Sense of belonging is a fundamental human need and driver of human behavior. A large corpus of literature explores the antecedents and benefits of increased sense of belonging for students in K-12 contexts. However, scant research has examined the antecedents of belonging for K-12 teachers. Drawing on interview data from 39 teachers in one school district, this study explores experiences that foster school sense of belonging in teachers new to the district. We found five overarching themes related to enhancing teacher belonging: (1) collegial support, (2) leadership support and trust, (3) feeling valued and heard, (4) collaboration, and (5) socializing and creating friendships with colleagues. This paper offers insights for school leadership and new avenues for future research.
belongingelementary schoolqualitative researchsense of belonging at workteachersThe author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.section-at-acceptancePsychology in EducationIntroduction
Sense of belonging is a fundamental human need and one of the strongest drivers of human behavior (Allen, 2020; Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Leary and Allen, 2011). Over the past decades, research has shown that a sense of belonging to groups and connections to others facilitate physical and mental well-being (e.g., Allen, 2020; Allen and Bowles, 2012; Haslam et al., 2009). Similarly, a host of research in K-12 and higher education contexts has showcased the antecedents and myriad benefits of sense of belonging for students (e.g., Allen et al., 2021; Allen and Bowles, 2012; Goodenow, 1993). Student sense of belonging has been associated with positive academic outcomes (Allen, 2020) and improved mental health (Boyd et al., 2023). Despite the known benefits associated with sense of belonging in K-12 schools, few studies have explored sense of belonging in teachers in these contexts (e.g., Bjorklund, 2023; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011, 2019). As such this paper has two purposes: (1) to explore how teachers in their first 5 years in a new district experience sense of belonging and (2) to continue to build a base of knowledge to understand teacher sense of belonging and how districts can harness it to facilitate teacher well-being.
Helping people foster a sense of belonging is of paramount importance in the current moment to combat what the surgeon general and other scholars have deemed an epidemic of loneliness in the United States and other countries (Cacioppo et al., 2015; Holt-Lunstad, 2022; Murthy, 2017). Additionally, teachers are facing unprecedented stress and some of the lowest levels of job satisfaction in the past 50 years (Diliberti et al., 2021; Kraft and Lyon, 2022; Merrimack, 2023). Increased political vitriol, culture wars being fought in classrooms, and living through a pandemic have wreaked havoc on the teaching profession, impacting the well-being of teachers and forcing many to leave the classroom (Carver-Thomas et al., 2021; Diliberti and Schwartz, 2022; Woo et al., 2022). More pointedly, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona (2023) recently stated that teachers face an “intentional toxic disrespect” in many parts of the country. As a result of these trying times, teachers are leaving the profession at high rates, and school districts in many states are having difficulty finding teachers to fill their staffing needs (Carver-Thomas et al., 2021; Kraft and Lyon, 2022). These challenges negatively impact all teachers. However, they disproportionately affect teachers new to a school district and early career teachers who often leave the profession at higher rates than their more senior colleagues (Diliberti et al., 2021; Ingersoll et al., 2018).
These difficult times have underscored the importance of drawing on relationships and feelings of belonging to bolster teachers’ well-being (Daly et al., 2020; Walls and Louis, 2023). A sense of belonging has been shown to allay feelings of uncertainty, doubt, and anxiety (Guibernau, 2013). Literature on belonging in higher education contexts has shown that sense of belonging can be a protective factor for marginalized students, supporting student persistence in the face of challenges (Allen et al., 2024). Additionally, sense of belonging can influence student engagement in academic pathways and persistence in those pathways (Murphy and Zirkel, 2015; Rainey et al., 2019). In K-12 contexts, when students feel a stronger sense of belonging, they are more secure in themselves and more motivated (Hamm and Faircloth, 2005; O’Neel and Fuligni, 2013). Given what we know about belonging in K-12 and higher education contexts, we argue that fostering a sense of belonging in teachers can serve as a protective factor to help teachers address the challenges they face, mitigate negative feelings, and bolster resilience—especially for teachers who are new to the district and/or new to the teaching profession (Allen, 2020; Day and Gu, 2010).
Additionally, teacher sense of belonging can benefit the entire school community—when people feel like they belong to a place or group, they are more likely to care about others in that group and their outcomes. Put more succinctly, teachers who feel like they belong may be more invested in the success of their colleagues and their students (Allen, 2020). Despite the possible benefits, little research has explored sense of belonging in teachers. A recent scoping review exploring belonging in early career teachers noted that “only one study [in the review] (Bjorklund, 2023) investigated the construct of teacher belonging directly.” (Melzak et al., 2025, p. 6). Our study aims to add to this small body of literature by directly exploring teachers’ sense of belonging to their school.
