2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is completed work investigating sense of belonging as defined by first-year students in engineering. Sense of Belonging has consistently been recognized as one of the key players in student retention at the higher education level [Hoffman et al., 2003, Slaten, 2018, Lee et al., 2021]. However, even with its recognized importance, one of the most significant gaps still present is how to define or conceptualize sense of belonging to be analyzed and tested [Hoffman et al., 2003 & Lee et al., 2021]. Much of the work to fill this gap has approached it by applying preconceived constructs and theory to identify if those constructs resonate with the students in question [Slaten, 2018]. Yet more work needs to be done to define a sense of belonging and the activities that promote it from the student's perspective. Therefore, this qualitative multi-case study began with constructs of sense of belonging to explore what resonated with whom and how but allowed for space to let the students identify areas that traditional definitions of belonging may not capture. This was accomplished by conducting semi-structured interviews with first and second-year engineering students. There were three participants in their first year of engineering. The interviews ranged from 1-1.5 hours in length. A conceptual framework was used to identify traditional constructs significant to sense of belonging. Sense of belonging theory is used as a baseline to see if factors originating from the student's perspective are not described within the theory. To analyze the data, a codebook was developed that included explicit codes identifying traditional constructs of belonging and implicit mentioning of belonging that could be present throughout the student's experiences. The study's findings revealed a “temporal” piece to belonging, or what we felt is better described as “generational belonging.” Where many of the traditional constructs focus on the present interactions that students have, many of the students described how their experiences before entering engineering influenced their sense of belonging to engineering.
It was also found that students were hyper-aware of a “mold” in engineering and how they fit that mold. Depending on whether the student felt they fit the mold significantly affected their sense of belonging. This finding builds on others because it was observed that those who fit in the mold gain a sort of “bravado” that they are the select few. These findings highlight the importance of the student's voice when analyzing sense of belonging due to the nuance that could be lost when trying to fit what is unknown into what is known. It is essential to address how generational belonging can influence a student’s belonging as much as the traditional constructs of belonging do. Our goal with this study is to not only build on what is already known as sense of belonging but to ultimately use it to inform a critical and comprehensive instrument to assess sense of belonging across peoples of varying identities, institution types, and intuitional cultures.