Sense of belonging

Feeling diasporic

by Lauren Wagner

Available in the Tilburg Papers in Cultural Studies, #21

Queer no me da: Traduciendo fronteras sexuales y raciales en San Salvador y Washington DC

by Maria Amelia Viteri

School belonging and school misconduct. The differing role of teacher and peer attachment.

by Jannick Demanet

Published in 'Journal of Youth and Adolescence'

The schools-as-communities perspective provides a popular explanation for school-disruptive behavior, stating that... more The schools-as-communities perspective provides a popular explanation for school-disruptive behavior, stating that interpersonal bonding at school and feelings of school belonging prevent misconduct. In this article, we build on this perspective in three ways. First, we test whether the preventive influence of school belonging acts at the individual or school level. Secondly, we test whether a distinction should be made between the different actors with whom students bond at school, by assessing whether perceived teacher support, school belonging, and peer attachment relate differently to school misconduct. Lastly, the present study investigates whether the associations of bonding with teachers, peers and the school with school misconduct differ by socio-ethnic school context. Multilevel analyses were performed on data from the Flemish Educational Assessment. The sample consisted of 11,872 students (51.4% female) in 85 schools, most of whom were natives (88.8%), with immigrants (11.2%) mostly having Turkish or Moroccan backgrounds (both about 30% of immigrants in the sample), and others Southern-European (16%), Eastern-European (8%), North-African (5%), or other (17%) backgrounds. Results showed that the students’ individual feelings of bonding with peers, teachers and school associate with school misconduct, rather than the overall school cohesion. Results further showed that, while higher perceived teacher support and school belonging related to less school misconduct, higher peer attachment was associated with higher rates of school misconduct. No differences were found by socio-ethnic context. Implications are discussed.

Complexities of belonging in democratic/democratizing societies: Islamic identity, ethnicity and citizenship in the Netherlands and Aceh

by Michael Merry

Motivations for Prevention or Promotion Following Social Exclusion

by Daniel Molden

How and When Exclusion Motivates Social Reconnection

by Daniel Molden

To appear in: C. N. DeWall (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Social Exclusion. New York: Oxford University Press.

Primed Interference: The Cognitive and Behavioral Costs of an Incongruity between Chronic and Primed Motivational Orientations

by Daniel Molden

Research has shown that temporarily primed motivational orientations have essentially the same effects on how people... more Research has shown that temporarily primed motivational orientations have essentially the same effects on how people pursue their goals as their chronic orientations. This article shows that, despite the interchangeability of temporary and chronic motivations, primed motivational orientations that are incongruent with chronic orientations create interference, requiring the deployment of cognitive resources and thus undermining performance at subsequent tasks that rely on these resources. Across six studies we primed motivational orientations that were either congruent or incongruent with participants’ chronic orientations and then assessed their performance on subsequent tasks that require cognitive resources. Consistent with the primed interference hypothesis, we found that incongruity between temporary and chronic motivational orientations undermined participants’ (a) inhibition of incorrect but highly accessible responses, (b) mental arithmetic, (c) analytical reasoning, and (d) resistance to temptation. These results, which were observed following the activation of motivations for promotion or prevention (Studies 1−2 and 5−6), high or low need for belonging (Study 3), and high or low power orientations (Study 4), illustrate the broad implications of holding incongruent chronic and primed orientations

Sense of belonging in secondary schools: A survey of LGB and heterosexual students in Flanders

by Saskia Aerts

published in Journal of Homosexuality, 59:90–113, 2012

This study focuses on differences in sense of belonging between
lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual... more This study focuses on differences in sense of belonging between
lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual students. Data from 1,745 secondary school students were collected with an online survey. Step-wise multiple regression analyses was used to investigate the relationship between sexual orientation and sense of school belonging. The results show that sexual orientation has an impact on sense of belonging for girls, but not
for boys. Perceived discrimination and LGB friendliness of the
school appeared to be important indicators of sense of belonging
for all the respondents, irrespective of their sexual orientation.

HOW CULTURE SHAPES COMMUNITY: Bible Belief, Theological Unity, and a Sense of Belonging in Religious Congregations

by Samuel Stroope

Becoming significant: the appropriation of the French rural space by British migrants / L’appropriation de l’espace rural français par les Britanniques

by Michaela Benson

(2008) ‘Becoming significant: the appropriation of the French rural space by British migrants / L’appropriation de l’espace rural français par les Britanniques’, J-P. Diry (ed.) Les étrangers dans les campagnes. Clermont-Ferrand: Presses universitaires Blaise Pascal.

We’re not Expats; we are not Migrants; we are Sauliaçoise’: Laying Claim to Belonging in Rural France

by Michaela Benson

(2010) ‘We’re not Expats; we are not Migrants; we are Sauliaçoise’: Laying Claim to Belonging in Rural France’, in Bonisch-Brednich, B. and Trundle, C. (eds) Local Lives: Migration and the Micro-politics of Place. Farnham: Ashgate.

