Exploring the Role of Sense of Belonging in STEM Education: Understanding the Impact of Gender, Ethnicity, and Intersectionality on Student Persistence, Engagement, and Academic Success

Abstract A sense of belonging is essential for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students to actively participate in their academic fields, leading to retention, engagement, and ultimately, academic success. However, some students, particularly women, ethnic minorities, and firstgeneration students, face limitations in their ability to fully engage and participate effectively. In this thesis, I consider students at various levels of education, how they conceptualise belonging in fields of STEM, what informs their experiences of belonging, and how the process of belonging is relational and evolves over time. This thesis employs a mixed-methods research design using a critical realist lens to consider depth and sensitivity of meaning of sense of belonging. This thesis examines the sense of belonging in STEM fields as a dynamic, relational, and socially constructed phenomenon and argues that this concept is not a permanent psychological state. Belonging is notably moderated by intersectional contexts of gender, ethnicity, social class, and academic standing, and significantly compounded by extrinsic conditions with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Female students identified emotional comfort, safety, and support as important. Non-binary students identified acceptance of differences, equal status in terms of expression, and the ability to express themselves freely as more important. First-generation students tend to be more aware of the implications of cultural fit, did not have significant role models whose behaviour they could imitate, and did not have the inside knowledge that would have bolstered their belonging. A-level students identified authenticity, independence and a level of public acknowledgement as being of high value. Undergraduate students generally focused on peer relationships and social networks. Graduate students, on the other hand, expected equality, mutual recognition, and respect from department/faculty/campus members. These results demonstrate the complex and dynamic processes that shape and enable the evolution of belonging within the context of a student's identity, self-status and educational journey. The common pattern across students' definitions of belonging reveals a shared desire for relational connectedness, psychological safety, cultural validation, and the conceptual frameworks of inclusive education. The study also identified four distinct phases of belonging, namely "adaptation", "integration", "continuum", and "transition", as well as five domains of belonging, namely social-relational, psychological, cultural, structural and online. In Chapter 4, a qualitative meta-ethnographic synthesis of existing studies closely examines how higher education students construct or define, how and whether they 'belong,' and how they experience belongingness within higher education. Chapter 5 includes an inductive thematic analysis utilising NVivo software, including a cohort of 313 A-level, undergraduate, and postgraduate STEM students studying Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry from three Russell Group universities in the UK. In Chapter 6, thirty A-level and first-year undergraduate STEM students from a Russell Group university in the UK were interviewed. The aim was to paint a broader picture by considering the barriers and experiences students faced in STEM before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 7 of this thesis employed structural equation modelling and multi-group structural analysis using survey data covering 290 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at three Russell Group universities in the UK. The relationships between multidimensional perceived social support, general self-efficacy, STEM interest, STEM belonging, stereotype vulnerability, and COVID-19 student stress were examined. In summary, the findings of the research show that the sense of belonging is multifaceted and is shaped by many contextual factors. Belonging is constructed by an individual's motivations (resilience and selfbelief) and social and cultural considerations (peer support, institutional inclusion, and student identities) as well as the structural inclusion offered by their institutions. The importance of these processes has increased as the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more evident that universities and policymakers need to address psychological, social-relational, online, structural and cultural barriers as a whole to promote belonging and inclusivity for students who are involved/active or want to be involved/active in STEM education fields.