Small Steps, Big Impact Episode 8 | Sense of Belonging - University Teaching and Learning Commons

Our guests today are Dr. Beverly Faircloth, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, and Dr. Laura Gonzalez, Associate Professor of Higher Education, both within the Department of Teacher Education & Higher Education here at UNCG. Our conversation today focuses on the importance of understanding a sense of belonging for our students navigating Higher Education environments.

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Link to full transcript here.

Music, A Short Walk, from Zapsplat.com

Quote from the Episode

“Not just saying ‘thou shalt belong.’ I think it’s more of letting them come into the space and rearrange the furniture a little bit.”

About our Guests

Dr. Laura M. Gonzalez

Laura M. Gonzalez is a faculty member in the School of Education at UNCG. While she currently teaches in the Higher Education program, her degrees are in Women’s Studies, College Counseling and Student Development, and Counselor Education. Thus, her work focuses on supporting positive and inclusive human development within educational settings. In particular, Dr. Gonzalez’s research revolves around supporting postsecondary access for students from Latinx immigrant families.

Dr. Beverly S. Faircloth

Beverly S. Faircloth is an associate professor of Educational Psychology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Her research interests address the ways that adolescents’ (particularly marginalized youth) identities, cultures, communities, and voices can be used to allow them to leverage a sense of “rightful presence” in their various contexts. In The Belonging Project, she has formed research practice partnerships with teachers, community leaders and adolescents at diverse, high-poverty, high-needs middle/high schools and communities for fifteen years. To accomplish this, partnerships have harnessed models such as ethnic studies, counternarratives, critical consciousness, making present practices, and other strategies that center the voices of youth and their communities to dismantle barriers to belonging.

Resources from the Episode

Resisting Barriers to Belonging: Conceptual Critique & Critical Applications (Book) – also available as a UNCG eBook (requires UNCG credentials to access)

The Right to Belonging: A Critical Stance

Faircloth, B. (2021). The Right to Belonging: A Critical Stance. In Faircloth, B., Gonzalez, L. &

Ramos, K. (Eds.). Resisting Barriers to Belonging: Conceptual Critique, Critical Applications. Rowman & Littlefield.

Legal Status and Belonging: Critical Humanist Perspective.

Gonzalez, L. (2021). Legal Status and Belonging: Critical Humanist Perspective. In Faircloth, B., Gonzalez, L. & Ramos, K. (Eds.). Resisting Barriers to Belonging: Conceptual Critique, Critical Applications. Rowman & Littlefield).

Black and Belonging at school: A case for interpersonal, instructional and institutional opportunity structures

Gray, D.L., Hope, E.C. & Matthews, J.S. (2018). Black and belonging at school: A case for interpersonal, instructional and institutional opportunity structures. Educational Psychologist, 53(2), 97–113. doi:10.1080/00461520.2017.1421466

Challenges and Strength-Based Strategies for Cultivating a Sense of Belonging in a Heritage Language Program

Hinman, T. He, Y., Wilson, S., Paschal, A. & Nelson, J. (2021). Challenges and Strength- Based Strategies for Cultivating a Sense of Belonging in a Heritage Language Program. In Faircloth, B., Gonzalez, L. & Ramos, K. (Eds.). Resisting Barriers to Belonging: Conceptual Critique, Critical Applications. Rowman & Littlefield.

Black Early Adolescents Critical Reflection of Inequitable Sociopolitical Conditions: A Qualitative Investigation

Hope, E. & Banales, J. (2019). Black Early Adolescent Critical Reflection of Inequitable Sociopolitical Conditions: A Qualitative Investigation. Journal of Adolescent Research, 34(2), 167-201.

Campus Spaces and Organizations mentioned in the podcast include:

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