Preservice teachers' sense of belonging on their professional experience placement

This investigation of primary school preservice teachers’ sense of belonging during professional experience placements addresses a significant gap in initial teacher education studies, specifically how belonging impacted them during professional experience. Featuring semi-structured interviews with six students, three in Scotland and three in Australia, a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of the data revealed four themes, relevant in both cultural contexts: 1. being welcomed; 2. settings and procedures; 3. interpersonal interactions; and, 4. strategic behaviours. Our findings point to a sense of belonging being critical to preservice teachers, impacting their cognition, behaviour, wellbeing and capacity to learn while on professional experience placements.