Our study was guided by the research question: What experiences enhance teachers’ sense of belonging to their school? To answer this question, we invited 92 teachers in a single school district in California to participate in interviews. Ultimately, we interviewed 39 teachers in their first 5 years of teaching in the district. During the interviews, these teachers shared experiences that enhanced their belonging at their school, and we report the results in the paper below. This paper adds to the current literature in three distinct ways: (1) it extends the literature on teacher belonging by exploring teachers new to the district as opposed to only exploring first-year teachers (e.g., Bjorklund, 2023). (2) Some existing studies on teacher belonging have been quantitative (e.g., Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011, 2019). This qualitative study adds texture and nuance to the experiences of teacher belonging in ways that quantitative studies cannot. As such, it will help to build a foundation of research to help understand how teachers experience belonging. (3) This study will expand our understanding of the ways that sense of belonging contributes to the work of teachers.
Literature reviewSense of belonging
We define sense of belonging as involving three interrelated components: (1) valued involvement, or the experience of feeling valued, needed, and accepted; (2) fit, or a person’s perception that his or her characteristics articulate with or complement the system or environment (Hagerty et al., 1992), and (3) a sense of feeling at home and a sense of ease with the social and cultural context of a place (Antonsich, 2010; May, 2013). Citing hooks (2009) and Antonsich (2010) notes that by the notion of “home” we are referring to “a symbolic space of familiarity, comfort, security, and emotional attachment” (p. 646). We feel the third component of the definition is essential for understanding teacher sense of belonging as feelings of safety, comfort, and ease in their school contexts are integral to fostering well-being and giving teachers the space to grow professionally.
The benefits of sense of belonging, in general, are manifold and well-documented. As mentioned above, belonging is a fundamental need and core driver of human action (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). Moreover, the absence of belonging can have deleterious psychological and physical effects (Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Mellor et al., 2008). Calhoun (2003) notes, “people are necessarily situated in particular webs of belonging” (p. 535). Thus, belonging is part of being human and central to people’s sense of self and general well-being (Allen, 2020; May, 2013). Sense of belonging contributes to people’s sense of purpose and meaning in life and provides them a place where they feel like they matter (Guibernau, 2013; Haslam et al., 2009; Lambert et al., 2013). Miller (2003) describes the notion of belonging as personal and relational, noting that belonging is,
… expressing a sense of accord with the various physical and social contexts in which our lives are lived out. Belonging is to be in accordance with who we are in ourselves as well as who we are in-the-world. (p. 220).
As such, belonging can serve as an antidote to loneliness and alienation (Guibernau, 2013; Mellor et al., 2008). When people feel a sense of belonging to a place or community, they become more invested in the outcomes and the collective well-being of its members (Allen, 2020; May, 2013). In this respect, a sense of belonging not only benefits individuals but can also be an asset to organizations such as schools.
Belonging is inherently relational—it is about the feelings of connection people have with each other (May, 2011). In school contexts, when teachers feel connected to their colleagues, they are more likely to feel like they belong at their school (Bjorklund, 2023; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2019). Belonging is also central to identity (Antonsich, 2010; May, 2013), contributing to our understanding of who we are even though we may not be consciously aware of it (Miller, 2003). As such, teachers’ sense of belonging to their school will likely impact how they teach and interact with the school community (Allen, 2020).
Teacher sense of belonging
Teacher sense of belonging matters because it is positively related to student sense of belonging (Allen, 2020). Moreover, sense of belonging can help teachers cope with challenges and decrease the likelihood of leaving the profession (Allen, 2020; Gu and Day, 2007). Put another way, a sense of belonging offers a path for sustaining teachers and helping them thrive (Clandinin et al., 2015). Clandinin et al. (2015) underscored the role of relationships with “individuals and groups in schools” for enhancing belonging in early career teachers (p. 7). Other research found that when teachers feel supported by their colleagues and administration, they feel an increased sense of belonging (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2019). An earlier study found that teacher sense of belonging was related to increased commitment and reduced burnout (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011).
Similarly, studies have found that feelings of value consonance were positively related to teachers’ sense of belonging (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011, 2019). Pesonen et al. (2021) examined sense of belonging in co-teaching arrangements. They found that planning together, contributing to the class through division of work, and feelings of shared responsibility enhanced feelings of belonging. Flushman et al. (2021) examined how participation in a new teacher learning community (NTLC) fostered a sense of belonging. Teachers in the NTLC reported an increased sense of belonging via shared experiences with peers, increased connection with peers, and feeling cared for by peers and leaders. The NTLC gave these teachers a space to belong in the broader district, which enhanced their overall sense of belonging (Flushman et al., 2021).
Similarly, a recent study by Bjorklund (2023) explored how first-year teachers experience belonging at their schools. He interviewed first-year teachers at the beginning and the end of the school year. He found that new teachers often struggled with belonging because they were new to the school, so they vacillated between feeling like they were a part of the school and feeling like their first-year teacher status put them on the periphery of the community. First-year teachers found belonging through value consonance (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011) or the idea that they shared similar values with their colleagues or with the mission of the school more broadly (Bjorklund, 2023). Additionally, new teachers in this study felt increased belonging when they felt like they contributed to their school or colleagues and when they felt like they were recognized by their colleagues. Additionally, supportive others in the school were integral for first-year teachers’ sense of belonging as was the ability to participate in their school community outside of the classroom (Bjorklund, 2023). Uniformly, the teachers in this study expressed that feeling a sense of belonging to their school made them feel a stronger connection to the school community, strengthening their teacher identities. Similarly, a study by Skogheim (2023) underscored the importance of collaboration and contribution to fostering teacher belonging.
