The Relationship between Ethnic Classroom Composition and Turkish-Origin and German Students' Reading Performance and Sense of Belonging

Abstract

Past research on ethnic composition effects on migrant and ethnic majority students' performance has reported inconclusive results: Some studies have found no relationship between the proportion of migrant students in school and students' performance, some revealed positive effects, whereas others showed negative effects of the proportion of migrant students. Most of the studies did not consider whether an increase in the proportion of migrant students in the classroom has different effects on migrant and ethnic majority students' performance. For this reason, the present study (N = 9215) extends previous research by investigating the cross-level interaction effect of the proportion of Turkish-origin students in classrooms on Turkish-origin and German students' reading performance with data based on the German National Assessment Study 2008/2009 in the school subject German. In addition, we examined the cross-level interaction effect of Turkish-origin students' proportion on sense of belonging to school for Turkish-origin and German students, as sense of belonging has been shown to be an important predictor of well-being and integration. No cross-level interaction effect on performance emerged. Only a small negative main effect of the Turkish-origin students' proportion on all students' performance was found. As predicted, we showed a cross-level interaction on sense of belonging. Only Turkish-origin students' sense of belonging was positively related to the proportion of Turkish-origin students: The more Turkish-origin students there were in a classroom, the higher Turkish-origin students' sense of belonging. German students' sense of belonging was not related to the ethnic classroom composition. Implications of the results in the educational context are discussed.

The fit between dignity self‐construal and independent university norms: Effects on university belonging, well‐being, and academic success

“…The following lines of research suggest that the sense of belonging to a university can be undermined by experiencing a low fit between one's own self‐construal and the perceived norm of the university, whereas experiencing a high fit should bolster this sense of belonging. According to a study by Mok et al (2016), for instance, the sense of belonging of high school students with a minority background depends on their fit with the norms in their class. Moreover, research has repeatedly shown that P‐E fit correlates with organizational identification, satisfaction with the supervisor and colleagues, as well as group cohesion (for a meta‐analysis see Kristof‐Brown et al, 2005).…”

Regression Analysis of ICT Impact Factors on Early Adolescents’ Reading Proficiency in Five High-Performing Countries

“…For immigrant background factors, immigrant students perform consistently worse than native students (e.g., Liberto, 2014), which can be explained by insufficient family support and the control of immigrants (Santos et al, 2016). In the meantime, it has also been found that the sense of school belonging exerts a moderating effect in the mathematical achievement gap between immigrants and natives (Schachner et al, 2017); however, for reading performance, this moderating effect turns out to be insignificant (Mok et al, 2016). The second category is related to cognitive factors.…”

The interaction of vertical collectivism and stereotype activation on the performance of Turkish-origin high school students

“…German students do not suffer when they are in classrooms with a high proportion of (lowerperforming) Turkish-origin students (e.g., Mok et al, 2016), which also speaks for an VERTICAL COLLECTIVISM AND STEREOTYPE THREAT 24 implementation of ethnically mixed and ability-related grouping during collaborations in the classroom. However, more research is needed to explore these effects.…”

“…Today, children of Turkish-origin migrants perform more poorly in standardized tests than Germans and other migrant groups (e.g., Bos, 2012;Klieme et al, 2010;Mok, Martiny, Gleibs, Keller, & Froehlich, 2016) and are less likely to attain higher education (e.g., Kristen, Reimer, & Kogan, 2008). On the one hand this underperformance is surprising, because research shows that the Turkish culture strongly values achievement motivation (e.g., Phalet & Claeys, 1993;Verkuyten, Thijs, & Canatan 2001), and high achievement motivation and good performance outcomes are expected from Turkish students by their families (Phalet & Claeys, 1993).…”