Diversity learning · Foundation

Social Identity, Group Membership, and Belonging

Explore how group membership shapes experience while preserving the complexity and self-definition of each person.

About 48 minutes, plus optional practice · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning

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All diversity courses: Foundation, Intermediate, and Advanced

Course outline

A person belongs to more than one group
Identify several forms of group membership in a fictional identity map.
12 minutes
Notice when an identity becomes visible
Explain how the same identity can become more salient in different settings.
12 minutes
Belonging includes influence and room to differ
Distinguish welcome from meaningful participation.
12 minutes
Practice belonging without assigning a representative
Recognize tokenizing expectations in an invitation.
12 minutes

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What you’ll be able to do

Explore and practice

Identify several forms of group membership in a fictional identity map.
Explain how the same identity can become more salient in different settings.
Distinguish welcome from meaningful participation.
Recognize tokenizing expectations in an invitation.

What you can take into your work

Explain the distinctions in each knowledge check.
Compare the fictional case responses and their consequences.
Prepare and revisit the course job aid using a situation you choose.

Rewrite the invitation to Andre with a clear scope, optional participation, realistic time, and an explanation of how comments will be used. List two responsibilities the team must retain. After a fictional review, draft a response showing one change made and one unresolved question without treating Andre’s participation as universal approval.

Social Identity, Group Membership, and Belonging: practice guide

A reusable guide for a situation you choose

Explore how group membership shapes experience while preserving the complexity and self-definition of each person.

Use observable details rather than assigning motives.
Invite perspectives without requiring personal disclosure.
Keep learning separate from individual assessment or personnel decisions.

Map without reducing

Choose identities or memberships you want to consider; leave anything private unrecorded.
Notice which become more visible in different situations and which are treated as the default.
Do not guess another person’s identity from appearance, name, or a single preference.

Examine belonging in a setting

Ask who can enter, understand expectations, contribute, disagree, and influence a decision.
Distinguish a friendly welcome from actual access to information and opportunity.
Identify whose contribution is recognized and who is repeatedly asked to represent an entire group.

Make one invitation more usable

Explain how someone can contribute and what their input can change.
Offer participation choices without requiring identity disclosure.
Ask for feedback on the process, respond to a specific concern, and say what changed.
Check whether disagreement remained possible; universal agreement is not evidence of belonging.

Try the guide and revisit it

Rewrite the invitation to Andre with a clear scope, optional participation, realistic time, and an explanation of how comments will be used. List two responsibilities the team must retain. After a fictional review, draft a response showing one change made and one unresolved question without treating Andre’s participation as universal approval.
Have you asked someone to speak for a group when you needed a specific kind of expertise? How could the request become more accurate and less burdensome?

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.

Sources and further reading

UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute — What is belonging?
Distinguishes belonging, recognition, voice, and participation in the institutions shaping people’s lives.
UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute — Belonging design principles
Institutional belonging and co-creation; not an individual diagnostic scale.
Susan T. Fiske — Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping
Researcher-authored educational chapter distinguishing affect, beliefs, and behavior.

All research and sources across the program

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Course outline