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Fostering Grade 9 school belonging: StFX education faculty looking at the role of play-based learning
Starting Grade 9 can be both exciting and intimidating. For many students, it can mark their first experience in a large high school, navigating new social dynamics, and making academic decisions that can shape their futures. Recognizing how critical this transition is, including how critical it can be to future success, StFX Faculty of Education professors Dr. Jennifer Mitton and Dr. Allison Tucker are working in partnership with North Nova Education Centre (NNEC) in New Glasgow to better understand and strengthen a sense of belonging during this pivotal year.
Dr. Mitton and Dr. Tucker have received a $22,616 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Engage Grant to address the pressing problem of school belonging among Grade 9 students when they arrive new to the school.
The project builds on the Faculty of Education’s long-standing commitment to community-engaged research. “We have a long history of being responsive to the community,” says Dr. Mitton, noting that this work emerged naturally from previous research collaborations she’d had with NNEC leadership. Dr. Tucker, who joined the StFX faculty in 2021, brought expertise in play-based learning. Together, she and Dr. Mitton started thinking about what innovative pedagogies might support Grade 9 students during this transition.
They approached NNEC, a school “that strongly values inclusivity and belonging,” with an idea centred on understanding the experiences of incoming students through exploring play-based learning, an area that remains underexplored with this age group.
Dr. Tucker explains that there are tenants of play such as collaboration, creativity, and shared problem-solving that teachers can intentionally use to help students feel connected and create a safe place where they feel like they belong.
“When people feel safe, they are more willing to take academic risks,” adds Dr. Mitton. That willingness to ask questions, try new ideas, and engage fully can have a powerful impact on learning and long-term success.
GLOBAL ISSUE
School belonging is a global issue and not unique to NNEC, they say. The school did have several local recent challenges from industry closing to national disaster. NNEC also consolidates seven surrounding schools into one high school. Students who may have had 15 students in their Grade 8 class now are coming into a Grade 9 cohort of about 300 peers.
This past year, the researchers worked closely with six teachers as well as students at the school. Teachers experimented with play-based approaches in their classrooms, shared ideas with one another, and reflected on what they observed. From March to June 2025, Dr. Mitton and Dr. Tucker visited classrooms as observers, offered feedback, and conducted student focus groups to hear directly from learners about their experiences.
Through these observations and conversations, the researchers developed a clearer picture of what belonging looks like at NNEC, and how students identify spaces and people who help them feel safe.
The next phase of the project will see the researchers return to the school this semester to work with additional teachers and staff identified by students as contributing to a sense of belonging. The team hopes to share their findings with the school later this spring, offering insights into how small shifts in teaching practice can make a meaningful difference.
If the school considers even slight adjustments based on what they learn, that’s impactful, they say. The researchers also hope the framework developed through this project could be adapted in other schools and contexts, and they’re excited to contribute to the literature in an underexplored area.
Both StFX faculty members, former classroom teachers themselves, emphasize that this work is being done with schools, not on them. They’re excited that this has been a multi-person participant study including school leadership, classroom teachers, and students.
The project has also helped create time and space for the teachers to explore questions and professional learning and Dr. Tucker and Dr. Mitton have been struck by the students’ thoughtful, articulate, and sometimes vulnerable responses throughout the study.
As an extension of the project, they hope to explore how middle schools cultivate belonging, particularly as some Grade 9 students expressed ‘homesickness’ for their previous school communities during the interviews.
The StFX faculty are excited about the potential impact of the work, particularly knowing that for students standing at the threshold of high school, that sense of belonging can make a significant difference.
