Jan 24, 2026Research Design
Why I can't just measure belonging
I kept reaching for a survey, then stopped. A number can tell me a student feels safe on Tuesday. It cannot tell me why they stopped raising their hand by November.
Every instrument I found measures the residue of belonging rather than the making of it. A five-point scale is a photograph of a process.
So the question becomes methodological: what would let me see the process? Repeated short conversations? Student-kept logs? Watching a single ritual across a semester?
I do not have an answer yet, and I am trying to sit in that rather than reach for the convenient design.