More recently, a scoping review of sense of belonging on early career teachers (Melzak et al., 2025) found several themes related to sense of belonging: peer collaboration, relationships with colleagues that are open and trusting and offer space to share ideas, feelings of doubt on about their career, and involvement in decision making. They also highlight the notion that these themes were interconnected and “deeply interwoven” (Melzak et al., 2025, p. 12). Additionally, Allen et al. (2025) explored what it meant for Australian teachers to feel a sense of belonging to the profession and found five key factors that fostered belonging to the profession: interpersonal relationships, support and collaboration, institutional factors like positive school environment, motivators like feeling appreciated, and professional and personal growth. Moreover, recent work has shown the outsized effects that school leadership and school structures can have on teachers sense of belonging (Karnopp and Bjorklund, 2025, 2026) These studies showcase the importance of sense of belonging for teachers both to the school and to the profession more broadly.
We argue that fostering belonging in teachers is important for five reasons: (1) it can enhance teacher well-being and sense of job satisfaction, and (2) it serves as a protective factor against struggles faced in the classroom and negativity from outside actors—both of these benefits can reduce teacher attrition. (3) A strong sense of belonging allows teachers to feel safe and to grow their practice by taking pedagogical risks and innovating in the classroom. It gives them a sense of security from which they can step out of their comfort zone and try new things (Allen et al., 2025). (4) When teachers feel like they belong to the school, they will have a deeper commitment to their colleagues and students (Samuel, 2022). Lastly, (5) sense of belonging is inextricably linked with identity (Antonsich, 2010; Guibernau, 2013; May, 2013). As Antonsich (2010) aptly notes, “...the question ‘Who am I?’ cannot be isolated for the other question ‘Where do I belong?’” (p. 646). As such, a deeper understanding of teachers’ sense of belonging could provide a window into how to build teacher identity and help teachers discover who they are. Despite these benefits, only a small body of research has explored how teachers experience belonging—this paper aims to extend this literature.
Methods
We conducted a qualitative study in an urban fringe school district in California. We initially connected with the district leadership based on a shared interest in teacher well-being and began a research practice partnership (RPP) with them. After discussion with district leadership about their aims and goals, we decided to start the RPP with a qualitative exploration of teacher well-being for those teachers who were in their first 5 years in the district. The school district then gave us a list the names and emails of teachers who had worked in the school district for 5 years or less (N = 92).
We invited, via email, all 92 teachers on the list to participate. Of the 92 teachers, 39 (42%) responded to our email invitation and participated in semi-structured interviews via Zoom with one of the two lead researchers between February and May of 2023. The average age of our participants was 37 years old. On average, these educators had 7 years of teaching experience and had been at their school site for an average of 3 years. In terms of gender, 92% of participants identified as female and 8% as male. Regarding ethno-racial identity, 77% of participants identified as White, 13% identified as Hispanic/Latina, 8% identified as biracial, and 3% identified as Asian/Pacific Islander.
The interview protocol was created in collaboration with district leadership as part of our RPP. Our protocol explored sense of belonging, staff relationships, and teacher flourishing. We grounded our initial interview protocol in prior scholarship and our own prior work on each of the different topics. We then shared our protocol with district leadership and made additions and modifications based on their feedback. All interviews lasted between 20 and 50 min with an average interview lasting slightly over 33 min (M = 33.21 min). All interviews were audio recorded after receiving consent from participants. All participants received a $10 gift card for their participation. Once interviews were completed, they were anonymized and transcribed full verbatim and uploaded to MAXQDA 2022. With this software, we analyzed the interviews, coding segments, and identifying themes. We utilized a two-cycle coding process (Saldaña, 2016). In the first cycle, we independently used an open coding process to find recurring themes in a set of interview data. We then met, reviewed our codes and coding memos, and refined code definitions to increase alignment between researchers. We then conducted a second round of coding on independent sets of data using the revised codes and met to discuss the overarching patterns and develop broader themes (Saldaña, 2016). Finally, we extracted coded excerpts and wrote thematic memos to explore and make sense of our data.
Findings
We asked participants to rate their sense of belonging at their school on a scale of 1–10, where 10 meant they felt at home and completely like they belonged, and 1 meant they did not feel like they belonged at all. In an effort to help participants respond to this question, we asked them to define what it means to belong at their school prior to asking them to rate their belonging at their school. Thirty-eight of our 39 participants answered this question, and the average response was 8.16. Figure 1 below shows the distribution of the answers. Of our respondents, 71% (27/38) rated their sense of belonging at their school as an eight or above. Aside from asking participants to rate their sense of belonging and explain why they gave the rating that they did, we also asked them, “Can you describe an experience that strengthened your feelings of belonging at your school? Based on their responses, we found five overarching themes in our data: (1) Collegial support: emotional, pedagogical, and loyalty; (2) Leadership support and Trust; (3) Feeling valued/Heard; (4) Collaboration; and (5) Socialization and friendships with colleagues. We detail these themes and highlight data from respondents below.
