Absolutely! High challenge, space for discussion and creativity - time for exploration and the slow engagement with complexity - rather than being rushed through a performative 'education' - this is both respectful and creates real belonging? #LTHEchat

Absolutely. I feel we need to make time for students to get to know and befriend each other - to learn through discussion and projects - so they learn that their selves, their peers, their opinions and their discoveries matter. Less regurgitation and more discussion can be magical! #LTHEchat

#LTHEchat A5 HE does not value care, kindness & Compassion - and it should. Teaching is relational and learning takes time and struggle, it is also social and relational. Today's HE is about bums on seats & productivity. We need time to be with each other and to time to engage w ideas & w each other

#LTHEchat A4 I honestly don't know whether we can feel like we belong if we are not present in the curriculum. As a working class academic I never see my culture or history valued in that space, but I can act like I belong and I can find friends and allies, and I can value & welcome my students.

This is spot on. Today's metrics-driven, high productivty, blame game work culture works against all of us feeling that we really belong and matter. #LTHEchat

And of course this can be facilitated if staff also feel they belong, if they have time to be with each other - and to be with their students. Silent workspaces and a culture of productivity all work against anyone feeling HE as a human, relational space #LTHEchat

Yes - but also making space for students to get to know each other and work together - so they know their peers are their allies not their competitors - more discussion, group projects, and open questions so we show their opinions matter ... #LTHEchat

Yes! Greeting our students w a raft of diagnostic tests (talking of box ticking) is no way to help students feel wanted... Also the loss of the 1st year as the exploratory discursive year with time to learn & enter the space. As we have widened participation we have made HE harder! #LTHEchat

Yes, lots of lipservice to student belonging, ownership & agency - still little curriculum space for a compassionate curriculum. Even so, staff losing their spaces - allowed only to book a silent work space when they come on campus - seriously!! And no time to 'be with' their students #LTHEchat

#LTHEchat A3 Probably the most important thing you can do is help students feel they belong and know that they matter. Teach with love and through dialogue and active learning. Students get to know each other through the processes by which you engage them in the teaching/learning & assmt processes

Yes! The stripped back HE makes little room for the human! On the access course I taught on, we also collectively went out socially with the students, invited the class round for food and out to events together - it was a powerful course full of endeavour, but also of love and care #LTHEchat

May be no invitation is needed - but perhaps a barrier is that we feel that we need that invitation? Helping our WP students know they matter is one of the most important things we can do I am beginning to think! #LTHEchat

#LTHEchat A2 Welcoming students for who they are. Not greeting them with a raft of diagnostic tests but asking: Who are our students, what are their strengths, what are their needs? Making curriculum space for busy nontrad students to get to bond & enter the cultural & social life of the university

#LTHEchat A1 In primary, Mr McCarthy made us feel we were a class & that he cared. Working in HE, after about 12 years rounding a corner on the way to a meeting, hearing someone say: Sandra's here - warmed my heart. We can feel more outside than we are? We can reach out so others know they belong

We can ask educators to build belonging, but if institutional systems continually squeeze out the time needed for relationships, we are working against the grain. Perhaps belonging needs to become an institutional priority, not simply another responsibility placed on individual educators. #LTHEchat

A6 - We feel how the system tries to hijack our time and effort away from sustaining relationships with staff colleagues and with students, so changing the institution seems the most(?) important target #LTHEchat

Yes . I think that is at the heart of belonging. Students can be included, represented and listened to, but ultimately they need to feel that they matter: that their presence, voice, identity and contribution genuinely make a difference to the community they are part of. #LTHEchat

Thanks everyone - contributors and organising team. Look forward to next weeks #lthechat!

Absolutely. Listening matters, but closing the loop is crucial. Students need to see that their voices can lead to action. I like the idea of intentional listening points across the student journey, creating an ongoing cycle of voice, response and change. #LTHEchat

Such a good point. Those smaller, shared experiences can transform relationships and create community. It is a shame if students only experience that toward the end of their degree; perhaps we need to design more opportunities for meaningful connection from the very beginning. #LTHEchat