What does it mean to belong?

Most of us are familiar with DEI – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. But what is belonging, and how does it fit in with DEI???

Christianne Garofalo, who leads diversity and inclusion recruiting at the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, says “Diversity is a fact, inclusion is a behavior, but belonging is the emotional outcome that people want in their organization.”??

Organizational design expert Krys Burnette illustrates how the four components work together in this chart:?

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Source:??Krys Burnette

Finally, Na Shei Alexander, in a 2020 article, pointed to Deloitte data showing that 61% of workers conceal at least one aspect of their identity at work each day, even though over 90% of these individuals worked at an organization that claimed inclusion as a core value.???

Looking at all of these data points, we can see that DEI means little if organizations don’t give people the space to participate authentically in all settings, including People of Color, women, those with a wide range of physical and intellectual disabilities, neurodiverse individuals and people of all genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations. That missing component is “Belonging,” and it is, thankfully, becoming a part of the DEI conversation in many workplaces.??

This shift is happening in higher education, too. Just like in the workforce, there is much work to be done on college campuses and in digital learning environments to foster a sense of belonging for all community members. However, many institutional leaders are improving how their institutions enable Belonging for students and faculty. At Cengage, we are tapping into those insights to ensure that we understand and find ways to support Belonging. We think about our DEI&B activities in two distinct but interconnected buckets:??

We’re working to understand and support the DEI&B work at institutions.?

Our institutional partners, by virtue of their access to many of the world’s expert minds, have much to teach us. By providing opportunities for educators to connect on these topics, we aim to help create stronger DEI&B cultural norms for others in higher education.??

For example, we learned from AJ Leu, head of Diversity, Belonging, and Professional Development initiatives in the College of Communication and Information at Kent State University, that DEI&B work must challenge leadership and norms, and require difficult questions to be asked at times and in places where they historically haven’t been asked. Leu, in a blog post authored for Cengage, describes why we need belonging, not only inclusion, saying "Unfortunately, inclusion is not enough. Having a seat at the table does not mean that you feel you truly belong there. How many of us have been at the table, but people ignore our input? Or perhaps our ideas are overlooked until someone else miraculously has the same thought moments later? How many times do we sit at the table, but we look around and feel that annoyingly familiar feeling of being the “other” or the “only”? We often wonder if we have our seat at the table to offer the token “diversity” perspective."

We’re also looking to best practices at institutions that have a deep focus on DEI&B work, like Cornell University, where Belonging is woven into campus life through: purposeful storytelling (encouraging people to share their stories as a way to break down barriers); the building of intentional connections (considering the structures of teams and the design of environments so people can feel a sense of belonging); establishing formal and informal mentoring programs; and actively seeking out input and ideas from all members while providing clarity about decision-making processes.??

We’re watching as institutions like Union College make significant financial investments in the success of students who have been historically underrepresented and underserved by higher education. And we’re supporting organizations and individuals in higher education who are making it more inclusive and accessible. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), whose Phi Theta Kappa scholarships for community college students we underwrite, saw that 75% of their All USA Scholars are women and 60% are BIPOC. Similarly, inclusion scholarships we funded with the American Associations of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the American Council on Education (ACE) support leaders in DEI&B and fund professional development and networking opportunities for them to make their impact even greater.?

Our role in helping instructors set the stage for belonging.?

Instruction and even the norms of attending college have long rested on unspoken and biased assumptions about students’ prior knowledge, which can create unwelcoming or even hostile learning environments. Too often, that bias has worked against people for whom higher education has not been a given, including but not limited to first-generation college students. In everything from the college admissions and application process where filling out forms and applying for aid can be extremely daunting to the course material itself, a lack of prior knowledge can quickly put a student at risk of academic failure. On the technology side, assumptions about a student’s digital competency, even assuming someone has access to WiFi, for example, can create or perpetuate a deep digital divide.??

As course material providers, we cannot create a culture of belonging on our own. But we can create learning experiences that support instructors and institutions in fostering such environments. We think of belonging as a reality that becomes possible only when Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are fully functioning. To that end, our goal is to improve our efforts on DEI so that we can help institutions move forward toward belonging.?

How we’re improving our own DEI(B) work?

So, what does that look like? As we design our offerings, we are working to remove assumptions and leverage the value of diverse voices. We follow our four quality learning principles, prioritizing experiences that are: intentional, authentic, personalized and inclusive, while adhering to Universal Design for Learning and accessibility standards. In the area of accessibility, we have partnered with Perkins Access on continuous improvement initiatives, conducting assessments of our digital platforms and improving the accessibility of our content design. We are also applying research-backed techniques such as Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT). And we are prioritizing I&D in our titles, such as our new Anatomy & Physiology book, which was written by Dr. Elizabeth Co in partnership with Dr. Edgar Meyer. The book was written using a 7-point I&D plan, including using language that is sensitive to diversity in students and providing clinical examples detailing the predispositions of certain racial and socioeconomic groups to display health care disparities, like sickle cell anemia. We have also written blog posts and offered faculty trainings around creating inclusive learning experiences and environments for learners to enable feelings of belonging and consequently, academic success.?

Beyond our products, we are adding Belonging to our DE&I practices for Cengage employees. We have active Employee Resource Groups for a variety of employee communities, including PRIDE (for LGBTQIA+ employees and allies) and MOSAIC (for people of color). And our DEIB team collaborates with expert consultants to inform our future roadmap in this area.??

The way ahead?

We are, admittedly, early on in integrating Belonging into our landscape at Cengage. But being open about that feels like a part of the process…we’re admitting acknowledging where we are in our own process and ability to create impact and telling our partners we want to do the work to get where we need to be, with the full understanding that the end-goal will be an evolving target.??

Leu aptly describes their (and our) driving ambition: “I want people to feel like they can bring their full, authentic selves to the conversation, and be able to access support and resources that they truly need to be successful. They should receive an invitation to sit at the table, and truly feel like they belong there. Their voice should be heard, their ideas should matter, and they should feel that they are an important part of the organization’s community and culture.”??

Here’s to continuing down that path.??

Want to read more on this topic? Today’s Learner, our blog for faculty, has a section devoted to Inclusion & Diversity, where contributing writers like AJ Leu share their expertise.?