Ethnic diversity in schools and bi-ethnic Dutch students’ educational outcomes and social functioning

The present study examined the relationship between ethnic diversity in school and educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences for bi-ethnic students. The focus of this study is bi-ethnic children with 1 non-migrant parent (with 2 non-migrant grandparents) and 1 migrant parent (with 2 foreign grandparents). It was found that the educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences of bi-ethnic students were not related to ethnic diversity. We also focused on the relationship between ethnic diversity in school and educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences for mono-ethnic students to determine whether this relationship is different for bi-ethnic and mono-ethnic students. Whereas the relationship was not significant for mono-ethnic minority students, mono-ethnic majority students’ educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences were related to a school’s ethnic diversity. This study indicates that the outcomes and social functioning of bi-ethnic students are not related to attending an ethnically diverse school.     

When ethnic minority students are judged as more suitable for the highest school track: a shifting standards experiment

When students are grouped into school tracks, this has lasting consequences for their learning and later careers. In Germany to date, some groups of students (boys, ethnic minority students) are underrepresented in the highest track. Stereotypes about these groups exist that entail negative expectations about their suitability for the highest track. Based on the shifting standards model, the present research examines if and how stereotypes influence tracking recommendations. According to this theory, members of negatively stereotyped groups will be judged more leniently or more strictly depending on the framing of the judgment situation (by inducing minimum or confirmatory standards). N = 280 teacher students participated in a vignette study in which they had to choose the amount of positive evidence for suitability they wanted to see before deciding to recommend a fictitious student to the highest track. A 2 (judgment standard: minimum vs. confirmatory) × 2 (target student’s gender: male vs. female) × 2 (target student’s ethnicity: no migration background vs. Turkish migration background) between-subjects design was used. No effects of target gender occurred, but the expected interaction of target’s ethnicity and judgment standard emerged. In the minimum standard condition, less evidence was required for the ethnic minority student to be recommended for the highest track compared to the majority student. In the confirmatory standards condition, however, participants tended to require less evidence for the ethnic majority student. Our experiment underlines the importance of the framing of the recommendation situation, resulting in a more lenient or stricter assessment of negatively stereotyped groups.

     

Collaborative Group Interactions of Students from Two Ethnic Backgrounds

Australian university campuses are reflecting increased cultural diversity at a time when group work is emphasised as an effective student-centred approach to learning. This paper reports an investigation of differences in rates of verbal interaction by 72 first year male undergraduate engineering students from two ethnic cohorts (Australian-born Anglo-European and overseas-born South East Asian students) during a collaborative group activity. A quantitative methodology was employed. Verbal interactions were recorded under two conditions: mono-ethnic groups containing four students from one ethnic cohort; and bi-ethnic groups made up of two students from each ethnic cohort. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed highly significant differences for the main effects of both Ethnicity and Group Type and also their Interaction. The key finding of this study suggests that the South East Asian students were inhibited in terms of their verbal participation when with Australian students.     

“Everyone Has to Find Themselves in the Story”: Exploring Minority Group Representation in the Citizenship Curriculum in Northern Ireland and Israel

ABSTRACT

This article explores understandings of minority group representation in citizenship education in Northern Ireland and Israel, from the point of view of students, teachers, and policy makers. It is set against the background of the minority–majority group dichotomy within societies divided along ethnonational lines, and the challenge of delivering a common citizenship curriculum to a diverse group in such a context. Starting with interpretations of international law that state that education should be culturally appropriate and flexible to the needs of a particular community, the article considers several interrelated ideas: proportional representation of the minority in educational governance, students being able to “find themselves in the story” of the curriculum, and the debate over a common versus a differentiated curriculum. Interjurisdiction comparisons allow for exploration of varied understandings of citizenship education as socialization, and of potential responses to the challenge of balancing unity and diversity in a divided or multicultural society.     

