Students ethnic attitudes in Dutch primary education

1
Students ethnic attitudes in Dutch primary
education

• Joep Bakker, Eddie Denessen, Ben Pelzer,
• Martine Veneman en Sandra Lageweg

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Factors that cause ethnic segregation in
education 1 Residential segregation - absolute
segregation 2 Processes of school choice -
relative segregation 3 Acceptance policy of
denominational schools
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Why is ethnic segregation problematic? 1 it
negatively affects students level of
achievement 2 it hinders integration
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Educational performance gaps (language and math)
of 6th grade students from diverse
ethnic-cultural backgounds compared to middle
class native Dutch students (Gijsberts, 2006)
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Reasons for decrease of performance gap between
segregated and non-segregated schools
(Gijsberts) - schools receive more money -
teachers have acquired experience in dealing
with disadvantaged pupils
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Why is ethnic segregation problematic? 1 it
negatively affects students level of
achievement 2 it hinders integration
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Ministry of Education (2005) and Education
Council (2005) Ethnic concentrations in
schools will block societal integration Primary
Education Law (2006) Education should promote
active citizenship and societal integration and
should contribute to childrens acquaintance with
diverse backgrounds and cultures of their peers,
to overcome prejudice and stereotyping.
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• Theoretical background of childrens prejudice
  and stereotyping
• 1 Social Identity Development Theory, SIDT
• (Nesdale et al., 2005)
• - undifferentiated
• - ethnic awareness ( 3 year old)
• - ethnic preference ( 4/5 year old)
• - ethnic prejudice ( 6/7 year old)

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• 2 Group dynamics (Jackson et al., 2006)
• - Opportunity effect (positive nominations of
  majority group)
• - Threat effect (isolation of minority groups)
• - Social norm

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• Counteracting childrens prejudice and
  stereotyping
• Allports Contact Hypothesis (1954 1958)
• Contact may reduce bias

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• Allports predecessors
• Singer (1948) White soldiers who had integrated
  combat experiences had more positive racial
  attitudes than those who did not have this
  contact
• Deutch Collins (1951) White residents in an
  integrated housing project had more frequent and
  positive interracial contact than those in
  segregated units, and they subsequently displayed
  more positive racial attitudes and showed less
  racial stereotyping

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• There is impressive evidence of the importance of
  intergroup contact for reducing bias across a
  range of minority groups, including homosexuals
  (Herek Capitano, 1996), people with psychiatric
  disorders (Kolodziej Johnson, 1996) as well as
  racial and ethnic minorities.

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• A meta-analytic review authored by Pettigrew
  Tropp (2000) reported the results of tests of the
  Contact Hypothesis, based om 303 studies
  involving 90.000 participants.
• Across these studies, intergroup contact was
  significantly related to decreased intergroup
  biases.
• These effects occur for both majority and
  minority participants

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• Pettigrew (1997) who examined the responses of
  over 3800 majority group members in France, Great
  Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany, found that
  people with outgroup friends had significantly
  lower levels of bias toward the group and that
  the development of intergroup friendships played
  a critical role in the way that contact reduced
  bias.

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• Measures of ethnic integration
• 1 Inter-ethnic contact (quantity and quality of
  inter-ethnic friendships, e.g. Aboud, Mendelson,
  Purdy, 2003)
• 2 Inter-ethnic attitudes

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• Especially in Australia and Canada much research
  has been done on ethnic attitudes, but seldomly
  the composition of the school / classroom has
  been taken into account (Aboud, 2003 Nesdale,
  Durkin, Maass Griffith, 2005).
• When ethnic composition was incorporated in
  research designs, usually a proportionate
  black/white-dichotomy has been used (Teunissen,
  1988 Verkuyten Kinket, 2000).
• To our knowledge, there is one exception
  Verkuyten en Thijss (2002) study on racist
  victimization among young children.

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Research questions

• 1. What attitudes do native Dutch, Turkish,
  Moroccan and Surinamese students have towards
  their own group and towards each others groups?
• 2.  To what extent does the ethnic composition of
  the class account for these attitudes?
• 3. What is the effect of inter-ethnic friendships
  of students inter-ethnic attitudes?
• 4. To what extent does the amount of
  intercultural education affect students
  inter-ethnic attitudes?

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Sample N 12 schools (10 in Rotterdam, 2 in
Nijmegen) N 58 classes (grade 2-6) N 1287
students Non-representative sample of schools
varying in homogeneity of the school population
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Variables at pupil level - Ethnic background
- Gender All these variables have been assessed
by the students teachers
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Variables at student level Attitudes towards
six ethnic groups (cf. Verkuyten Thijs),
ranging from 1-5. how do you like to have ..
friends? 1 not at all 5 very
much Successively Dutch, Turkish, American,
Moroccan, Surinamese, German
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Variables at student level Inter-ethnic
contact who do you play with? the names of
(only) classmates could be provided to a maximum
of 10. one-way nominations have not been scored
as friendship relations
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Class level variables - Grade (2 6) - Class
size (10-30) - Class composition proportion of
students from specific ethnic backgrounds -
Intercultural education does the school pay
attention to intercultural education? 0 no, 1
to a little extent, 2 to a large extent
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Analysis Multi-level analyses Model A simple
model, differences in attitudes between ethnic
groups Model B effects of class composition and
interethnic contact Model C effects of gender,
grade and intercultural education
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Results


In-group attitudes were more favourable than
attitudes towards out-groups (Table 1) Dutch
students showed the largest difference between
in-group and out-group attitudes
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Results

• Effects of class composition on inter-ethnic
  attitudes were small (Table 2)
• Dutch and Turkish students in-group attitudes
  increase when the number of in-group classmates
  is larger
• Dutch students attitudes towards Moroccan
  children increase when the number of Turkish
  classmates increases
• Turkish students attitudes towards Surinamese
  children decrease when the number of Moroccan
  classmates increases
• Intra- or inter-ethnic friendships did not
  contribute to childrens attitudes

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Results

• Gender and age effects (Table 3)
• Older students have less positive attitudes
  towards Dutch children
• Dutch students positive attitudes towards
  Turkish and Moroccan children increase with age
• Dutch girls have more positive attitudes towards
  Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese children than
  Dutch boys
• Moroccan girls have more positive attitudes
  towards Dutch children than Moroccan boys
• Varying non-significant effects of
  intercultural education (Table 3)

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Discussion

• Students show strong in-group preferences
• Small effects of class composition on ethnic
  attitudes
• possible explanation
• identity strengthening effects of heterogeneity
  of class composition (cf. SIDT, Nesdale, 2001)

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Discussion

• Neglegible effects of inter-ethnic friendships on
  ethnic attitudes
• Possible explanations
• 1 out-group friends are seen as a-typical and
  non-representative for their ethnic group as a
  whole
• 2 family and community socialization-effects
  that contribute to childrens ethnic prejudice
  and stereotyping may be stronger than schools
  socialization effects

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Discussion

• Implications for educational practice and
  policies
• In schools promoting positive student
  interactions, for example by using cooperative
  learning techniques (e.g. Webb Palinscar,
  1996).
• Broaden integration interventions involve family
  and community components
• - by stimulating their involvement and
  participation in schools
• - by simultaneously intervene at family levels
  to reduce prejudice and stereotyping within
  families

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Discussion

• To conclude
• School-desegregation does not automatically lead
  to integration
• Education cannot solve integration problems in
  isolation from the broader socio-cultural context