Faculty Prioritize Student Belonging | Research Brief

Faculty prioritize student belonging, with tech-positive faculty and women leading the way

College students are weary. Among the more disturbing trends to accelerate during and persist beyond the pandemic is the decline in student well-being. According to many studies, students have become more stressed and less socially engaged. In 2023, over 80% of college students reported that they were emotionally struggling at least somewhat, with 59% reporting anxiety, 58% burnout, and 43% depression as their main mental health concern.

Belonging in college, which has long been acknowledged as a key factor in student retention, has been identified as a protective factor against the stressors caused by the pandemic. Some have questioned whether the rise in online, hybrid, and tech-enabled learning, which can reduce the need to gather in person, interact with peers, and connect with faculty, could be a factor in reducing students’ sense of belonging and well-being. But technology is now a critical component of the learning experience. And faculty — even in online environments — play a key role in shaping the learning experience, particularly in building a sense of belonging for students.

The College Innovation Network (CIN) at WGU Labs has been running annual surveys of faculty opinions on higher education and EdTech since 2021. This year, we surveyed 359 faculty members from six institutions to answer the following questions: 

• Do faculty think that engaging in belonging-centered behaviors in the classroom is vital to being an effective instructor?
• How often do faculty engage in belonging- and inclusion-related behaviors in the classroom?

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Our data revealed four key takeaways:

• Takeaway 1: 87% of faculty believe it is important to ensure that all students feel like they belong at their institution.
  • Faculty seem to nearly universally care about belonging. They see that their role isn't just educating students but also cultivating an environment that inspires inclusion and belonging. 
• Takeaway 2: 75% of faculty received training on implementing inclusive practices in the classroom.
  • Most faculty members get support from their institutions in creating supportive learning environments in the classroom.
• Takeaway 3: Women faculty are ten percentage points more likely than men to take steps to increase students’ belonging and tailor their instructional approaches for diverse learners.
  • Faculty are almost universally committed to belonging, but gender gaps exist. However, these gender gaps are encouragingly small and suggest that, with the right interventions, they can be fully eliminated. 
• Takeaway 4: Faculty that reported most looking forward to a tech-enabled future for education were also most likely to value cultivating belonging in the learning environment.
  • A tech future in education does not necessarily mean a more belonging-poor learning environment. 

These findings are based on a convenience sample of faculty working at a small number of institutions, and our findings may therefore not represent the larger U.S. population of faculty members. With this caution in mind, we drew the above inferences based on what we learned from our sample.

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87% of faculty believe it is important to ensure that all students feel like they belong at their institution

Faculty widely recognize the importance of belonging and engage in belonging-related activities in the classroom.

A large majority of the surveyed faculty believe that ensuring student belonging in the classroom and institution, tailoring instruction for diverse learners, and seeking feedback are important factors in being an effective instructor. A majority of faculty also reported engaging in these behaviors.  

In recent years, there has been a rising call to improve students’ sense of belonging in college, with an increasing number of studies showing that student belonging leads to better academic performance and retention, as well as better post-college outcomes such as career satisfaction. Belonging is especially important to under-resourced students’ academic success. Our results indicate that in keeping with broader society, faculty also care deeply about improving belonging in the classroom. This is a particularly important finding, as research shows that strong student-faculty relationships are key to improving academic performance in students, particularly under-resourced students. These findings are encouraging, as they suggest that faculty are embracing the increased focus on student belonging and changing their methods to improve belonging.

Data breakdown:

• 91% of faculty said ensuring that all students feel included in the learning environment is very or extremely important to being an effective instructor.
  • 96% of faculty reported taking steps to ensure that all students feel included in the learning environment.
• 87% of faculty said regularly seeking feedback from students on ways to improve their learning experiences is very or extremely important to being an effective instructor.
  • 81% of faculty reported regularly seeking feedback from students on ways to improve their learning experiences.
• 87% of faculty said ensuring that all students feel like they belong at their institution is very or extremely important to being an effective instructor.
  • 83% of faculty reported taking steps to increase students’ sense of belonging at their institution. 
• 86% of faculty said tailoring instructional approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners is very or extremely important to being an effective instructor.
  • 89% of faculty reported tailoring their instructional approach to meet the needs of diverse learners.

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75% of faculty received training on inclusive practices and implemented them in the classroom

The vast majority of faculty we surveyed made a point of supporting their students, and our research finds that, in turn, their institutions supported them with training on how to boost student belonging and inclusion. Almost 9 in 10 faculty members we surveyed said they provide personalized support to students and ensure their students know about support services. More than 80% are striving to make course content accessible. Three-quarters of the faculty we surveyed received training on inclusive practices from their institution. 

Seeing both an institutional and individual faculty effort to increase belonging and inclusion is encouraging. 

