“You don't necessarily feel like you belong there”: Understanding belonging and social connectedness among engineering students in South Africa

“You don't necessarily feel like you belong there”: Understanding belonging and social connectedness among engineering students in South Africa

“You don't necessarily feel like you belong there”: Understanding belonging and social connectedness among engineering students in South Africa (#818)

Wandile Tsabedze ¹ , Curwyn Mapaling ² , Paul Webb ² , Belinda Du Plooy ³

Psychology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, GAUTENG, South Africa
Faculty of Education, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Engagement Office, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Background

This presentation uses Ebersöhn’s Flocking theory (Ebersöhn, 2019) as an indigenous, Afrocentric, relationship-resourced resilience theory. Flocking draws on the African principles of collectivism and reciprocity-of-care underlying the Ubuntu concept to demonstrate indigenous resilience in the face of adversity.

Aims

This presentation aims to answer the following research question, ‘how can a sense of belonging and social connectedness help explain the increased academic resilience of engineering students at Nelson Mandela University?’.

Method

This presentation describes the findings of a recent exploratory mixed-method doctoral case study about academic resilience among engineering students, conducted at one South African university, Nelson Mandela University. In applying a mixed-methods research approach, this study diverged from more traditional, exclusively quantitative, studies of resilience. In applying both quantitative instruments to measure academic resilience and semi-structured interviews with students and university staff about their perceptions of resilience, much richer data generation and deeper insights about resilience were possible. This article will specifically report on the qualitative interview data generated during one component of the broader study.

Results

It was found that social connections and strong relationships built between students and their families, peers, lecturers, and support staff were key resources in achieving academic resilience for engineering students at Nelson Mandela University. Engineering students provided comfort and support to one another as they sought a sense of belonging and connection after experiencing similar social and academic challenges. In addition, the healthy working relationships built between students and staff further helped students to achieve academic resilience.

Conclusion

When comparing student and staff perceptions about student resilience, it emerged that there is a discrepancy between how staff and students perceive academic resilience. This was an unexpected finding and needs further investigation in future studies. Even though this study focussed on student academic resilience, it emerged that the wellbeing of university staff has an impact on student resilience. This also needs further investigation in future studies.