Belonging Speech Context and the sense of belonging that comes from it contributes to a sense of identity, our relationships and processes of acceptance and understanding
- Subject: Who or what is the subject of the image?
- Location: What is the location of the image?
- Date/period: When was the photo taken? What period does the image belong to?
- Description: Is it a photograph, poster, coloured, black and white?
- Composition: What is happening in the image? What are the people wearing? What are they doing?
- Message: What message do you get from this image?
- How important is it to have a sense of belonging?
- What does belonging to a group mean for you personally?
- Can it only ever be – “You’re with us or you’re against us”?
- Do belonging and exclusion exist symbiotically?
- What is the reward or cost of belonging?
1. This principal aspect of belonging being an essential need to human life is seen in
2. Belonging is a complex idea as it very rarely is defined as solely belonging or not belonging, but rather somewhere in between these extremes. This concept is one that is essential to humans as it gives them a sense of identity and security to their lives.Several aspects of belonging can also be explored through examining
3. Belonging is a universal necessity to feel needed and wanted within a certain collective of people. The term belonging itself means to have one’s identity accepted despite the similarities or more importantly differences. However, it is these same similarities or differences that define another’s perspective upon whether or not we belong to their social “norms”, which leads us to the concept of alienation and how it affects our sense of belonging in
4.We may all know belonging as being that which belongs to someone or as something that is connected with a principle or greater thing, but do we really understand what it means to belong as a human being? To belong we have to try to ‘fit in’ and accept ourselves as a part of something. Sometimes, for the ones who have left their homeland and moved to another country, they may have a sense of not belonging even if the people in that country recognize them as a citizen of the nation. It could be because they don’t look like others by their hair color and appearance or because the languages they speak are not the same.
5. Perceptions and ideas of belonging, or of not belonging, vary. These perceptions are shaped within personal, cultural, historical and social contexts. A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. Within this Area of Study, students may consider aspects of belonging in terms of experiences and notions of identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding. Texts explore many aspects of belonging, including the potential of the individual to enrich or challenge a community or group.
They may reflect the way attitudes to belonging are modified over time. Texts may also represent choices not to belong, or barriers which prevent belonging. Perceptions and ideas of belonging in texts can be constructed through a variety of language modes, forms, features and structures. In engaging with the text, a responder may experience and understand the possibilities presented by a sense of belonging to, or exclusion from the text and the world it represents. This engagement may be influenced by the different ways perspectives are given voice in or are absent from a text.
6. Belonging is important for our growth to independence; even further, it is important for our growth to inner freedom and maturity. It is only through belonging that we can break out of the shell of individualism and self-centredness that both protects and isolates us. However, the human drive for belonging also has its pitfalls. There is an innate need in our hearts to identify with a group, both for protection and for security, to discover and affirm our identity, and to use the group to prove our worthiness and goodness, indeed even to prove that we are better than others.