Learning Environment, Interaction, Sense of Belonging and Study Success in Ethnically Diverse Student Groups

The purpose of this paper was to investigate a model for describing the relationships between the extent to which learning environments are activating and students’ interaction with teachers and peers, sense of belonging, and study success. It was tested whether this model holds true for both ethnic minority students and ethnic majority students. A total of 523 students from four different universities completed a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (Amos) was used to test the model. The model that best describes the relationships in the group of ethnic minority students (N = 145) was shown to be different than the model that best fits the group of majority students (N = 378). Ethnic minority students appeared to feel at home in their educational program if they had a good formal relationship with teachers and fellow students. Ethnic minority students’ sense of belonging to the institution nevertheless did not contribute to their study progress. On the other hand, in majority students, informal relationships with fellow students were what led to a sense of belonging. In these students, the sense of belonging did further academic progress.     

Cultural transition and academic achievement of students from ethnic minority backgrounds: a content analysis of empirical research on acculturation

Background: The achievement gap between immigrant and non-immigrant students that has been identified in most OECD countries and the considerable educational dropout rate among students from ethnic minority backgrounds in some countries have become serious challenges for national educational systems. The educational underachievement of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds is embedded in the process of their acculturation. In the tradition of cross-cultural psychology, acculturation describes individual or ethno-cultural group changes in behaviour and attitudes in the situation of intercultural contact. Such cultural changes are central to the experience of ethnic minority students including newly arriving immigrants, children of immigrants and members of marginalised ethnic and racial groups. Acculturation has been described as a stressful process, and acculturation orientations adopted by young people from ethnic minority backgrounds have been shown to have an impact on their adjustment.

Purpose: The school context has been recognised to be the crucial context for acculturation of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. The academic achievement of these students is thus embedded in the acculturation process, which involves cultural identity development, psychological adjustment and behavioural adjustment. The study is aimed at analysing and systematising the findings of empirical research on acculturation in the school context with a focus on the academic achievement of young people from minority backgrounds.

Design and methods: For this study, 29 peer-reviewed articles from a total of 348 articles that matched the search criteria in the database of the Education Resources Information Centre were selected according to inclusion criteria. The selected articles addressed academic achievement of young people from minority backgrounds in relation to at least one of the issues of acculturation such as cultural identity, psychological adjustment and behavioural adjustment. The articles were analysed by applying the method of qualitative content analysis, using MAXQDA software. The findings presented in the selected articles were analysed and integrated according to a deductively developed and inductively enriched category system.

Conclusions: Overall, the results of our analysis offer insight into issues of acculturation in relation to academic achievement. Moreover, our findings reveal the complexity of the relationship between cultural transition and school adjustment for young people. As shown in our review, although a bi-cultural orientation was predominantly positively related to school adjustment of minority students, some studies also identified assimilative attitudes as advantageous for students’ academic achievement as well as for their psychological and behavioural adjustment. Moreover, our study has also shown that young people’s acculturative attitudes may have a different impact on their school adjustment relative to acculturative behaviours.     

A MINORITY CULTURAL EXPERIENCE FOR UNIVERSITY GERONTOLOGY STUDENTS

This article describes a highly successful short‐term experiential project in minority/ethnic communities developed for Oregon State University gerontology students. This project can serve as a model for universities that lack opportunities in the local community for students to interact with elderly of different minority/ethnic backgrounds and where geographic distances make long‐term practicums in minority communities impractical for the majority of students.

This project enhanced academic study and provided students a meaningful introduction to elements important in designing and implementing effective health and social service programs for minority/ethnic elderly. Details of a three‐day intensive experience at the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon are discussed.     

Introduction to Motivation at School: Interventions That Work

This article provides an introduction and overview to this special issue of Educational Psychologist, titled Promoting Motivation at School: Interventions That Work. This issue is devoted to the topic of interventions that emphasize different aspects of motivation for enhancing students' academic and social outcomes in school. The interventions range from programs focused on individual students to large-scale school reform. The programs described in this issue emphasize both students' academic motivation and their social motivation and focus on a variety of important achievement outcomes. Authors also discuss the effectiveness of various interventions for ethnic minority children. The importance of attending to social aspects of motivation in these kinds of interventions is a major theme of this special issue. Brief overviews of each article are provided.     

