Abstract
This dissertation focuses on the impact of socio-cultural factors on school engagement of minority students in Dutch secondary schools. This question was raised because studies that focus on the impact of structural or institutional factors were often left with an 'ethnic residual'. This ethnic factor is often post-hoc related to
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socio-cultural factors without a solid explanation of how such factors impact on school engagement. This dissertation aimed at filling this gap by focusing on the impact of socio-cultural factors, while controlling for relevant structural and institutional variables. Socio-cultural factors refer to a combination of social factors (the degree and quality of social interaction between minorities and natives, Van Tubergen, 2004) and cultural factors (ethnic identification, acculturation orientations and personal goals, Sackman, 2003).
It was shown that acculturation orientations stimulate educational progress, if they are matched with the prevailing context. In contexts favoring the ethnic culture, such as at home, some degree of dissociation from the host culture yields positive results on educational progress; whereas in contexts favoring the dominant Dutch culture (e.g. school) a strategy of culture adoption, combined with culture maintenance is most adaptive. This means that successful students are able to switch between contexts.
The findings on the role of acculturation orientations were extended by investigating acculturation as an interactive phenomenon. A new and most parsimonious twofold typology of interethnic relations combining acculturation orientations of minorities with perceived discrimination and acceptance by the host society was successfully validated. Adolescents in the separation type prefer the ethnic culture to the majority culture in the school context and perceive low acceptance, while those in the integration type prefer the ethnic culture less and the host culture more in the context of school and perceive high acceptance. Adolescents in the separation type identify themselves more with the ethnic group and have a larger preference for contact with peers of the same ethnic background. Moreover, the most adaptive integration type successfully predicts students' learning strategies, but not their task motivation and current track positions.
Lastly, the personal goals of autonomy and conformity impact on motivated learning through individual and social achievement goals. Social achievement goals refer to motivation for academic tasks with the aim of obtaining approval and recognition from important others (Blumenfeld, 1992; Hamilton Blumenfeld, Akoh & Miura, 1989; Urdan & Maehr, 1995). In the existing literature on social goals it was suggested that especially non-western and ethnic minority students would be motivated by social goals, because they provide an opportunity to fulfil expected social obligations to family and authority figures (Iyengar & Lepper, 1999). Our study showed that western students can also be motivated by social goals. Across cultures, students who value autonomy are motivated by individual reasons to achieve. Conformity-oriented students are motivated by social goals, but also by individual goals. Hence, autonomy and conformity-oriented students' school engagement is mediated by distinct individual and social achievement goals. This shows how personal goals that are often related to cross-cultural differences affect motivated learning in the classroom.
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