Reaping the benefits of cultural diversity: Classroom cultural diversity climate and students’ intercultural competence

Abstract

Culturally diverse schools may constitute natural arenas for training crucial intercultural skills. We hypothesized that a classroom cultural diversity climate fostering contact and cooperation and multiculturalism, but not a climate fostering color‐evasion, would be positively related to adolescents’ intercultural competence. Adolescents in North Rhine‐Westphalia (N = 631, Mage = 13.69 years, 49% of immigrant background) and Berlin (N = 1,335, Mage = 14.69 years, 52% of immigrant background) in Germany reported their perceptions of the classroom cultural diversity climate and completed quantitative and qualitative measures assessing their intercultural competence. Multilevel structural equation models indicate that contact and cooperation, multiculturalism, and, surprisingly, also color‐evasion (as in emphasizing a common humanity), were positively related to the intercultural competence of immigrant and non‐immigrant background students. We conclude that all three aspects of the classroom climate are uniquely related to aspects of adolescents’ intercultural competence and that none of them may be sufficient on their own.

The Role of Perceived Inter-Ethnic Classroom Climate in Adolescents’ Engagement in Ethnic Victimization: For Whom Does it Work?

“…One of the important contributions of the present study is that it draws attention to the importance of classroom context in understanding the factors that may contribute to adolescents' engagement in ethnic victimization. Supporting the premises of social norms theories (Perkins and Berkowitz 1986) and previous research (e.g., Schachner et al in press;Schwarzenthal et al 2019), the current findings suggest that, when adolescents perceive that students in their classroom are open to diverse views, respect each other's cultural values, and cooperate with each other on different class activities, they are less likely to engage in ethnic victimization. Importantly and interestingly, the effect of perceived positive contact norms on engagement in ethnic victimization is the same among youth with different attitudes and feelings toward immigrants, even after controlling for certain demographic factors, such as gender, immigrant status, and classroom ethnic composition.…”

“…Two alternative explanations can be proposed for this finding. As previously mentioned, being in an inclusive and socially cohesive classroom may contribute to the development of intercultural competence and awareness among adolescents (Schwarzenthal et al 2019) and foster crossethnic friendships (Schachner et al 2015). Such competence and inter-personal relationships may help adolescents embrace differences rather than perceive them as a threat, and, in turn, may prevent the occurrence of incidents of ethnic victimization.…”

“…Norms supporting contact and cooperation might motivate youth to develop positive views on others who are different than themselves and to engage in contact with outgroup members. In line with these conceptual arguments, a growing body of research has shown that perceived positive contact norms in class (e.g., being inclusive, respecting each other, cooperating in class activities) are associated with lower prejudiced beliefs (Molina and Wittig 2006), more openness to diversity (Schachner et al in press), greater intercultural competence (Schwarzenthal et al 2019), and a higher likelihood of forming interethnic friendships (Schachner et al 2015). Importantly, perceived positive contact norms in class have also been found to be associated with lower perceived discrimination (Schachner et al in press) and a greater out-group orientation (Schwarzenthal et al 2018) among immigrant students.…”

Stressing similarities or ignoring differences? Shedding light into different forms of color-evasive ideology with pre- and in-service teachers

“…The stressing similarities ideology acknowledges cultural differences but emphasizes common ground, what is shared between individuals ("We are all humans") and the necessity of treating everyone equally (Rosenthal and Levy 2010). School climate research has shown consistently that the stressing similarities ideology remains the dominant approach reflected in the school curriculum, particularly in Germany (Civitillo 2017; Schachner 2019; Schwarzenthal et al 2020). The emphasis on stressing similarities may be linked to the unique socio-historical context of Germany.…”

School Satisfaction in Immigrant and Chilean Students: The Role of Prejudice and Cultural Self-Efficacy

“…In the case of adolescents in multicultural school settings, there is some evidence which suggests that negative emotions toward peers, such as anxiety, and the orientation to violence are related to a decrease of intercultural competences (Oyeleke et al, 2018;Bagci et al, 2020). A study conducted in Germany by Schwarzenthal et al (2020) also reported that changes in students' cultural competences depend on school climate, in terms of the endorsement of positive attitudes toward multiculturality and the promotion of contact and cooperation.…”