The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities
Given its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students’ sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experime...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Southern Queensland
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Student Success |
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| Online Access: | https://studentsuccessjournal.org/index.php/studentsuccess/article/view/3667 |
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| author | David Gilani Daniel McArthur Liz Thomas |
| author_facet | David Gilani Daniel McArthur Liz Thomas |
| author_sort | David Gilani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Given its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students’ sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experimental approach by evaluating the impact of a newly developed agentic belonging workshop at two English universities. One hundred and one first-year undergraduate students attended either this belonging workshop (36), a control study-skills workshop (27), or they attended neither workshop (38). Findings show that the agentic workshop led to significantly higher self-reported scores in understanding of belonging amongst attendees compared to non-attendees. Whilst changes in students’ sense of belonging was not significantly different across workshop groups, belonging workshop attendees were significantly more likely to continue into the second year of study compared to both control groups. This study contributes promising findings for how social belonging interventions can be taken forward within the higher education context in the United Kingdom. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9dc7fbe852db451fbf6a4d6cdaded304 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2205-0795 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Southern Queensland |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Student Success |
| spelling | doaj-art-9dc7fbe852db451fbf6a4d6cdaded3042025-08-20T03:15:48ZengUniversity of Southern QueenslandStudent Success2205-07952024-12-01161617310.5204/ssj.36673990The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English UniversitiesDavid Gilani0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1099-7118Daniel McArthur1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7310-9897Liz Thomas2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2101-0067Middlesex UniversityUniversity of YorkUniversity of YorkGiven its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students’ sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experimental approach by evaluating the impact of a newly developed agentic belonging workshop at two English universities. One hundred and one first-year undergraduate students attended either this belonging workshop (36), a control study-skills workshop (27), or they attended neither workshop (38). Findings show that the agentic workshop led to significantly higher self-reported scores in understanding of belonging amongst attendees compared to non-attendees. Whilst changes in students’ sense of belonging was not significantly different across workshop groups, belonging workshop attendees were significantly more likely to continue into the second year of study compared to both control groups. This study contributes promising findings for how social belonging interventions can be taken forward within the higher education context in the United Kingdom.https://studentsuccessjournal.org/index.php/studentsuccess/article/view/3667student belongingstudent agencyimpact evaluationagentic belonging |
| spellingShingle | David Gilani Daniel McArthur Liz Thomas The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities Student Success student belonging student agency impact evaluation agentic belonging |
| title | The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities |
| title_full | The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities |
| title_fullStr | The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities |
| title_short | The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities |
| title_sort | agentic belonging workshop a quasi experimental evaluation of a social belonging intervention in two english universities |
| topic | student belonging student agency impact evaluation agentic belonging |
| url | https://studentsuccessjournal.org/index.php/studentsuccess/article/view/3667 |
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