03/09/2026
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Jeremy Coombs “Belonging Against the Grain: Enacting Restorative Practice as Countercultural Programming in a High Pressure School, an Improvement Science Approach."

Candidate: Jeremy Coombs
Degree: Doctoral- Ed.D. Leadership in Schooling
Defense Date: March 20, 2026
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Via Zoom 
Thesis/Dissertation Title: Belonging Against the Grain: Enacting Restorative Practice as Countercultural Programming in a High Pressure School, an Improvement Science Approach

Dissertation Committee

  • Chair: Phitsamay Uy, Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: Michelle Scribner, Ed.D., Clinical Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: Kaitlyn Angulo, Ed.D.

Abstract
When K-12 students do not perceive they belong at school, their satisfaction, performance, civic engagement, and long-term health are negatively affected. Early adolescents, in particular, struggle to feel belonging, especially when they are members of minoritized groups. However, teachers can guide students to increase belonging with structured initiatives that normalize mentoring relationships, engage students in humanistic discipline, and improve knowledge of care resources. Literature indicates restorative practice is an effective paradigm to guide these improvements.

Needs assessments conducted at the affluent, suburban, Grandview Middle School indicated belonging aligned with ethnic, linguistic, economic, and ability privilege, while exclusion was driven by academic demands and limited opportunities for social-emotional programming. To increase belonging, a brief restorative practice pilot was conducted with an eighth-grade student cohort (n=66). Results were nuanced; across eight weeks, students in the pilot indicted a negligible mean decline in belonging (-0.07%), while peers in a (no intervention) comparison group indicated a six-times greater mean decline (-4.3%). It is proposed that, for middle schoolers, the restorative practice intervention served as a protective factor against an age-related decay in perceptions of belonging. Complex themes derived from post-intervention focus groups revealed that students in the pilot expressed a matured sense of belonging relative to peers, considering belonging across a greater timespan, and drew social support from a broader social network, including school-based adults. Further study is warranted.