Facilitating students’ school belonging is important as it not only promotes better student academic motivation and achievement, but also fosters greater student psychological functioning, including better life satisfaction, mental health, and less emotional distress, that eventually benefits schools and society more generally. Teachers interact with their students on a daily basis, thus have substantial impact on their students’ development of school belonging. The current study adopts the multilevel perspective, investigating the influences of teachers’ instructional support (i.e., cognitive activation and clarity of instruction) and emotional support (i.e., enthusiasm and care) on their students’ school belonging. The data included 882 secondary students in Hong Kong and their 114 teachers. Results from multilevel modeling suggested that, at the between-level (class-level), greater teacher instructional support (clarity of instruction) was associated with greater class school belonging. At the within-person level (student-level), perceiving greater emotioanl support from teachers (teacher caring) was associated with individual student’s school belonging. Moreover, teachers who reported greater job satisfaction than others reported providing greater instructional support to their students. Full mediation was observed with clarity of instruction mediating the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and their class’s school belonging. Results from the present study underscore the importance of teacher job satisfaction and instructional support in promoting the whole class’s school belonging and the importance of teacher care in promoting each individual student’s school belonging.

Authors:
Hui Wang, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Wang Hui is an assistant professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on teachers’ motivation, emotions, and rentention, and innovation.

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