Student-Teacher Relationships. The school environment is a multidimensional construct made up of shared ideas, values, and attitudes that affect student–student and student–teacher relationships and set the tone for acceptable and normative actions (Kuperminc, 1997). In this context, we will examine how other researchers explain the influence of teacher actions on students’ sense of belonging. Xxxxxxxx (1993), in his analysis explains three factors of belongingness: teacher support, positive relationship with classmates, and the general sense of belonging. Teacher support refers to teachers who promote mutual respect, care, inspiration, kindness, justice, and autonomy (Xxxxx, 2016). Xxxxx (2016) summarizes research across 51 studies which includes over 67,000 participants. His work revealed a strong positive effect of teacher support on students’ sense of belongingness. Therefore, we can assume that teacher support may have an important influence of the sense of belonging of students in the current study. Other factors investigated in the current study include Teacher Empathy. Teacher empathy can be defined as the degree to which instructors attempt to truly understand their students' personal and social situations, feel care and concern in reaction to their positive and negative emotions, and express their comprehension and care to students through their actions (Xxxxxx, 2019). Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of research on the connection between teacher empathy and school belonging in literature. Teacher Enthusiasm is another factor of interest in the current research. An enthusiastic teacher could inspire and motivate students. For instance, Xxxxxx et al. (2015) describes three different ways by which teachers could improve student learning: they could attract students’ attention in class; teachers could serve as role models; and, enthusiastic teachers can pass on their good feelings to their students through emotional expression. However, similarly, the effect of teacher enthusiasm on students’ sense of belongingness is scarce.