Designing your sample efficiently: clustering effects in education surveys

Background:?Education, and information about education, is highly structured: individuals are grouped into classes, which are grouped into schools, which are grouped into local authorities, which are grouped into countries. The degree of similarity among members of a group, such as a school or classroom, is a very important factor in the design and analysis of studies in education.

Purpose:?The aim of this article is to provide information on this degree of similarity within schools to enable those involved in carrying out surveys of schools to do so most efficiently in terms of resources and minimum disturbance of schools.

Sources of data:?This paper uses data from 13 studies at primary and secondary level conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales.

Main argument:?The degree of similarity among members of a group is measured by two statistics, the intra-cluster correlation and the design effect. The study described here classifies outcomes into a number of categories and estimates intra-cluster correlation and design effect. The relevance of the results to survey design and analysis is discussed, and examples of how to use these are given.

Conclusions:?The main findings of this study, rather than conclusions as such, are the intra-cluster correlations for each topic category. However, the paper reaches some tentative conclusions about the degree of clustering by topic. Using Hox's convention (Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications, Lawrence Erlbaum, London, 2002) for the size of intra-cluster correlations, it was found that the degree of clustering of achievement was high, while ethnic and language variables were highly clustered in secondary but not primary. By contrast, attitudes towards school, educationally relevant home characteristics, and perception of school policies have quite low values of ρ (mean < 0.05), defined as small.     

Correlates of student stress in secondary education

Background

Educational differentiation, or the allocation of students to different types of school or different locations within schools, is a common feature of modern education systems. In most countries, student outcomes vary considerably, both by school and academic location within schools.

Purpose

The purpose is to ascertain the extent that between- and within-school differences in student performance can be attributed to students' socio-economic background and their home resources.

Sample

The samples are from the OECD's 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study of 15-year-old students' performance in reading, mathematics and science. Data from 30 countries were analysed. The student samples ranged between 2500 (USA) and 30,000 (Canada) students. The samples are representative of the populations of 15-year-old school students in each country.

Design and methods

Multiple regression analysis was used to ascertain the extent to which between-school differences (measured by intra-class correlations) and within-school differences (measured by the effects of the composite variable ‘academic location’ which comprised grade and school programme) declined when taking into consideration students' socio-economic background and home environment.

Results

In most countries the intra-class correlations and the effects of academic location declined only marginally. This was especially the case in countries with large between-school differences such as the tracked systems of continental Europe.

Conclusions

Differences in student performance between and within schools cannot be accounted for by socio-economic background. The study lends some support to the official rational for tracking and other forms of educational differentiation, that the allocation of students to different school types and academic locations within schools is largely based on student ability.     

Graduate learning outcomes in science: variation in perceptions of single- and dual-degree students

The development of transferrable skillsets, articulated in statements of graduate learning outcomes, is emphasised in undergraduate science degree programmes. Science students enrolled in dual (double) degrees comprise a significant minority of Australian science undergraduates. Research comparing perceptions of single and dual degree students on their science learning outcomes has rarely been explored. The Science Students Skills Inventory was used to compare the perceptions of single (n = 640) and dual (n = 266) degree undergraduate science students. The instrument explored science graduate learning outcomes across six indicators: importance; the extent to which outcomes were included; the extent to which they were assessed; improvement; confidence; and likely future use. Analysis of findings, employing the planned–enacted–experienced curricula framework, offers insight into potential avenues towards coherence of the experienced curriculum by arguing the need for shared perceptions of graduate learning outcomes for single and dual degree science students. The key contribution of this study is a shift towards progressive curriculum development that draws on both single and dual degree student perspectives to achieve graduate learning outcomes. Recommendations include: whole-of-programmes curricular pathways premised on progressive development of learning outcomes that are inclusive of dual degree students, explicit interdisciplinary learning opportunities, and adoption of dual/single status as a demographic variable reported in future research.     

Family,schools and Taiwanese children's outcomes

Background Educational reform is a major challenge facing schools in Taiwan. The new educational reform requires that every primary school must have parental involvement programmes in their school schedules, and to support these new programmes, there is a need for research to examine the extent and nature of parental involvement in primary schools in Taiwan, and to investigate the impact of parental involvement on pupil outcomes.

