Positive and Negative Effects of Matching Acculturation Orientations between Primary School Students and their Class Teachers – Insights from a Longitudinal Study in Switzerland

Schools are considered to constitute the main acculturation context for immigrant children and youth. Accordingly, there is a long-standing research tradition investigating the impact of different acculturation orientations of immigrant students on their school adjustment (Haenni Hoti et al., 2017). However, little is known about the effect of (mis-)matching acculturation orientations between immigrant students and their teachers. The present longitudinal study with two measurement points (grades 5 and 6) examined what difference it makes for immigrant students’ well-being and academic success at school if their acculturation orientations and those of their class teachers can be said to match (N=1’106 primary school students and N=60 teachers in Switzerland). Using multilevel and multiple regression analysis, we found that in grade 5 students were more satisfied at school if their teachers had matching attitudes about cultural assimilation and cultural diversity. However, immigrant students with a minority orientation whose native-born teachers value cultural diversity showed a lower academic self-concept despite matching orientations. We interpret this result as a dilemma of (native-born) teachers between the endeavour to develop culturally sensitive attitudes and behaviours and the risk to create stereotype threat and its negative effects through addressing cultural differences. In addition, a mismatch between the students’ (bi-)national identification at school and the teacher’s perception of the student as an immigrant or a native-born student could be shown to have adverse effects on the academic self-concept in the group of students with older teachers (50+ years). At the conference, key findings from the longitudinal study including grades 5 and 6 will be presented.

References:

Haenni Hoti, A.; Heinzmann, S.; Müller, M. & Buholzer, A. (2017). Psychosocial adaptation and school success of Italian, Portuguese and Albanian students in Switzerland: disentangling migration background, acculturation and the school context. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 18(1), 85-106. Doi: 10.1007/s12134-015-0461-x