An investigation into sense of belonging at French lower secondary schools

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An investigation into sense of belonging at French lower secondary schools

Amaro de Paula, Diogo; (2023) An investigation into sense of belonging at French lower secondary schools. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

This thesis investigates sense of belonging at school among French lower secondary students, which previous literature has shown to be importantly connected to a student’s wellbeing, academic performance, life satisfaction and happiness. Conceptually, this work proposes a definition of sense of belonging at school that complements existing literature with a phenomenographic analysis of 33 qualitatitive interviews where students discuss their own understanding of belongingness. Following the phenomenographic tradition, three complementary ways in which students make sense of belongingness were identified: wellbeing, friendships and school identity (‘belonging’ expressed primarily in opposition to at least one other school). Empirically, by using a mixed methodology that includes, in addition to the interviews, a series of regression analyses of the 2018 PISA dataset, this work explores and describes the relationships between sense of belonging at school and various student characteristics such as gender, immigration, socioeconomic background and individual and collective identities, inclunding ethnicity, which are rarely part of French sociological research. Furthermore, the study discusses limitations in statistical analyses to capture the complexity of students’ identities, while addressing such limits with qualitative evidence. The work establishes that the main drivers of sense of belonging at French schools are wellbeing and academic performance, which also mediate the interactions between gender, immigration and socioeconomic background and ‘belongingness’. It also determines that there is a strong impact of school context in defining how students develop their sense of belonging.

Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification:	Ph.D
Title:	An investigation into sense of belonging at French lower secondary schools
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language:	English
Additional information:	Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request.
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171443