Analyzing Students’ Lived Experiences of School Belonging and Its Role in the Formation of Academic and Social Identity
Keywords:
School belonging, Academic identity, Social identity, Lived experience, Students, Qualitative research, TehranAbstract
This study aimed to analyze students’ lived experiences of school belonging and explain its role in the formation of their academic and social identity. This qualitative study was conducted using an interpretive phenomenological approach. The participants consisted of 22 lower- and upper-secondary school students from Tehran, selected through purposive sampling with attention to gender, grade level, school type, and academic status. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and continued until theoretical saturation was reached. No substantially new meanings emerged after the twentieth interview, and two additional interviews were conducted to confirm saturation. After obtaining informed consent, the interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. Thematic analysis was employed through the stages of familiarization with the data, initial coding, theme generation, theme review, theme definition and naming, and interpretive synthesis. Data analysis led to the extraction of five main categories: “school as a space of acceptance and psychological safety,” “teacher–student and peer relationships as the core of belonging,” “school belonging and the reconstruction of academic identity,” “participation, visibility, and the formation of social identity,” and “disrupted belonging through exclusion, comparison, and voicelessness.” The findings indicated that school belonging is not merely a transient emotional experience; rather, it functions as an identity-forming mechanism shaped through acceptance, respect, meaningful participation, supportive feedback, relational recognition, and perceived influence in the school environment. Students who perceived themselves as valued members of the school reported a more coherent academic identity, more stable motivation, stronger educational self-belief, and more active social participation. School belonging plays a fundamental role in connecting students’ everyday school experiences with their self-understanding as learners and their social positioning within the school community. Strengthening supportive relationships, reducing exclusion and harmful comparison, increasing student participation in school decisions, and creating psychologically safe environments can contribute to the development of students’ academic and social identity.
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