti-racist vision for the campus, while simulta-
neously enhancing the capacity of others to recognize and dismantle marginalizing and
oppressive institutional structures. For REM students and members of other institutionally
marginalized groups at PWIs, structural belonging takes on heightened importance given
these institutions’ historical and contemporary commitments to racial and social inequity.
Equity-minded leaders can enact structural belonging, for instance, by moving beyond
superficial and performative native and indigenous land acknowledgements to institu-
tional reconciliation and transformation. Certainly, acknowledging and naming the impact
of colonization and forcible removal on native and indigenous communities is one way to
begin affirming native student belonging and place on campus. However, it does little to
alter institutional structures. Native and indigenous scholars have urged institutional lead-
ers to enact structural reforms such as returning land back to Native nations or providing
access to free college to Native students on their traditional homelands as land-based repa-
rations (Redshirt-Shaw, 2020). This is one way campus leaders can demonstrate respect,
value, and care for native students, which are antecedents to feelings of belonging.
Structural belonging can also be enacted through curriculum and instructional prac-
tices. For instance, the classroom is a site where REM students often experience exclusion
and marginalization due to Eurocentric, heteronormative, and oppressive classroom cur-
riculum and instructional practices and pedagogies. Institutional leaders should advocate
for curriculum standards and learning outcomes for their academic degree programs that
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 65
are anti-racist and equity-minded. As an example, in 2020, the University of Pittsburgh
announced that all full-time, first-year students will be required to take a course called
“Anti-Black Racism: History, Ideology, and Resistance” that “seeks to examine the develop-
ment, spread, and articulations of anti-Black racism in the United States and around the
world” (“Anti-Black Racism,” n.d.). Similarly, Pennsylvania State University in 2020 com-
missioned a joint curricular taskforce on racial and social justice to make recommenda-
tions to faculty for an equity-centered curriculum – one that includes antiracist and inter-
sectional learning objectives. Such efforts are promising first steps in enacting structural
belonging, especially as it relates to course curriculum. So too are institutional policies that
require faculty to engage in professional learning.
Words wound (Matsuda, 2018) and can have a significant negative impact on REM stu-
dents’ sense of belonging, especially when racially charged. Yet, institutional leaders often
absolve themselves from addressing hate speech on campus under the guise of free speech
protections. Indeed, REMs are too often denied equal protection under the law, and as
a result experience inequitable opportunities to belong on campus, when they are sub-
jected to hateful and assaultive speech. Equity-minded leaders, especially those responsi-
ble for interpretations of laws that impact the personhood (and belongingness) of REMs
like free speech, should take steps to develop their critical conscious legal literacy (CCLL).
CCLL is “sociohistorically informed awareness that law and its interpretations are rooted
in ableist, cisgender, heteronormative, Christian, patriarchal white supremacist logics that
reject or challenge equal personhood outside of normalized social identities” (Ward, 2020,
p. 798). Such an awareness is necessary for courageously enacting existing institutional
policies and commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion and condemning anti-Black
and other oppressive speech and actions. As Stewart (2018b) powerfully notes, “Institutions
that claim to value their members must declare themselves enemies of any viewpoints and
ideologies that devalue certain members and threaten their safety, humanity, and legiti-
macy” (p. 6).
Structural belonging can also be enacted by attending to the physical and organizational
elements of campus environments, which Strange and Banning (2015) argue have impor-
tant implications for students experience community and belonging. The physical design
of college and university campuses – buildings, sidewalks, commons spaces, and artifacts
of material culture – and how students make meaning of their interactions with this aspect
of the environment can facilitate or thwart feelings of belonging. Equity-minded leaders
can take proactive steps to address the ways in which physical features of the campus
environment prioritize white students. They seek input from REMs about how they experi-
ence the physical environment and the messages it conveys to them about their place and
belongingness. Moreover, they undertake renovations and build new structures that reflect
they interests and culture of REM students.
The organizational environment also has implications for belonging. Equity-minded
leaders interrogate the organizational frames (e.g., bureaucratic, collegial, political) that
undergird their office, department or unit and assesses its role in shaping student behavior
and interpretations of their place and fit on campus. For instance, REMs students, espe-
cially those from economically disenfranchised backgrounds, often bemoan their expe-
riences with campus bursar offices who drop them from their classes due to financial
aid issues. The difficulty students experience in resolving these matters are reflective of
bureaucratic and loosely coupled organizational arrangements that decenter students and
their needs. Such frustrations with organizational arrangements and structures signal to
students that they are not valued or important and thus fosters feelings of unbelonging.
Equity-minded leaders work to reimagine organizational structures and frames that are
truly student-centered. They prioritize meeting the needs of students, especially REM, over
and beyond their commitment to archaic organizational frames and marginalize students.
66 IMPLICATIONS FOR EQUITY-MINDED PRACTICE AND POLICY
CONCLUSION
Sense of belonging is a basic human need. It is especially important for REM students at
PWIs who maintain historical and contemporary commitments to anti-Black oppression
and other forms of marginalization. Facilitating equitable opportunities for REM to expe-
rience belonging means challenging dominant policies, practices, and logics that conspire
in their relation. This chapter offers some initial ideas and recommendations for faculty
and administrators to consider in undertaking reforms on campus at the individual, inter-
personal and institutional levels that demonstrate to REM students that they belong.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Royel M. Johnson is Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of South-
ern California (USC) where he is also Director of Student Engagement in the USC Race
and Equity Center and a faculty member in the Pullias Center for Higher Education.
How to cite this article: Johnson, R. M. (2022). A socio-ecological perspective on
sense of belonging among racially/ethnically minoritized college students:
Implications for equity-minded practice and policy. New Directions for Higher
Education,2022, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20427
