Post-pandemic teacher education belonging in Kuwait: a mixed-methods study of support and engagement

This mixed-methods study examined how perceived teacher support, school/college belonging, and student engagement are experienced by student teachers in Kuwait during the period of post-pandemic educational recovery. The study explored how relational support can help rebuild participation and connection after disruption; also testing a hypothesised mediation pathway in which belonging links teacher support to engagement. Seventy-six student teachers at Kuwait University completed measures of teacher support, psychological sense of school membership, and engagement, with 15 then taking part in semi-structured interviews. Quantitative findings produced small, non-significant associations and did not support the mediation model. Qualitative data, however, showed that participants experienced teacher support as relational and transformative when it involved approachability, respect, flexibility, and actionable feedback. Belonging was described as unevenly distributed across peer and classroom contexts, and engagement was portrayed as something that had to be rebuilt through structured interaction after remote and hybrid learning. The integrated interpretation is therefore cautious but practically relevant. The paper strengthens the relevance of these findings for educational psychology practice by linking them to consultation, systemic practice, relational climate review, and post-16 support, while acknowledging limits to transferability from a Kuwaiti teacher-education sample to United Kingdom practice contexts.