"These People Are My People and They Care About Me": The Perspectives of Alternative High School Graduates on School Belonging

Abstract

A sense of school belonging has been well documented as essential for student well-being and engagement. For students who have experienced dropout, pushout, or fallout from school, a sense of school belonging is even more vital. Though supportive and caring relationships with teachers are one of the strongest predictors of a student’s school belonging, there is very little research on what forms of school and teacher support are most effective in generating a sense of school belonging for students who have experienced dropout, pushout, or fallout. In the United States, alternative schools are often used as a method for preventing dropout. Though limited, research on effective alternative schools has shown that they are often characterized by a strong sense of school belonging and connectedness, but few researchers have studied why and how this occurs. This qualitative research study sought to explore how students who graduated from alternative high schools described and compared their experiences of belonging and care at their alternative school and their former, traditional high school. Wenger’s (1999) sociological theory regarding communities of practice was used to analyze how students’ participation, interactions, and learning trajectories influenced their sense of belonging at their different schools. Findings indicated that a student’s sense of belonging is generated by their ability to participate within their learning community, and that at the traditional high school, this participation was constrained and resulted in unbelonging. However, at the alternative school, students’ participation was enabled by both interpersonal and institutional support and care that generated belonging as well as positive shifts in students’ identities and perspectives. These findings offer insight for schools seeking to reduce dropout by improving student belonging as well as adding new understanding about how school belonging is generated in day-to-day interactions.