Conference Agenda

This is the first of two linked symposia on belonging. It shines the ‘social belonging’ spotlight from the ‘Outside-in’ on the policies and practices which reduce opportunities for young people to belong, as well as those which help develop their sense of agency.

In many countries, rapid increases in exclusion and a sense of ‘not’ belonging in schools have led to mounting concerns about the mental health and life chances of young people, and the consequences for families and communities (Allen et al., 2018; Riley, 2022). The Covid-19 pandemic, global and economic uncertainties have exacerbated inequalities, with the most disadvantaged losing out.

Accepting that belonging and ‘not’ belonging are highly differentiated experiences (Vincent, 2022), this first of two linked symposia will seek to consider:

• What external policies reduce young people’s chances of experiencing school belonging?

• How can place-based approaches enable them to develop a sense of social belonging?

• Can new forms of leadership support young people in becoming active citizens?

Prompted by the respondent, participants will be invited to reflect on two presentations and through peer discussion seek responses to these questions examining the implications for their own policy and practice.

The work on belonging rarely addresses the role that municipalities and their educational staff members play in creating a sense of belonging among all of the members of a school community – and those that feel that they have an immediate stake in that school. However, there is increasing evidence that school and district-based leaders have a significant impact on the way in which schools are experienced as inclusive settings for both adults and students (Louis & Murphy,2019), which suggests that they need to be considered as we enlarge the way in which belonging is conceptualized. Some countries have focused on developing belonging from the outside in, prioritizing family and community engagement as essential to healthy relationships in school. Scotland, for example has, over the last decade, developed a national policy on engagement that clearly points to the importance of family belonging (https://www.gov.scot/publications/cld-plans-guidance-note/pages/6/).

This presentation, however, takes another perspective by examining issues facing local school leaders in Sweden and the U.S. when they are faced with competing policies that tend to reinforce segregation, weaken integration, and thus constrain the schools’ efforts to create belonging (Ekholm & Louis, submitted). We examine two external policy clusters that have emerged in Sweden and Minnesota (U.S.) and that contribute to the challenge of creating more equitable and inclusive schools at the local level. The first is the expansion of school choice policies, which in the two settings were initially driven (at least in part) by underlying assumptions about how “a thousand flowers blooming” could promote democracy and innovation (Bunar, 2008; Junge, 2012) rather than by a singular focus on competition and New Public Management.

We will briefly describe the parallel policy developments in the two settings. We then discuss how parent responses have, led to increasing socio-economic and racial segregation. This is particularly evident in Minnesota, where many charter schools have promoted curricula that are intended to be more culturally relevant to immigrant and minority populations. This has been challenged as a form of self-segregation that stands in contrast to 50 years of both legal and policy efforts to eliminate racially segregated schools. The second policy stream is related to housing policies, which relatively rarely considered in conjunction with educational policies. In both Sweden and the U.S., as well as most other developed countries, residential segregation is increasing due to complex policies that that accrue over time but that result in more socio-economically homogeneous schools (Yang Hansen & Gustafsson, 2016; Kornhall & Bender, 2019; Van Ham, Tammaru & Janssen, 2018). If belonging is to have meaning beyond the confines of a single school building, school leaders at all levels must confront the challenges of neighbourhood inequities in which promoting equality and belonging for all students may be more challenging.

The presentation will conclude by discussing emerging opportunities for school leaders to promote belonging that challenges these constraints (Momandi & Welner, 2021; Lund, 2020).

This presentation is part of a project which focuses on how social belonging can be facilitated for young people living in disadvantaged areas. An important starting point for the project is that the professional development in school and leisure settings must be anchored in the experiences of children and young people and that they need to be involved throughout the process.

As this project has just been started, this presentation focuses on the experiences of children and young people and what they see as important for feeling a sense of belonging and how professionals can facilitate belonging. In this study, the focus is on 10–12-year olds' own experiences of belonging, both in relation to school and leisure time. The pre-teen years are identified as a sensitive time with significant importance for children's well-being and living conditions. To experience a sense of belonging during these years affects important choices later in life (McGuire, 2016). However, the living conditions and life for different groups of Swedish children and young people varies (Forte, 2018). To gain knowledge of and develop leadership to even out these differences is an urgent issue to contribute to good school results and well-being for all children and young people.

The concept of belonging is used to describe the individual's sense of being part of a community but is closely linked to the conditions, relationships and structures that contribute to belonging (Riley, 2019). Riley (2019, 2022) emphasizes how activities that contribute to creating belonging must be seen as part of a larger context. This means that the sense of belonging that young people’s leisure time can provide is in turn important for how young people navigate society more generally.

Data is collected at a leisure center in a disadvantaged area using focus group interviews with 10–12-year olds' about their experience of belonging. The study is inspired by child-centered methods (Clarke & Moss, 2011), where young people's ability to make their voice heard is central. However, we see the importance of an expanded concept of voice where young people are given the opportunity to give their perspective in different ways (Lago & Elvstrand, 2022). In this case, participatory maps (Davies, 1999), where young people are asked with help of drawing to highlight and describe places and social contexts that are important to them, will be used as a basis to the focus group interviews.

Tentative findings show that relations to positive adults (staff at the Leisure center) and influence in the daily leisure activities can function as bridge both to school and to the wider society. Young people’s experiences also are important resources in school development work, for example, to improve school performance and attendance.