Recommendations for culturally responsive school belonging research: broader cross-cultural sampling, stronger methodologies, multilevel theorizing, and qualitative/mixed methods¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 7 claims (7 for) · 3 studies (1 associational, 1 qualitative, 1 theoretical), q2–q3 · 0 of 3 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The commentary closes with an agenda for moving culture to the center of school belonging research, "including broader cross-cultural sampling, stronger methodologies, explicit multilevel theorizing, and greater use of qualitative and mixed methods". It argues research should ask students how they understand belonging in their own contexts rather than assuming translated instruments capture the same construct everywhere, and should extend to materialist contexts shaped by poverty, conflict, and climate shocks where belonging may hinge on basic concerns such as safety and physical access.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Research infrastructure and cross-cultural collaborations to enable sampling beyond WEIRD contexts

Constraints¶

• The commentary notes the infrastructure required to produce such research might not be present in Global South societies

Target Learners¶

• Students worldwide, especially in underrepresented Global South and Asian contexts

Target Learning Goals¶

• Building a globally inclusive, culturally grounded science of school belonging

Claims¶

• School belonging is associated with better academic achievement in almost all countries, but the strength of the correlations varies significantly across countries [+W]
• Countries vary significantly in mean levels of school belonging, with some (e.g., Spain, Austria) high and others (e.g., Russia, Brunei Darussalam) alarmingly low [+W]
• The belonging–outcome association is stronger in some cultural groups than others: reported moderation by ethnicity and by individualism–collectivism [+W]
• School belonging research is geographically concentrated in WEIRD contexts, with entire world regions virtually absent from the evidence base [+W]
• Students in more egalitarian cultures often have higher sense of belonging at school than students in more hierarchical cultures [+W]
• Collectivism is not significantly linked to students' sense of belonging at school [+W]
• Students' discussion skills increased from first to third year in all three institutions, but at different rates across cultures [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Support self-concept fit through asset-based and culturally sustaining pedagogies, identity-connection assignments, and affinity spaces

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Ronnel B. King, Faming Wang. (2026). Culture and school belonging: Towards a global research agenda. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10213-9