Sense Of Belonging Essay

She stood in the middle of the street, where the wind washed on the sighing pavement with a hollow sound at midnight. Her empty eyes saw straight through the bleary neon lights flickering on and off the street signs.

‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging.’

* Our growing understanding of the belonging concept: The desire to be included is strong and the action of being excluded is humiliating:

A common human characteristic is the yearning to feel a sense of belonging through connections and different forms of relationships made in life. A sense of belonging or not belonging can emerge from feeling connected to people and places, whether they have been freely cast there or not. An individual will only feel a true sense of belonging through the understanding of those connections, which are created by experiences and can only come within.

Belonging can be defined as the process of the association with the human race as socially active characters. It is part of the human condition which represents the need for security, safety and acceptance. An aspect of belonging such as isolation can be associated with the concept of belonging, as not belonging is a reciprocal process of belonging. Belonging allows for the authentication of characters through the formation of identity and connections.

-Essay: 1300- 1500 words. ‘A sense of belonging is never permanent.’ Discuss in relation to TWO poems and TWO pieces of related texts.

Write down the website. Give a brief description of the relevance of this site to your study

“We belong … like fish in water. We’re in our environment.” This quote from the New York Times shows the perception of belonging as the idea about connecting to a place, person, group or a community. 'Feliks Skrzynecki' by Peter Skrzynecki, 'I'm nobody! Who are you?' by Emily Dickinson and 'The Rabbits' by John Marsden & Shaun Tan show the concept of belonging as being contrasted towards the New York Times quote, showing the alienation and non-existent connection towards it. These texts have furthered my understanding on the perceptions of belonging by recognising the different concepts of connection to people, places and things.

An individual’s sense of belonging is determined not only by their own choices but also by the attitudes of others.

An individual 's sense of belonging is determined not only by their own choices but also attitudes of others.

Belonging is as a complex process by which people develop links with others, places and things. It is focused on acceptance and developing a connection and identity

It is a well-known fact that belonging to a group can make an individual feel not only accepted, but more powerful that if they were on their own. Whether it is a community, youth group or even religion, belonging is an everyday occurrence of like that many of us do not even realise. Belonging to a group is more influential than belonging to an individual. We can see this in the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller, 1984 by George Orwell and the listening task. Belonging to a group can give you a feeling of acceptance, but also can help you not to be targeted or marginalised. Also, people who appear to belong to groups, when looked at closer, in truth do not belong. Belonging to a group can also give you more power as a

Explore how this is evident in you prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing.

The struggle to belong and find one’s place is significant in the lives of some people.

Many educational researchers agree that the need for belonging is one of the most important needs of all for students to function well in all types of learning environments (Connell & Well Born, 1991; Deci & Ryan, 1991; Finn, 1989; Osterman, 2000). The feeling of belonging may have a direct and powerful influence on students’ motivation (Goodenow, 1993). For example, perceived support and the sense of belonging are expected to increase students beliefs in their success and accordingly to increase their academic motivation. In fact, studies consistently reveal that when students experience a sense of belonging in educational environments, they are more motivated, more engaged in