The Relationship between Teacher Support and School Engagement of Immigrant and Non-immigrant Students in Germany

Immigrant students often fail to exert their full range of individual capacities in educational contexts and are often affected by failure in their school careers. When school related topics are concerned empirical studies reveal that non-immigrant students receive more support from their parents, whereas immigrant students seem to rely more on the advice and support they receive from their teachers. Negative school experiences might be a predictor for hidden school dropout the following study wants to shed light on predictors for immigrant and non-immigrant students. The following study seeks to investigate relevant factors for school engagement of students in Germany. It is centered around the question, in which way school climate and homeroom teachers are perceived in order to predict school engagement. A total of 708 secondary students from different school types in North-Rhine-Westfalia were interviewed with a standardized questionnaire, adressing ethnic and national identity, language proficiency, social support, self-esteem, perceived discrimination, school absence, school engagement, teacher-student relationship, social integration in class and instructional quality. The interviewed students were mostly aged from 12-13 years, more than half of the participants had migration experience themselves or within the family. Analysis display a considerable correlation between teacher support, school climate and school engagement, which is stronger in the immigrant subsample than it is in the non-immigrant one. Our results stress the special importance of a supportive school climate and a supportive relationship between teachers and immigrant students to counteract possible hidden school dropout and to foster the development of immigrant students’ school careers.