This article explores relational belonging as a function of place attachment within a literal learning ecology, a university arboretum and the community it sustains. While formal learning spaces such as classrooms and laboratories have been widely examined, there is a gap in scholarly attention to informal learning spaces. This research, through an ethnographic case study, highlights how ecological campus environments foster meaningful educational experiences and forms of belonging that go beyond the academic and cognitive. The study presents two key findings by drawing on diverse data sources, including maps, interviews, and ethnographic observations, and focusing on the Shakespeare in the Arb (SITA) community. First, place attachment and belonging within the SITA community emerge as situated practices involving imaginative engagement and alignment with the Arboretum's ecological features. Second, attention to materiality, affect, and ecological relations reveals nuanced forms of belonging and learning often overlooked in conventional educational settings. This work contributes to the definition and empirical examples of relational belonging through the lens of place-based learning and its pedagogical impact on communities.
Jaclyn Dudek (Mon,) studied this question.