Beyond Inclusion: Cultivating a Critical Sense of Belonging through Community-Engaged Research

Linnea K. Beckett, Flora Lu and Sheeva Sabati
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Linnea K. Beckett: John R. Lewis College, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Flora Lu: Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Sheeva Sabati: College of Education, California State University, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA

Social Sciences, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: A broad body of literature outlines the interventions to support underrepresented and minoritized students’ inclusion and sense of belonging into university contexts. In this paper, we explore how two first-generation students of color articulate a critical sense of belonging through their reflections as student researchers in the Apprenticeship in Community-Engaged Research or (H)ACER program at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). (H)ACER integrates community engagement, ethnographic sensibilities, critical race and decolonial theory, as well as women of color feminisms into a curriculum designed to train critical scholar-researchers. Through themes of feeling isolated on campus and returning ‘home’ in the garden, building comfort with academic theory, and navigating insider/outsider identities in campus/community contexts, we trace how the students developed an awareness of their positionality and made sense of their experiences of ‘belonging’, both within the campus and community contexts. Their narratives spark our deeper exploration into how critical approaches to community-engaged research may offer a pedagogy for supporting student sense of belonging that extends beyond inclusion, a promising vein of further research.

Keywords: critical sense of belonging; community-engaged research; community learning; community garden (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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