“Keep that connection strong”: principal and staff perceptions on school belonging in regional schools

School belonging in regional, remote and rural (RRR) communities has been shown to be strong, despite geographic, social and structural factors that constrain access to resources and opportunities. This highlights the need to understand school belonging through a context-sensitive lens, which considers the entanglement of structural factors with the relational strengths of RRR communities. Drawing on focus groups and interviews with principals and staff across three regional schools in New South Wales, Australia, this study explored how school belonging is understood and what contextual factors are perceived as fostering or hindering it. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, thematic analysis revealed that school belonging emerges from the complex ecological interplay among school-level practices, interpersonal relationships, community context, and wider structural influences. Specifically, three key elements were emphasised as informing understandings of school belonging: helping students find a sense of purpose, pride and identification with school and the centrality of relationships. School belonging was perceived as fostered through supporting individual needs and pathways, collaborative and innovative school practices, and staff dispositions. Barriers to school belonging were attributed to: when school doesn’t fit, a misaligned system, and the impact of social media. Our analysis demonstrates that socio-economic background exerts a critical influence on school belonging. As a counterforce to structural misalignments, regional schools drew on the relational strengths of their communities to foster belonging. It concludes that socially just education policy requires a shift from neoliberal urban‑centrism toward frameworks that authentically centre the lived realities of regional communities.