Students’ and student teachers’ sense of belonging to science: What do we know so far?

Abstract

Forming a sense of belonging to others is a fundamental need of humans as social beings (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Meeting this fundamental need crucially influences individuals’ intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and identity development (Wenger, 1999). Given this, a growing number of studies have investigated the extent to which university students’ success and wellbeing in science education is related to their sense of belonging to science. This research has brought greater clarity to university students’ development in science education; however, numerous aspects of university students’ sense of belonging to science remain understudied. In particular, there has been insufficient research on how sense of belonging to science might moderate or influence initial science teacher education. Therefore, this editorial aims to provide an overview of the major research findings that address students’ and student teachers’ sense of belonging to science and to inspire future research in science (teacher) education.