Welcome to the SEHD Impact! Inclusive Excellence monthly (beta)—a space to explore practices, stories, and reflections that advance SEHD’s inclusive excellence principles and plan, including equity, belonging, and courageous improvement across our school community. Each month, this series will explore some of the ways in which how inclusive excellence might show up in our work, guided by principles of educational and social equity, collective well-being, diverse and reciprocal partnerships, continuous reflection, safety, belonging, and courageous improvement.
This month, the inclusive excellence focus is: Creating Belonging from Day One: Small Shifts, Big Impact. From inclusive syllabi to welcoming spaces, early efforts can shape lasting experiences of inclusion and connection. As the academic year begins, I hope that you’ll feel invited to consider how intentional, everyday actions—no matter how small—can foster a sense of belonging for students, staff, and faculty alike.
Often, the first day of class sets the tone for the entire semester. For students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, that first impression can either affirm their sense of belonging—or deepen feelings of isolation. In fact, this is true for most students, whether from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
This month, as classes are beginning, faculty are invited reflect on how small, intentional practices can foster inclusion from the very beginning. Whether it’s learning and using students’ names, sharing your own educational journey, or co-creating classroom norms, these early actions communicate: You belong here.
Inclusive excellence isn’t about perfection—it’s about presence. It’s about designing a syllabus that reflects diverse voices, offering multiple ways to engage, and signaling that every student’s perspective matters.
As we prepare for our first class meetings of the fall semester, here are additional rich, research-informed resources that support practices for fostering belonging in college classrooms, especially at the start of the academic year:
- Practical Approaches to Support Student Belonging
Source: UVA Teaching Hub
This curated collection includes:
- The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (Chapter 5): Offers evidence-based strategies for designing courses that support belonging.
- Creating a Belonging Story: A step-by-step guide to help students overcome belonging uncertainty.
- Encouraging Connections in the Classroom: Practical ideas for building relationships between students and instructors.
- Podcasts: Stories from faculty and students on transforming “weed-out” courses into inclusive spaces [1].
Explore the UVA Teaching Hub Collection
- Fostering Belonging in Teaching
Source: UC Berkeley Center for Teaching & Learning
This guide emphasizes:
- The psychological and social dimensions of belonging.
- How institutional bias and exclusion affect marginalized students.
- Reflective practices like the “I Am From” poem to help instructors and students connect personally[2].
Read the Berkeley Teaching Guide
- Research Review: Belonging & Student Success
Source: Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
This critical literature review synthesizes findings from 118 studies, showing:
- Strong links between belonging and outcomes like engagement, wellbeing, and retention.
- Effective practices include experiential pedagogies, personalized support, and open discussions about barriers to belonging [3].
Download the Full Review (PDF)
- Culturally Responsive Teaching in Higher Education
Source: Education Sciences Journal
This article outlines:
- Instructional strategies that connect course content to students’ cultural identities.
- The importance of co-constructing lessons that reflect diverse experiences.
- How CRT supports academic achievement and social equity[4].
- Team-Building Activities for College Students
Source: Top Hat
Includes 45+ activities designed to:
- Build trust, communication, and collaboration.
- Foster informal connections and shared purpose.
- Support both in-person and online learning environments [5].
Explore Activities & Download the Free List
Together, these resources offer options that we might consider trying out to spark conversation and inspire action. Hopefully, together, we can start the year by building classrooms where all students feel seen, heard, and valued.
Resources
Dunlea, M. (2019, September 4). Every student matters: Cultivating belonging in the classroom. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/every-student-matters-cultivating-belonging-classroom
Center for Teaching & Learning. (n.d.). Fostering belonging in teaching. University of California, Berkeley. https://teaching.berkeley.edu/teaching-strategies/advancing-equity-and-inclusion/fostering-belonging-teaching
Leonard, D. (2023, September 8). The science of belonging and connection. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/the-science-of-belonging-and-connection
Kwak, J. (2020, September). Curricula for every student: Culturally responsive teaching in higher ed. Every Learner Everywhere. https://www.everylearnereverywhere.org/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching-in-higher-ed/
Lemonade Day. (n.d.). 25+ engaging team building activities for students to foster collaboration. https://lemonadeday.org/blog/team-building-activities-for-students
Additional Resources:
- Classroom Strategies for Inclusive Education: Insights from Recent Research (https://www.ijfmr.com/papers/2025/1/37319.pdf)
- Does Inclusive Teaching Impact College Adjustment and Performance for Students With and Without Disabilities? (https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1383742.pdf)
- Teaching Inclusive Education: A Contextual Higher Education Analysis (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1445612/pdf)
- University of Colorado Boulder. (n.d.). Inclusivity: Creating an inclusive classroom. Center for Teaching & Learning. https://www.colorado.edu/center/teaching-learning/inclusivity