On a scale of 1–10, how would you rate your sense of belonging at the school?
Bar chart illustrating the distribution of sense of belonging scores for a sample size of thirty-eight, with scores clustered near eight and ten, showing highest frequencies of eleven and nine respectively.Collegial support
We found that collegial support was a common answer amongst participants when asked to describe experiences that enhanced belonging. Of our participants, 35 out of 39 (90%) described an experience or experiences where they felt supported by their colleagues. Collegial support was expressed in different ways (e.g., emotional or pedagogical support). However, regardless of its form, it made participants feel cared for and feel like they were part of the community. In general, participants who felt supported by their colleagues felt an increased sense of belonging. These findings support prior research that had similar findings (Bjorklund, 2023; Flushman et al., 2021; Melzak et al., 2025). One participant talked about coming to the school and being placed with a well-established grade team. Despite their well-established relationships, they let her into the group and gave her what she needed to succeed. She also talks explicitly about her mentor teacher giving her mentorship support to succeed. When asked to describe why she feels like she belongs at her school, she said:
I think I would say just my [grade] team. We’re more like a big family. And when I first started here, a lot of them had already been here for many years and they were a tight-knit family, but they definitely welcomed me with open arms.and they are like, “We’re here for you.” And they were definitely very supportive. My mentor teacher, when I went through my student teacher program, she is now my coworker, and she really guided me through my first few months of teaching. So I learned a lot from her. And that’s when I really felt a sense of belonging because she encouraged me, she mentored me, and she really helped me throughout the process.
She notes that the team and her mentor teacher accepting her and giving her the support she needed enhanced her belonging at the school. She knew there were colleagues she could turn to who were there for her and who cared about her (Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025). Similarly, another teacher describing her grade team said: We all love this job, so the culture here is great. You get really, really close with people. You depend on each other. Everything that we do depends on each other, and I feel like we work super well together. The notion that she could depend on support from her team and that they could depend on support from her made her feel a sense of belonging. Moreover, feeling like she was part of the team and her colleagues depended on her made her feel belonging. This indicates that some participants’ sense of belonging comes not only from feeling supported by colleagues but also from feeling like they could support their colleagues and were part of a team. This finding supports past literature that highlights not just the importance of feeling supported but also the ability to contribute as integral to fostering teacher belonging (Allen et al., 2025; Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025; Skogheim, 2023).
Similarly, participants often mentioned how communicative and open their grade team was regarding sharing materials or helping them learn the ropes at the school. Many also mentioned times when they were supported to try new things and share the work they were doing in the classroom. Being asked to share their own work and the fact that others openly shared what they were doing in their classroom created an atmosphere of safety that helped enhance feelings of belonging (Antonsich, 2010). One teacher described an experience like this:
I think being allowed to like, I think never feeling like you have to do something a certain way. Like, whoa, that worked for you. Like, could you come share with us? Like, tell us why it was successful. I feel like there’s always these opportunities to share. Ah, okay. And it’s super safe, you know, like nobody’s, there’s nobody that’s like trying to show off [nobody] that’s trying to like say “I did that.”. I feel like there’ll be something shared and you do not even know who it came from cuz they do not really care.
This teacher described an environment where teachers readily shared what they were doing in their classrooms and were open to learn new practices in their classroom. She described a type of “egolessness” where people were open and honest in their practice about what worked and what did not. No teachers felt the need to take credit for the work; they just cared about what worked for students and did not care about taking credit for it. This type of environment in her grade team fostered belonging in this teacher. These findings support prior literature that underscores how supportive relationships facilitate feelings of belonging in teachers (Bjorklund, 2023; Clandinin et al., 2015; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2019; Skogheim, 2023).
Leadership support and trust
When we asked teachers to describe an experience that strengthened their feelings of belonging or why they felt a sense of belonging at their school, 32 of 39 participants mentioned experiencing support and trust from their school or district leadership. Notably, in almost every instance, the concept of trust came through as central when describing the support they received from school principals. Feeling trusted as a professional by their school leader fostered feelings of autonomy and belonging among these new educators. One teacher put it succinctly stating: “...I think my first [experience of] sense of belonging was [connected to] our principal because he just really lets me have autonomy and he trusts his teachers and builds them up.” Similarly, when going into more detail about how her principal fostered her sense of belonging another educator stated “...I feel like she has a level of trust in me and that makes me feel good and confident about doing my job.” Trust from school leadership translated into confidence in her work. The sense that these educators were treated as trusted professionals helped them to feel a sense of belonging to their school. Others noted that the trust principals had in them gave them a sense of autonomy and made them better teachers because they could be creative and try new things.
But overall, I feel a lot of support from the principal too, just in the fact that I feel more trusted here than I have at a lot of other districts or sites, even. And that feels really good. That trust allows me to have autonomy and get more creative with the things I do, which makes my job more enjoyable, which I’m sure in turn makes the kids happier.