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which parents' involvement in schooling is related to primary pupil outcomes, after taking into account differences in family social status and family structure, and the children's perceptions of their school learning environments.

Sample For the analyses data were collected in 2001 from 261 6th-grade Taiwanese students, 128 boys and 133 girls, from four primary schools in the Taichung City school district. The average age of the children was approximately 11 years.

Design and methods In the analysis of the research model, a quantitative approach was adopted, in which each student completed two questionnaires and two academic achievement tests. The first questionnaire included questions to assess family social status, family structure and parents' involvement in their children's education. In the second questionnaire there were questions to measure pupils' self-concept and perceptions of their schools' learning environments. The data were analysed using multiple-regression techniques to examine relationships among family social status, family structure, parental involvement, the school learning environment and pupils' school-related outcomes.

Results The findings suggested that: (a) children's academic achievement is related to their family social status and perceptions of immediate family learning environments, and (b) children's self-concept is associated with their perceptions of classroom learning environments, parents' aspirations and parents' involvement at home. These propositions indicate the differential nature of the relationships among family and school environments and measures of children's school outcomes.

Conclusions In the Taiwanese context, by showing the particularly important association between Taiwanese family environments and children's school outcomes, the present investigation supports the educational reform movement that encourages schools to involve parents more intimately in shared responsibilities.     

Recapturing imaginations and the gender agenda: reflections on a progressive challenge from an English perspective

Study careers of minority students in Dutch higher education are still less successful compared with the careers of majority students. Minority students still seem to experience more difficulties than majority students. Vincent Tinto’s twin concepts of academic and social integration are used here to explore the experiences of minority and majority students in Dutch higher engineering education. Based on a small‐scale interview study, it is shown that ethnic background does not seem to be a decisive, unequivocal factor in the extent to which students are integrated in institutions of higher education. Student answers show differences according to ethnic background in both social and academic integration, and these differences vary according to the year in which the students are found. The paper ends with some suggestions for further exploration.     

The Influence of Service Learning on Students' Personal and Social Development

Abstract. An explanatory methods design was used to evaluate the influence of a service learning course on learning, personal, and social outcomes for service learning (n = 142) students. These students showed improvements in diversity and political awareness, community self-efficacy, and civic engagement scores from the beginning to the end of the semester. In addition, the students' academic learning, personal and interpersonal development, and community engagement were detected as the major benefits from engaging in service learning. The findings of this study suggest that service learning contributes to students' academic learning and personal and social development through social-emotional processes.     

Associations of Resource and Service Utilization, Risk Level, and College Outcomes

We tracked resource and service utilizations and first-year college outcomes for the entering first-year class (n = 1,534) at a traditional 4-year postsecondary institution. We grouped specific resources and services offered by the institution into four general categories (academic services, social resources, recreational resources, and advising sessions). We investigated the interrelation of risk, resource and service utilization, and first-year GPA and retention. We found that utilization of each resource/service category was positively associated with GPA and/or retention. Of particular interest, we tested whether the associations of resource and service utilization and outcomes were moderated by risk. We found that the associations of academic services and advising sessions with GPA were more pronounced for higher-risk students. We discuss the implications of the findings, including how the differential associations of resource and service utilizations and outcomes can affect intervention decisions with high-risk students. This research was a collaborative project between ACT and NAU. Steven Robbins, Jeff Allen, Alex Casillas, and Adaeze Akamigbo are members of ACT Research. Margot Saltonstall is Assessment Coordinator, Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, Rebecca Campbell is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, and Eileen Mahoney is Director of the Gateway Student Success Center, all at Northern Arizona University. Paul Gore is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah and former director of the Career Transitions Research Department at ACT.     

