Defining and Measuring Belongingness
Guiding Questions:
- What is belongingness?
- What would you look like to assess belongingness?
- How would you measure belongingess?
Activities:
Ask students to define belonging. They can do that in words or images.
Vocabulary.com defines belonging as:
Belonging is a sense of fitting in or feeling like you are an important member of a group. A really close family gives each of its members a strong sense of belonging.
When you belong, you are an official part of a group (“She belongs to the French club”) or you’re compatible with certain people or suited to a specific place (“I just belong in nature”). A feeling of belonging describes this sense of truly fitting or meshing, especially with friends, family members, or other sympathetic folks.
As students how that definition connects with their own definition or understanding. How does it extend that definition? Does it challenge their definition or understanding?
A recent Wikipedia entry elaborates on a similar concept: the idea of belongingness. The authors of the entry write:
Ask students to consider how the definition and wikipedia excerpt connect, extend, and challenge their understanding of belonging.
You might ask students to think about how they would measure belonging and belongingness for individuals and communities. What would you ask people? What would you look for in a community?
From Understanding to Action:
Encourage students to work in groups to create a list of questions or a checklist or rubric for evaluating belongingness in a community.
Once students have completed their projects, have them share with others using the Project Zero Connect-Extend-Challenge thinking routine we introduced earlier.