Similarly, when teachers felt like their principal trusted them, they knew that they would be supported if something went wrong, or a lesson did not go as planned. They felt safe taking risks, and that gave them a sense of belonging and security at the school. One teacher, in describing what makes her feel a sense of belonging at her school said:
I think a really big one is feeling like you are going to be backed when inevitably something goes wrong, like you say the wrong thing to a kid. I mean, you are talking for five hours, all day, every day. Inevitably, someone will be upset by something in the classroom, whether it be on accident or whatever, just a misconnection between what your intent was, whatever. But feeling like I’m going to get support and be backed from the principal is huge in feeling like I belong here because then it feels like they are giving me credit to the parents. And regardless of whether or not we make mistakes in our job, which we do, I know that I’ll be supported by not only staff, but the principal, which I think is just a huge part of making you feel comfortable as a teacher, especially a new teacher in a community where it’s like, I do not have a background here. I’m new to a lot of these parents. And so yeah, I think having the support from [the principal] translates to support from parents translates to feeling like you belong in the system.
This teacher valued the principal’s support for reassurance and because she felt that when the principal supported her, so did the parents. This fostered her sense of belonging at her new school site. Rather than feeling she was under a microscope, she felt like she could be authentic, and even if she made a mistake, she knew the principal would support her. In this manner, school principals were cited by many as being particularly important to the development of a sense of belonging. This was particularly true when the principal’s support came during an episode of uncertainty (e.g., evaluation meeting, conflict with a colleague or parent). The theme across these excerpts echoes Antonsich’s (2010) notion of belonging as feeling at home—“a symbolic space of familiarity, comfort, security, and emotional attachment” (p. 646). Support and trust from the principal offered teachers a feeling of safety and comfort in their school (Melzak et al., 2025). It offered them a sense of security in their abilities, and the knowledge that they could take pedagogical risks and make mistakes—this sense of safety and comfort strengthened participants’ sense of belonging. These findings echo prior research showing how integral school principals can be to facilitating teacher sense of belonging (Karnopp and Bjorklund, 2025).
Feeling valued and heard
Feeling valued by a community is a core component of feeling a sense of belonging to that community (Hagerty et al., 1992; Mahar et al., 2013). Of our participants, 26 of 39 described experiences where they felt valued at the school and that their voice was heard. Feeling valued and feeling heard by your colleagues has been found to be related to feelings of belonging for new teachers (Bjorklund, 2023; Skogheim, 2023). When teachers feel like they matter and like their contributions are valued by members of the school community, that can increase their feelings of belonging (Allen et al., 2025; Bjorklund, 2023; Flushman et al., 2021; Skogheim, 2023). Like trust from the principal, feeling valued and heard made teachers feel a sense of safety (Antonsich, 2010) and that they could take risks and try new things in their classrooms to improve their teaching because their colleagues and others in the school viewed them as professionals. One teacher highlighted the sense of freedom and empowerment she felt because she was valued.
I feel like I’m super supported and valued as someone in education, which has been super helpful. it helps me try to be a better teacher as well, because I feel like I’m able to test the waters with my teaching, and if it does not work, it’s okay. It’s not like, “I can’t believe you did that,” which is cool. And then I’ve seen my students grow, because I’m like, “It’s okay, I try things and I make mistakes as well.” I feel like the classroom community is better, and kind of safer to try out new things.
Feeling valued and feeling a sense of belonging made this teacher feel like her classroom was a safe place for her to try new things. Some teachers described how colleagues made them feel valued by simply asking for their opinion. When asked to describe a specific experience that strengthened her feelings of belonging, one teacher said:
I think maybe just early on when I felt. I definitely felt like my colleagues valued me as a resource and an expert. And at the time I’m thinking, “I’m new, I don’t know anything.” But that definitely made me feel like, okay, they need me. I need them, they are looking to me for answers, and I definitely feel like I’m of value, again, giving that value. But then I’ve definitely felt that I belonged here as I scrambled to give answers. But it was empowering, I guess, to feel like they came to me and I did feel like I had answers to help some of these teachers who had been here for 20 years. And I was literally so new. So, I definitely felt like I was respected and that I had value.
By asking the opinion of this new teacher, her colleagues made her feel like she was a contributing member of the team. Sometimes, new teachers are not given a voice when veteran teachers are in the room, which can hamper feelings of belonging (Bjorklund, 2023). The fact that the teachers at her site genuinely were interested in this teacher’s opinion, even though she was new, made her feel like she was valued and, in her words, it made her feel empowered.
Having their voices heard and hard work recognized helped these educators feel valued as professionals. Public recognition of a job well done was another way participants felt valued. One teacher, describing her principal’s practice of highlighting good work, stated, “And I think maybe him taking pictures of like what I’m doing in my classroom, posting it for the weekly newsletter, I think that’s his subtle way being like, I know you work hard, you’re not in an imposter.” Another teacher talked about how being recognized, “called out” in her words, at a professional development for her work with a student made her feel a stronger sense of belonging:
I’m just thinking, last week we had a professional development and just I was called out for a certain something that just showed that, and she paired me with another teacher, an enrichment teacher, something that we had collaborated on to help one of my students feel more included. Yeah. I just felt like in the whole group setting, she chose to choose both of us to use that example. And used a specific example of something that we had done to help support a student.