Fixing subjectivities: the politics of belonging and achieving the nation

by Chris Perkins

Royal Holloway Working Paper Series

Phenomenology and Uncanny Homecoming: Homeworld, Alienworld, and Being-at-Home in Alan Ball’s HBO Television Series, Six Feet Under

by David Seamon

first draft of a chapter prepared for Uncanny Homecomings, a collection of essays edited by Daniel Boscaljon, publisher to be determined. A revised, extended version of a presentation at the 7th annual Religion, Literature, and the Arts Conference held at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, August 27; conference theme: “Uncanny Homecomings: Narrative, Structures, Existential Questions, Theological Visions.” © David Seamon 2011

This chapter provides one phenomenological interpretation of writer and director Alan Ball’s popular Home Box Office... more This chapter provides one phenomenological interpretation of writer and director Alan Ball’s popular Home Box Office cable-television series, Six Feet Under, which completed its fifth and final season in 2005. The chapter considers how home and at-homeness are portrayed in the series, drawing on two contrasting phenomenological conceptions: First, Edmund Husserl’s homeworld/alienworld as interpreted by Anthony Steinbock in Home and Beyond (Steinbock 1995); and, second, Kristen Jacobson’s being-at-home (Jacobson 2009). The argument is made that an open sense of at-homeness, grounded in family and place, allows for personal and communal transformation partly impelled by unsettling moments when characters suddenly encounter, in their home lifeworld, compelling situations and understandings before out of sight—i.e., the uncanny.

Key words: home, at-homeness, dwelling, homeworld, alienworld, being-at-home, uncanny, place, phenomenology, phenomenology of home, Alan Ball, Six Feet Under

Students’ sense of belonging in technical/vocational schools versus academic schools: the mediating role of faculty trust in students

by Dimitri Van Maele

Van Houtte, M. & Van Maele, D. 2012. Teachers College Record, Volume 114 Number 7, pp -

Please contact the author for a version of the full paper: dimitri.vanmaele@ugent.be

Background
Since the late 1960s, research has demonstrated repeatedly that students in lower tracks achieve... more Background
Since the late 1960s, research has demonstrated repeatedly that students in lower tracks achieve less, as they develop an anti-school culture to overcome the status deprivation resulting from being in a lower track. In quantitative large-scale research this anti-school culture is usually assessed using poor academic attitudes or study disengagement, because anti-school norms disengage students from the learning process. The extent to which students in different tracks feel embedded in their school communities, their sense of school belonging, has rarely been examined, although academic engagement and sense of belonging are related to each other and to achievement.

Objective
This article examines students’ sense of belonging in secondary schools offering different tracks and the role played by the faculty’s trust in the students.

Participants
The study is based on data from 3,475 students and 754 teachers in 28 technical/vocational schools and 3,376 students and 461 teachers in 22 academic schools in Flanders—that is the Northern, Dutch-speaking part from Belgium.

Research design
Use is made of (stepwise) multilevel analyses (HLM6).

Results
The analyses show that students in technical/vocational schools have a significant lower sense of belonging than students in academic schools. This association disappears if we take into account faculty trust in students. The association between school type and perceived teacher support, a subdimension of the sense of belonging, is not mediated by faculty trust, but is due to the lower GPA of students in technical/vocational schools.

Conclusions
The results indicate that teachers play a crucial role in the divergent nature of students’ social integration across different types of schools. In terms of strengthening students’ connectedness to a technical/vocational school environment, our results indicate that strengthening teachers’ level of trust in students could be crucial.

Negotiating diasporic mobilities and becomings: interactions and practices of Europeans of Moroccan descent on holiday in Morocco

by Lauren Wagner

Thesis
Geography, UCL

In recent years, the annual summer journey of Moroccan families from Europe towards ‘home’ has become a... more In recent years, the annual summer journey of Moroccan families from Europe towards ‘home’ has become a state-acknowledged event as their arrivals number in the millions. These holidays serve an important role in molding ideas and practices of ‘Moroccanness’ for post-migrant generation diasporic visitors, as it is during this time that those of Moroccan descent raised in Europe have the most exposure to Morocco in situ – to language, community and space as they are practiced within the territorial boundaries of the nation – instead of their habitually practiced ways of being Moroccan (or not-being Moroccan) elsewhere. Using an approach based in linguistic anthropology alongside a geographical consideration of embodiment and mobilities, this thesis focuses on communicative and consumption practices of such individuals during their visits to Morocco. I traveled with participants, observing and recording interactions amongst diasporic visitors and community members resident in Morocco, and engaging with them in their practices of touristic leisure consumption. Thinking about ideas of ‘Moroccanness’ as a node in assemblage, unfixed yet specific, I demonstrate how their communicative and consumption practices shape an evolving sense of what it means to be ‘Moroccan’ for diasporic visitors. Their ideas of ‘Moroccanness’, which take shape both as rooted in diasporic connection and as touristic appreciation through consumption, resonate with the sense of ‘being Moroccan’ during their holidays and when they return ‘home’ to Europe. Yet, their diasporic orientation towards Morocco as a place of leisure consumption has ramifications on the relationship between future diasporic generations and the territory as ‘homeland’. My main theoretical contributions are: reimagining ‘diasporic’ in materialist terms, as an action instead of a state of being; and reimagining ‘hybridity’ as a set of interactions responding to multiple attractors in multiplicity, rather than an unstable condition of being neither one, nor the other.