White British; dual heritage; British Muslim: Young Britons' conceptualisation of identity and citizenship

This paper examines young British people's conceptualisation of identity and citizenship. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey from 442 young male and female citizens of majority and minority ethnic origins, aged 14–24 years and at different stages of education, employment and non-employment. This was followed up by in-depth interviews with a stratified sample of 40 participants. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, and by closely examining the two key concepts of identity and citizenship, the paper analyses the ways in which young Britons perceive their multiple identities and citizenship status. The research shows that education and career are the major priorities of these young people. They have clear notions of identity and citizenship and most are comfortable with their own identities and feelings of citizenship. However, some of those who are from a minority ethnic background have doubts about being viewed as British citizens because of racial harassment or stereotyping, particularly in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the West. The research has implications for pedagogy, education policy, community cohesion and social justice.     

Associations Between Classroom Language Composition,Teacher Social-Emotional Support,and Dual Language Learning Preschoolers’ Social Behavior

This secondary analysis explored longitudinal associations between the concentration of shared-language peers and the development of prosocial and problem behavior in dual language learning (DLL) preschoolers from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Mixed-effects regression models were used to analyze year-end outcomes of 212 Spanish-speaking students in 73 Head Start classrooms in which English was the only instructional language. Research Findings: Classroom concentration of Spanish speakers was not associated with Spanish-speaking DLLs’ year-end prosocial behavior. For problem behavior, there was a disordinal interaction between teacher social-emotional support and classroom concentration. In classrooms with higher teacher social-emotional support, the proportion of Spanish-speaking classmates was positively associated with Spanish-speaking children’s problem behaviors. In classrooms with lower teacher social-emotional support, the proportion of Spanish-speaking students per classroom was negatively associated with Spanish-speaking children’s problem behaviors. Practice or Policy: Findings highlight the value of shared-language peers in particular classroom contexts and have implications for DLL students’ preschool classroom placements.     

Students' Precollege Preparation for Participation in a Diverse Democracy

This study focuses on how students' precollege experiences predisposed them to 3 democratic outcomes: (a) ability to see the world from someone else's perspective; (b) beliefs that conflict enhances democracy; and (c) views about the importance of engaging in social action activities. We analyzed data from 3 flagship universities as part of a nationally funded research project and found first-year females are more likely than males to report values and beliefs consistent with democratic outcomes. Participation in race/ethnic discussions, student clubs, and volunteer work, as well as studying with students of different groups and discussing controversial issues are significant predictors in each model. Results also indicate that students might be unprepared to negotiate conflict in a diverse democracy, suggesting that college engagement will play a key role in fostering the development of democratic citizenship. This study also provides new measures of democratic outcomes to assess the impact of diversity and service learning initiatives.     

Public understanding of science as basic literacy

Against the background of an increasing drop‐out rate of students with ethnic minority and working‐class backgrounds, the aim of this paper is to discuss the ways in which writing practices in Swedish teacher education produce power and include/exclude subjectivities. A conventional academic writing practice will be compared to a hybrid writing practice that has been experimented with for several years at the Stockholm Institute of Education. This hybrid writing practice is characterized by two intertwined features: a divergent complicity that combines diverse subjectivities and multiple theories in a multigenre text; and a convergent and reductive shift that makes academic writing accessible. As the paper will show, a hybrid writing practice can strengthen the inclusion of students with ethnic minority and working‐class backgrounds and, in turn, help them finish their programs. It is, however, not bereft of all exclusionary tendencies.     

Ethnic Diversity and Inclusive School Environments

Inclusive school contexts can promote psychological and social adjustment and enhance learning among students. Changing demographics and 21st-century workplace needs suggest that ethnic diversity is one important dimension of inclusion to consider. This article presents 4 suggestions for how schools can facilitate inclusivity for ethnic diversity that are recommended to be employed in conjunction with one another: (a) school and classroom ethnic composition (i.e., increased ethnic diversity), (b) positive ethnic identity for ethnic minority students, (c) multicultural/diversity training and cooperative learning, and (d) the promotion of social competence and prosocial behaviors. Developmental considerations are discussed and a case is made that improving individual students’ functioning can ultimately promote inclusivity for all students. Assisting students to be ready and able to form friendships with peers from ethnically diverse backgrounds provides them with valuable experience and skills that they can carry forward to new educational, community, and workplace settings.