This experience made her feel valued and like her work was positive and contributed to the school. This finding also supports past research showing that school structures like professional development time can play important roles in fostering teacher belonging (Karnopp and Bjorklund, 2026). Other participants talked about how having a voice in the school, despite being new, made them feel a sense of belonging. When discussing experiences that strengthened their belonging at the school one teacher said: “being inducted into decision-making processes for the school, a team member. Yeah. That your opinion is counted even though you’re new here.” This educator appreciated the opportunity to be included in decision-making despite being new. For her, being included was evidence that she was valued as someone who could make important contributions to the school. Contribution and recognition are also central to increasing feelings of efficacy and competence, which have a reciprocal relationship with belonging—belonging emerges through feelings of competence (Allen et al., 2021; Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025), and feelings of belonging facilitate competence and efficacy (Allen et al., 2021). When participants felt valued and heard, their sense of competence was reaffirmed, and it enhanced their sense of belonging at their school.
Collaboration
Many participants (22 out of 39) noted that collaboration often fostered feelings of belonging. Past research has found that collaboration fosters teacher sense of belonging, especially when teachers feel like they can contribute to the group during that collaboration (Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025; Pesonen et al., 2021; Skogheim, 2023). For participants, collaboration often fostered feelings of comfort and openness with colleagues. Collaboration for this participant meant that colleagues were open to new ideas, and she could have her voice heard.
And on top of that, I think a lot of the teachers are pretty positive about new ideas too. And so I have not worked on a team yet where I was frustrated by the fact that they were not taking my opinion into account. Everyone, I feel like, is really open to new ideas and really open to collaboration, and I really think it comes down to doing what’s best for kids too. And that’s pretty evident here from top down.
It was common for participants who mentioned collaboration as something that strengthened belonging to express that part of this experience was feeling like they are part of a team and that their voice was heard. Moreover, collaboration meant they were not on their own. One participant said, “...for me to belong, I have to feel...that I’m not just doing everything by myself, maybe, so that I have a team to collaborate with.” When asked about experiences that strengthened her feelings of belonging, another teacher mentioned that the time allotted to her by the school for her grade team to collaborate and prepare together. She felt like planning together fostered happiness in teachers at her school.
So every week we have two hours of prep time and my team spends it all together. We all sit and plan and actually prep and plan together, which I think makes a big difference. A lot of other teams, they are all of their own classrooms, but the ones that do plan together seem to be the happiest.
Prior research indicates that collaboration fosters teacher sense of belonging, especially when teachers feel like they can contribute to the group and feel like part of the team (Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025; Pesonen et al., 2021). Teachers in our sample felt like collaboration was a core contributor to their sense of belonging—it allowed them to feel like they were on a team and were not alone. In this way, collaboration fostered feelings of belonging.
Socializing and friendships with colleagues
Having friendships at work is important as it creates a sense of belonging, increases engagement, and reduces attrition—this is also true for teachers (Bjorklund, 2023; Karnopp and Bjorklund, 2022, 2026; Melzak et al., 2025). Moreover, positive relationships—sometimes called high-quality connections—at work can create a more positive working environment and lead to a host of organizational and individual benefits (e.g., Baker and Dutton, 2007; Stephens et al., 2012). One teacher highlighted this notion when he described his relationships with his colleagues.
People are friends outside of work, that helps. We try to try to liven things up outside of work and make sure that we are not just colleagues but actually friends too. And I think that leads to a really good work dynamic as well.
Of the teachers we interviewed, 22 of 39 (56%) discussed times when they were able to socialize with their colleagues as experiences that strengthened their belonging. These experiences ranged from having informal time to talk before a professional development or a staff meeting to actively going to trivia nights or happy hours with colleagues outside of school. One teacher described a core group of teachers with whom she is friends and the activities that they do that strengthen her sense of belonging at the school.
Let us see. Strengthened. I would say, my core group of people that I have here at school. We do attend trivia nights every Monday. We hang out outside of school, as well. And I do think that really helps to build that comradery. And we are all experiencing similar things in different capacities, I guess, but we are all in it together, and we can talk to one another and laugh about things and brainstorm with each other. And I do think having those, I do not want to say unprofessional, but outside of school experiences together also helps strengthen us within the school. So, I think just having those staff things. So, trivia nights, we did a [baseball] game, just being together outside of school, I think, is really important because, sometimes, we get in such a mode, and it’s all business, and we have to remember, again, that we are humans, and fun is part of mental health and just keeping ourselves good, so we are our best for the kids, I guess.
For this teacher, the commonalities and the camaraderie that she felt with her colleagues strengthened her feelings of belonging, and she also felt like these interactions were good for her overall mental health. Whether they are school-sanctioned events or just ad hoc plans with colleagues, positive social interactions with colleagues inside and outside of school helped build relationships/friendships and strengthened sense of belonging for several participants. Building relationships was a common theme amongst participants when describing experiences that enhanced belonging:
I mean, this staff, like I said, is just so welcoming and open, and I’ve had multiple instances where they invite me to go to different things outside of school. And I just think that’s really huge. And really, I’m not the most outgoing outside of my classroom, and so it takes a lot for me to go and build those relationships, especially after having experiences in prior districts where it wasn’t as positive with staff and not wanting to build those relationships if it did not turn out in a positive way. So I was a little bit guarded in a way, I guess you could say. And I think that this staff does a really good job of pushing me to open up a little bit more and asking me to go do things.