Data breakdown:

• 75% of faculty reported having received training on inclusive teaching practices.
• When asked which inclusive teaching practices they incorporated into their teaching:
  • 88.9% of faculty reported providing personalized support to students.
  • 88.6% of faculty reported ensuring students were aware of student support services.
  • 82.7% of faculty reported making course content accessible.

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Women faculty are ten percentage points more likely than men to take steps to increase students’ belonging and tailor their instructional approaches for diverse learners 

Although most faculty appear to be invested in improving belonging and inclusion in the classroom, women were more likely than men to respond that tailoring their instructional approaches for diverse students was important to being an effective instructor and to report engaging in behaviors aimed at improving belonging.

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Though a majority of both women and men showed an interest in improving student belonging, our data shows gender disparities. These findings align with other research that found that, compared to their male counterparts, women faculty perform significantly more service work to the detriment of their careers. These differences in service work could be why women faculty feel more responsible for improving student belonging, another service role in the workplace. As higher education institutions work toward improving student belonging and inclusion, they must ensure that no particular group of faculty are working harder to make higher education accessible for all.

Data breakdown:

• Women faculty (90%) were ten percentage points more likely to believe that tailoring their instructional approach to meet the needs of diverse learners is important to being an effective instructor compared to men faculty (80%).
• Women faculty (95%) were 13 percentage points more likely to report that they tailor their instructional approach to meet the needs of diverse learners compared to men faculty (82%).
• Women faculty (87%) were also ten percentage points more likely to say that they take steps to increase students’ sense of belonging at their institution compared to men faculty (77%).

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Faculty that reported most looking forward to a tech-enabled future for education were also most likely to value cultivating belonging in the learning environment.

Faculty responses suggest that a tech-enabled future doesn’t need to come at the expense of students’ experience of belonging and inclusion. With the rise of students’ interest in hybrid and online learning environments, administrators and faculty have had to rapidly adjust to providing more learning options and support within online environments. Although this pressure to embrace online learning could have led to less human-centered learning with faculty having less time to practice belonging-related practices in the classroom, we are actually seeing faculty embrace the improvement of student belonging in the classroom. We found that the more comfortable faculty are with a tech-enabled future for education, the more they acknowledge the importance of improving student belonging. More specifically, faculty who were enthusiastic about tech-enabled learning also appeared to think that effective instructors should tailor their course content to meet the needs of diverse learners. Of all the belonging-related behaviors, this is arguably closest to the move toward more tech-enabled learning, as it is easier to adjust instructional approaches for diverse learners with the help of technology.

Although these findings are correlational and not necessarily causal, it is possible that the desire to tailor their instruction to meet the needs of diverse students has made faculty more enthusiastic about a tech-enabled learning environment. As tech-enabled learning takes a stronger hold in the higher education space, it will be interesting to see how faculty implementation of belonging-related activities progresses and to what extent faculty will rely on technology to improve student belonging in the classroom.

Data breakdown:

• The more faculty felt positively about institutions offering an increasing number of fully online courses, the more they believed that tailoring instructional approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners was important to being an effective instructor (r = .4)
• The more faculty felt positively about institutions offering an increasing number of fully online programs, the more they believed that tailoring instructional approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners was important to being an effective instructor (r = .35)
• The more faculty felt positively about institutions offering an increasing number of hybrid courses (i.e., some online aspects and some in-person aspects of the same course), the more they believed that tailoring instructional approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners was important to being an effective instructor (r = .3)

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Conclusion

Our results revealed that the overwhelming majority of surveyed faculty believe that improving belonging and inclusion is key to being an effective instructor, and many also reported engaging in these behaviors. Likewise, many faculty reported receiving training on implementing inclusive practices in the classroom from their institutions. 

While we found that women faculty were more likely than men to take steps to increase students’ belonging and tailor their instructional approaches for diverse learners, the gender gap was relatively small, suggesting that with targeted institutional practices and policies, it could be diminished.

Lastly, faculty who felt positively about a tech-enabled learning future were also more likely to acknowledge the importance of improving belonging in the classroom.

Our findings suggest that higher education is moving in a belonging-centered direction. Both institutions and faculty appear invested in improving belonging, and enthusiasm toward tech-centered learning does not appear to dampen this interest in promoting student belonging.

Ongoing institutional support to faculty in improving belonging and inclusion in the classroom is vital as the higher education landscape continues to change. Currently, there appear to be minor gender differences, which can quickly become exaggerated if not addressed now. Undoubtedly, students benefit significantly from experiencing belonging through improved academic outcomes, enhanced psychological well-being, and more career prospects. However, to protect faculty from burnout and emotional exhaustion, institutions must offer structured support to faculty and ensure that the need to improve student belonging is not hurting the well-being of faculty. 

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