Belonging at scale: A history of RMIT’s Belonging Project
Breakout room #1
A/Prof Rachel Wilson and Dr Lucy Morieson, RMIT University
At a time when governments regulate to ensure an increased number of under-represented Australians participate in higher education, the concept of belonging continues to offer a powerful framework for narrativising many aspects of the student experience.
In 2011, academics in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT began a longitudinal learning and teaching research project to develop a new approach to student engagement. From 2011-2015, the Belonging Project, through the support of HEPPP and L&T Innovation funds, developed a 3-year Narrative Model of Student Engagement. It embedded the acquisition of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and global competencies through a three-tiered approach, mapped to the undergraduate student lifecycle.
In 2017, the team was asked to scale the project across the whole institution. This iteration of the project relied heavily on Strayhorn (2012) and Baumeister and Leary’s (1995) definitions of student belonging – a sense of mattering and interpersonal connectedness, a basic human need that enhances motivation and drives behaviour. In developing the five Drivers of RMIT Belonging the project surveyed over 2700 students. To build the case for curriculum based belonging we utilised the techniques of co-design, evaluation, reflection and iteration, eventually leading to research outcomes for peer participants. A range of SoTL methods such as, facilitated workshops, web resources, best practice case studies, teaching awards, conference papers and publications were used to activate belonging across the disciplines, into interdisciplinary contexts and within policy across the institution.
In this paper we trace the history of the belonging project at RMIT from nascent idea pitched at a localised leadership retreat, its heyday as a formal university strategy, to its current uncertain future. We will discuss the highs, the lows and what we plan next. This research will be of interest to those with responsibilities for policy development, and for academics fostering belonging to promote inclusive engagement in their classrooms.