A CRITICAL QUALITATIVE STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ON STUDENT BELONGING AND SUCCESS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Abstract

This critical qualitative study explored how the physical design and construction of campus environments influenced undergraduate students' sense of belonging and success, with a particular focus on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color students and students with neurodivergence or disabilities at a public 4-year university in the southwestern United States. Drawing from critical race theory, disability critical race theory, campus ecology, and architectural theory, this study examined how higher education environments, long shaped by settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and ableism, materialized exclusion or fostered inclusion in everyday student experiences. Using narrative inquiry and photovoice as methodological approaches, this study centered students' spatial stories and lived experiences, highlighting how buildings, pathways, aesthetics, and design and construction practices served as either barriers or bridges to belonging. Participants' narratives were analyzed thematically to identify how institutional values were embodied, or contested, through space. Findings revealed that belonging was not simply an internal psychological state but a condition materially, structurally, and ecologically produced through campus space, as students continually navigated and adapted to their environments—managing lighting and sound, selecting seating, timing movement, and seeking culturally affirming spaces—strategies that reflected both resilience and structural inequity. Ostensibly race-neutral design and construction decisions reproduced racialized and ableist outcomes, reinforcing whiteness and able-bodiedness as unmarked spatial norms, while renovation hierarchies and compliance-based accessibility materialized institutional priorities that shaped who could participate fully. Yet participants' spatial narratives also functioned as a form of design knowledge, pointing toward more equity-centered, sensory-responsive, and affirming campus environments. By positioning student voice as essential to transforming campus spaces into environments of care, access, and affirmation, this study contributes insights that inform equity-centered design and construction practices in higher education.