Several participants also mentioned that their school had a social committee whose job it was to plan social activities for the staff. Several participants mentioned that the activities planned by the committee positively impacted their sense of belonging:
But what I really do enjoy is our school has a social committee, and so they’ll say, “Oh, we’re having happy hour on this day on Friday,” and so I love seeing that. Not everybody goes, but it’s good seeing a good amount of teachers that I would not normally talk to. So it’s really good to see them in a social setting besides just far away in a corner during a staff meeting.
These excerpts highlight the importance of socializing between teachers in these schools. Socializing and fostering friendships with their colleagues strengthened belonging and was mentioned by more than half of the participants. These social interactions could be organic between colleagues or facilitated by the school or school committees. The point is that giving teachers space and time to socialize is an essential ingredient for fostering belonging. Past research has found that connecting with others in the school community can foster belonging (Bjorklund et al., 2021; Bjorklund, 2023; Karnopp and Bjorklund, 2026; Melzak et al., 2025) and the importance of friendships at school (Karnopp and Bjorklund, 2022), but more work should explore the relationship between friendships and sense of belonging for teachers.
Discussion
Decades of literature have expounded on the benefits of sense of belonging for people’s well-being and general functioning (e.g., Allen, 2020; Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Haslam et al., 2009). Similarly, decades of research have extolled the benefits of sense of belonging for students in K-12 schools (e.g., Bjorklund, 2019; Boyd et al., 2023; Goodenow, 1993; Juvonen, 2006; Osterman, 2000). Despite the known benefits, less scholarship has focused on sense of belonging for teachers.
In this study, we explored experiences that enhanced the belonging of teachers new to a school district. We found five overarching themes that enhanced teachers’ sense of belonging: collegial support, leadership support and trust, feeling valued and heard, collaboration, and socialization and friendships with colleagues. These findings are aligned with prior literature exploring teacher belonging (Bjorklund, 2023; Clandinin et al., 2015; Melzak et al., 2025; Pesonen et al., 2021; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011, 2019; Skogheim, 2023) and may serve as a framework for understanding the contextual conditions that foster teacher belonging as well as provide insights into how a strong sense of belonging might mitigate teacher attrition.
Based on our findings, we believe that fostering belonging in teachers is vital for five reasons: (1) it may enhance well-being and job satisfaction, (2) it can serve as a protective factor against struggles inside and outside of the classroom, (3) it may allow teachers to feel safe and to innovate their practice, (4) it may increase commitment to the broader school community, and (5) it may serve to strengthen teacher identity.
Teachers in our study found belonging through facilitated friendships and connections with colleagues outside of school, felt valued and heard, and felt supported by both colleagues and leadership. These conditions in the workplace have been shown to foster well-being and job satisfaction (Melzak et al., 2025; Waller, 2020). In terms of serving as a protective factor, sense of belonging is related to increased self-efficacy (Bjorklund et al., 2020) and can reduce feelings of anxiety and stress (Bjorklund, 2023)—both of which can foster resilience in teachers (Melzak et al., 2025). Additionally, the collegial support and trust from leadership helped teachers feel like they could weather difficulties and overcome (Hopkins et al., 2019). On a similar note, the feelings of belonging and trust from leadership gave teachers in our study a feeling of safety to innovate. Past research has shown that belonging can create a sense of psychological safety in the workplace (Waller, 2020). Moreover, feelings of trust and strong collaboration, can increase teachers ability to be vulnerable and take pedagogical risks in their work (Tschannen-Moran, 2001; Wahlstrom and Louis, 2008). Teachers in our study who felt a sense of belonging felt a strong connection to their school—past research has shown that this connection can foster commitment to the school and the broader community (Bjorklund, 2023; Waller, 2020). Lastly, we know from prior research that belonging is inextricably linked to identity (Allen, 2020; May, 2013). As such, sense of belonging to school can foster teacher identity (Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025). Future research should continue to unpack the mechanisms through which belonging is related to trust, resilience, and commitment.
Our study has implications for school leaders as they can play an increasingly important role in fostering teacher belonging. In our study, school leaders influenced the ways in which educators new to the district experienced a sense of belonging to their school, illuminating important leadership moves that contributed to new teachers’ sense of belonging. The findings discussed above shed light on strategies that could potentially enhance teacher sense of belonging. Among this sample of educators new to a district, their relationships with their principal and colleagues strongly influenced their feelings of belonging. School leaders fostered these valuable relationships by leveraging organizational structures and routines to build trusting relationships and foster opportunities for educators new to the district to interact with colleagues, thereby developing supportive relationships.
School leaders should be vocal about creating a sense of belonging in their schools and actively look for signs of not belonging for new teachers. For example, teacher induction leaders may want to prioritize sense of belonging for new teachers and have open and frank conversations about it (Flushman et al., 2021). They may also want to create opportunities for teachers to have formal support groups that include new colleagues and veteran teachers to help them adjust to the school (Flushman et al., 2021; Kardos and Johnson, 2010).
