Abstract: To reveal the overburden movement characteristics of shallow-buried workface mining under thick hard roof in coal pillar clusters, this study takes 303 working face of the 3-lower coal seam of Gaozhuang Coal Mine as the engineering background (corresponding to the room-and-pillar goaf in the 3-upper coal seam supported by coal pillar clusters). Through theoretical analysis, numerical simulation methods, and field monitoring data, the overburden movement features of the shallow-buried workface with thick hard roof under coal pillar clusters were systematically investigated.The results indicated that during the mining of the 3-lower coal seam, influenced by coal pillars and mine rooms in the overlying 3-upper coal seam, shear stress concentration in the immediate roof strata beneath coal pillars led to rib-corner roof failure, while localized damage occurred at coal pillar ribs and surrounding roof/floor strata under mine rooms. The overburden movement process was characterized by three distinct stages: initial failure of strata beneath the thick hard roof, subsequent fracturing of the thick hard roof itself, and ultimately the integral shear collapse of bedrock strata. During the third stage, the overlying strata structure failed to form a stable pressure-bearing arch, leading to the evident manifestation of mine pressure. During face mining, the overall energy of micro-seismic events was small. However, the frequency and energy of these events increased as the damage to the thick hard roof extended to higher rock layers. When selecting hydraulic supports for shallow-buried workface mining with thick hard roof under coal pillar clusters, the risk of elevated ground pressure caused by integral shear collapse of overburden strata must be prioritized in design considerations.