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Sense of belonging supports student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), yet prior research indicates that systemic inequities shape who feels included in college classrooms. Racism, sexism, and classism can shape students’ belonging, which then can impact their outcomes. We studied students’ sense of belonging in 56 large introductory biology courses that used active learning, reaching more than 4900 students. We used a QuantCrit methodological framework and hierarchical linear models to examine how the intersection of racism and sexism, and racism and classism, related to three components of students’ belonging. Racism impacted groups differently, and its impact varied across intersecting identities and components of belonging. Sexism undermined women's comfort sharing ideas in class and seeking instructor help across racial/ethnic groups. Women in some racial/ethnic groups experienced greater connectedness to classmates than men. Classism diminished students’ sense of belonging across most racial/ethnic groups. Disaggregating students into more racial/ethnic groups revealed important differences in the experiences of Native American, Latiné, Black/African, and two groups of Asian students. These findings demonstrate that within the same classroom, students can have profoundly different experiences and challenge us to recognize the influence of intersecting forms of oppression on our students. 

What instructors say during class—beyond content—has promise for supporting students’ perceptions that they are supported, connected, and valued in the classroom, which in turn predict positive outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. We studied noncontent Instructor Talk used by 56 introductory biology instructors around the United States and how it related to sense of belonging among over 4900 students in their courses. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we identified positive relationships between some—but not all—categories of Instructor Talk and belonging among students. Instructor talk aimed at building relationships with students and explaining pedagogical choices had positive relationships with students’ sense of connectedness to peers (for both) and comfort seeking instructor help (for the former), but not their comfort sharing ideas with the class. Using effect coding, we probed whether these relationships differed for students with 14 intersectional identities, including men and women from seven racial and ethnic groups. Relationships between Instructor Talk categories and components of belonging varied in their direction and magnitude for students with different intersectional identities. Findings demonstrate that even simple instructor actions—particularly language—may be meaningful to students, but we cannot assume that all students experience these actions the same way.