As our study shows, part of fostering teachers’ sense of belonging is offering social contexts to form relationships with their colleagues (Allen et al., 2021; Bjorklund, 2023; Clandinin et al., 2015). Whether it was via collaboration or school-sanctioned social events, providing teachers with time and opportunities for informal interactions before a staff meeting or professional development session, assigning new teachers to committees, or publicly acknowledging a job well done are examples of such strategies. This aligns with prior research indicating that opportunities for informal, non-scripted meetings or interactions, and the professional culture of the school shapes teachers’ willingness to reach out to others (Baker-Doyle, 2012). Furthermore, feeling valued and feeling heard by your colleagues has been found to be related to feelings of belonging for new teachers (Bjorklund, 2023; Melzak et al., 2025). When teachers feel like they matter and like their contributions are valued by members of the school community that can increase their feelings of belonging (Bjorklund, 2023; Skogheim, 2023).
Future research and implications
Teachers in our study tended to feel a sense of belonging to their schools, and as a result, felt like they contributed to the school community and that the school community contributed to how they understood themselves as teachers. That said, in our current political climate, belonging in communities can come with a premium if schools contend with political blowback from parents and the broader communities. As such, teachers may experience what Pfaff-Czarnecka (2020) called regimes of belonging—“institutionalised patterns insisting upon investments of time and resources, loyalty and commitments—the “prices” people have to pay for belonging together, and when these “prices” are not paid, most collectives can resort to sanctions, such as exclusion or ostracism” (p. 119). While teachers in our study did not indicate paying a “price” for belonging, our current political climate raises the possibility that challenges from parents and the broader community may force regimes of belonging. Pfaff-Czarnecka (2020) the notion of regimes of belonging provides purchase for school leaders to examine what it means to belong at a school site.
Moreover, teachers from minoritized populations may face steeper prices to belong than their colleagues from the dominant culture. Future research should explore how sense of belonging in schools is hampered or hinder by the current political context and how the broader community outside the school can impact feelings of belonging in teachers as well as what price, if any, minoritized teachers’ pay to fit in regimes of belonging at their sites.
Additionally, our study has implications for school leaders and how they are addressing belonging in their schools and districts. School leadership should consider asking themselves questions like: What are we doing to facilitate sense of belonging in teachers who are new to the district? What does it mean for new teachers to be “one of us” or belong in our district or school site? What spaces of belonging exist within schools, and what opportunities for inclusion or exclusion do they create? What are the power dynamics related to belonging at this school? How can school leadership help new teachers maintain a sense of autonomy as they navigate the regimes of belonging at the school? How can they help teachers from minoritized populations feel a sense of belonging? Exploring these questions highlights pathways for creating inclusive workplaces and sustaining new teachers (Clandinin et al., 2015). Moreover, considering such questions may underscore ways that the current political climate is hindering belonging and offer pathways to protect or insulate teachers from the noise and allow them to do their work.
Limitations
We chose to study new educators in this district due to a combination of district priorities and because we anticipated finding a variety of practices in place that likely supported new teacher belonging. However, the local reputation for a positive work environment enjoyed by this district likely contributed to a sample of teachers new to the district that, on average, had more teaching experience than is typical of many cohorts of teachers new to a district. As such, the needs of this sample of new teachers may not be representative of the needs of new teachers elsewhere. However, we believe lessons can be learned from these teachers’ experiences.
Moreover, the teachers in our sample generally expressed strong feelings of belonging to their school site, as such our study may not capture the sentiments of teachers who do not feel a sense of belonging or who feel less connected. Teachers who feel a lower sense of belonging may have different experiences that foster belonging for them than our participants. Future research should explore teachers who lack a sense of belonging and/or what types of practices are deleterious to feelings of belonging. Lastly, this district has similarities to several distracts in the state, but there are also some clear differences. All this to say, our findings may not map neatly onto other district contexts. That said, we believe that the overlap with our findings and past literature supports the notion that these results hold value for many school contexts.
Conclusion
Teaching is one of the largest and most important professions in the United States (Kraft and Lyon, 2022). Teachers have an outsize role in influencing students academically, socially, and emotionally (Jackson et al., 2020; Kraft, 2019). Teachers’ sense of belonging matters, particularly given the recent confluence of low job satisfaction and our current political context, which undermines public trust in teachers (Kraft and Lyon, 2022). Despite its importance, teacher sense of belonging is understudied. This study adds to the research by exploring experiences that enhance teachers’ sense of belonging. Future research should continue to explore the antecedents and outcomes of teacher belonging.
Data availability statement
The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because our agreement with the school district and our IRB consent forms restrict with whom we can share our data. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to PB, bjorklundp@ucsd.edu.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by University of California San Diego IRB. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.
Author contributions
PB: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. JK: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declared that Generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.
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Edited by: Santa Parrello, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Reviewed by: Erin Feinauer Whiting, Brigham Young University, United States
Elisabetta Fenizia, University of Naples Federico II, Italy