Place, Place Identity, and Phenomenology

by David Seamon

A chapter in The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of the Built Environment, Hernan Casakin, Ombretta Romice, & Sergio Porta, editors. London: Betham Science Publishers, 2011. © 2011 David Seamon.

As recent phenomenological studies have demonstrated (Casey 1997, 2009; Malpas 1999, 2006; Mugerauer 2008; Stefanovic... more As recent phenomenological studies have demonstrated (Casey 1997, 2009; Malpas 1999, 2006; Mugerauer 2008; Stefanovic 2000), the phenomenon of place is a multivalent structure sophisticated and complex in its existential constitution. In this chapter, I offer one phenomenological vantage point from which to examine this lived complexity. I contend that, as an integral structure of human life, place can be understood in terms of three dimensions: first, the geographical ensemble—i.e., the material environment, including both its natural and human-made dimensions; second, people-in-place, including individual and group actions, intentions, and meanings; and, third, spirit of place, or genius loci.

Drawing on the conceptual approach of “systematics” developed by the British philosopher J. G. Bennett, I argue that these three dimensions can engage in six different ways, each of which relates to one particular lived mode whereby place contributes to human life. These six modes are: (1) place interaction; (2) place identity; (3) place creation; (4) place intensification; (5) place realization; and (6) place release.

I argue that place identity is important for understanding the nature of place but is complemented by other modes of relationship that together help clarify the complexity and richness of place and place experience.

Skepticism, Belonging, and Academic Efficacy: Predictors of Disruptive Behaviors in Latino/a Students

by Raymond Falcon

Disruptive behaviors of Latino/a secondary students was investigated with several key variables to determine cause and... more Disruptive behaviors of Latino/a secondary students was investigated with several key variables to determine cause and effect patterns.  Using the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS) and the Psychology Sense of School Membership (PSSM), the studies looked at whether skepticism, feeling of belongingness in school, and academic efficacy were indicators of disruptive behaviors in 657 students in two regional areas of Texas.  Statistical significance was found in two of the three variables.   

Colonialism and Indigenous dispossession in "Against the Wind"

by catriona elder

Susan Turnball (ed) Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2010, pp. 395–405.

The 1970s and 1980s saw the production of a significant number of Australian television mini-series and series,... more The 1970s and 1980s saw the production of a significant number of Australian television mini-series and series, focusing on early colonial history. Many of these series were ratings successes with viewers and were taken quite seriously by writers, actors and viewers as interventions in Australian history making. In these series history was no longer a ‘backdrop’ but something with which the series interacted (Cunningham 1988, 32). Further, the narratives produced in these historical television series sometimes reflected a desire on the part of the producers to engage with history in terms of contemporary sensibilities and political issues. The broad endeavour of this article is to begin to unravel the sensibilities and issues that informed and still inform the production and consumption of Australian history through historical television drama. Concentrating on a series made and broadcast in 1978 – Against the Wind - it addresses the issue of how the series works in relation to the popular and scholarly ideas that were understood at the time to make up Australian national history.

Re-enacting National Histories: "Outback House" and Narratives of Australia's Colonial Past

by catriona elder

in Enric Castelló, Alexander Dhoest and Hugh O’Donnell (eds.) The Nation on Screen: Discourses of the National on Global Television, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2009.

"Outback House", Land and Belonging in (Television) Re-enactment

by catriona elder

In Vanessa Agnew and Jonathan Lamb (eds.) Settler and Creole Re-enactment, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009.

In the last decade or so, as part of an increasing interest in popular history a spate of re-enactment television... more In the last decade or so, as part of an increasing interest in popular history a spate of re-enactment television programmes have been been produced. In Britain there were programmes such as "1900 House" (1999); in Germany there were "The Black Forest House" (2002). The re-enactment series produced in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States differ significantly from the European versions. In these nations to re-enact the past is to engage with the history of colonialism. This chapter focuses on an Australian series and uses it to explore contemporary attitudes to Indigenous land and belonging as they are represented in a re-enactment of Australian pioneer history