Abstract

SITHALDEEN, R.; PHETLHU, O.; KOKOLO, B.  and  AUGUST, L.. Student sense of belonging and its impacts on help-seeking behaviour. S. Afr. J. High. Educ. [online]. 2022, vol.36, n.6, pp.67-87. ISSN 1753-5913.  http://dx.doi.org/10.20853/36-6-5442.

Entering higher education can be an alienating experience leading to institutional and systemic drop out. Academic help-seeking behaviour as a self-regulated learning strategy is one way to counteract this. But help-seeking can be enabled or hindered by several factors including a student's sense of belonging. In this study we attempted to understand how issues of belonging impact on student help-seeking behaviour and, if they are positively related, how institutions of higher education might promote a greater sense of belonging. We collected a total of 818 student submissions from students in an academic recovery programme. Our thematic analysis of these submissions revealed that students did feel a lack of belonging leading to help-seeking hesitancy. We also captured students' voices to understand what conditions would enable a greater sense of belonging and we make recommendations on how institutions may work to create these conditions for students and thereby empower their help-seeking behaviour.

Keywords : academic help-seeking; help-seeking hesitancy; self-regulated learning; belonging; student success.

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