Abstract
Current literature addressing the challenges English learners in community colleges face is limited. While research examining Black, Indigenous, and People of Color encompasses aspects of being an English learner, little research has focused on what makes this demographic unique, their language ability. The purpose of this study was to identify different factors that affect an English learners’ sense of belonging. The factors included peer supports like student clubs and peer ambassadors, faculty, counselors, and the students’ country of origin. The study was guided by a theoretical framework comprised of Astin’s (1984) student involvement theory and Schlossberg’s (1989) marginality mattering theory. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to provide the perspective of students in the form of one-on-one interviews and more generalizable results in the form of a survey adapted from the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale. The researcher interviewed nine students, and 121 participants completed surveys. Findings indicate an English learners’ sense of belonging is affected by numerous aspects on campus, both positive or negative. Students are positively affected by peer support programs, English-as-a-second-language (ESL) faculty, and their country of origin due to representation. Some aspects that could play a negative role on their belonging are non-ESL faculty, counselors, and time in college. The findings provide future research with a new theoretical framework for examining English learners’ belonging as well as how we shape institutional policy.