Orhan Agirdag

Exploring bilingualism in a monolingual school system: insights from Turkish and native students from Belgian schools

A growing body of empirical studies indicates the educational benefits of bilingualism. Despite this tendency, bilingual minority students are being pressured by school authorities to shed their mother tongues. We conducted qualitative interviews with Turkish‐bilingual and native‐monolingual students in Flemish (Belgium) secondary schools to investigate how students evaluate their languages, how Dutch monolingualism is imposed, and how students respond to the dominance of monolingualism. Our results indicate that the mother tongues of bilingual students are mainly perceived as a barrier to educational and occupational success, while the benefits of bilingualism are unknown. Thus, both Turkish‐bilingual and native‐monolingual students approved of speaking one language. We also found that monolingualism was strongly imposed on students by explicit encouragement, formal punishment when bilinguals speak their mother tongue, and exclusion of foreign languages from the cultural repertoire of the school. These results are discussed as they relate to policy‐makers, scholars of bilingualism and institutional racism.

Teachers’ Understanding of Multicultural Education and the Correlates of Multicultural Content Integration in Flanders:

The bulk of scholarship on multicultural education continues to focus exclusively on U.S. education. Previous studies published in this field also have focused largely on topics that are considered relevant for the United States, whereas little attention has been paid to topics that are less problematized in the United States. In this mixed-method study, we explore teachers’ understanding of multicultural education in Flanders (Belgium), and we examine whether teacher and school characteristics correlate with the degree to which teachers integrate multicultural content. Survey results with 706 in-service teachers from 68 schools and in-depth interviews with 26 teachers from 5 schools are used. The results point out that teachers focus mainly on religious diversity when they were asked about their understanding of multicultural education. However, their understanding was largely limited to the “contributions approach” and “additive approach” to multicultural education. Multilevel analysis revealed that ethnic minority teachers reported higher levels of multicultural content integration than native-White teachers, and teachers working in schools with higher share of ethnic minorities and public (State) schools incorporated more multicultural education than teachers working in elite-White schools and Catholic schools. Implications for both the literature on multicultural education and educational policymakers are discussed.

Silencing linguistic diversity: The extent, the determinants and consequences of the monolingual beliefs of Flemish teachers

ABSTRACT This article aims to deepen our understanding of the dynamic interaction between language policies, school characteristics and teachers’ beliefs about monolingualism. The study takes place in Flanders (Belgium), a region characterized by educational policies which are based on a stringent monolingual ideology. Based on a survey of 775 teachers from across 48 secondary schools, we examined how these policies affected teachers’ beliefs, whether and how teacher beliefs vary between schools, and what the consequences of these beliefs are. The results of our multilevel analysis indicate that teachers strongly adhere to monolingual policies, while there are also significant differences across schools, which are related to the ethnic composition of those schools. Furthermore, a stronger adherence to monolingualism was found to trigger teachers to have lower expectations about their students but not about their ability to teach. Finally, implications for policymakers are discussed.

Ethnic School Segregation and Self-Esteem The Role of Teacher–Pupil Relationships

The authors examine whether school segregation is related to pupils’ global self-esteem and whether this association is mediated by teacher–pupil relationships. Multilevel analyses based on a survey of 2,845 pupils (aged 10 to 12) in 68 primary schools in Belgian urban areas reveal that, for native-Belgian pupils, a higher proportion of immigrants at school is associated with increasing self-esteem. Initially no such association was found for immigrant pupils, as the effect of schools’ ethnic composition on their self-esteem was suppressed by teacher–pupil relationships. For both groups, experiences of supportive relationships with teachers were largely associated with self-esteem.

Determinants of the Formation of a European Identity Among Children: Individual‐ and School‐Level Influences

While a growing number of studies have been conducted on European identification, very few of them have examined how children form their sense of European identity. This article investigates the impact of individual‐ and school‐level characteristics on childrens formation of a European identity. Multi‐level analyses of data from 2,845 pupils (aged 10–14) in 68 Belgian primary schools revealed that family socio‐economic status (SES), ethnicity, gender and the schools SES make‐up influence the extent to which children identify as European; age, religion and school sector do not. The study clarifies the importance of examining how children form their European identity.

The relationship between parental literacy involvement, socio-economic status and reading literacy

Abstract In this article, we explore the relationship between parental literacy activities with the child, socio-economic status (SES) and reading literacy. We draw upon the Bourdieusian theory of habitus development to explore this relationship. Multilevel analyses of a survey of 43,870 pupils (with an average age of 10 years) in 10 Western European regions reveal a positive relation between early parental involvement in literacy activities (before primary school) and an increasing level of reading literacy and parental education. Students with a lower SES also have lower reading literacy and reading attitudes than students with a higher SES. We also find that children with a lower SES experience more late parental involvement in literacy activities (during the fourth year of formal schooling) than children with a higher SES. We also show that late parental involvement in literacy activities is an adjustment for worse or better reading literacy during primary school.

The gross and net effects of primary school denomination on pupil performance

Notwithstanding dramatically low levels of professed religiosity in Western Europe, the religious school sector continues to thrive. One explanation for this paradox is that nowadays parents choose religious schools primarily for their higher academic reputation. Empirical evidence for this presumed denominational advantage is mixed. We examine and compare several studies purporting to show a denominational school effect, and then turn our attention to the Dutch case. Owing to its longstanding and highly varied denominational school sector, the Netherlands arguably provides a unique context in which to examine whether there are school sector effects. In this study multilevel analyses were performed. Data include 19 cognitive and non-cognitive outcome measures in 2011 administered to 27,457 pupils in grades 2, 5 and 8 of 386 primary schools. Results show that after controlling for input differences at pupil and school level no substantial output differences between religious schools and public schools remain. However, Islamic schools appear to be one important exception which turn out to have a great value-added potential. Implications of these findings are discussed.

European identity as a unifying category: National vs. European identification among native and immigrant pupils

This article investigates whether European identity is a feasible and functional alternative to national identity. We examine the extent, determinants and consequences of national and European identification among (immigrant) Turkish and native Belgian pupils, with data gathered from 1629 pupils across 68 Belgian schools. The results show that immigrant Turkish pupils identify more strongly with Europe than with Belgium. The groups are closer to each other with respect to their European identification, while the latter is not in conflict with national identification. Moreover, European identity is less ethnically and more civically defined than national identity. Importantly, European identification was moderately related to academic achievement, though it is hard to make a causal claim.

Supporting science learning in linguistically diverse classrooms

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) are a promising means to support language minority (LMi) students in acquiring knowledge and skills through the integration of authentic support in their home language. This study aimed to determine the use of scientific bilingual content offered to fourth-grade students (n?=?250) in the CBLE E-Validiv and to identify both student and classroom characteristics related to this use. All the content in E-Validiv is accessible in the language of instruction and one of six other languages. For LMi students, the other language is set to their home language. Multilevel hierarchical regression analyses show that especially LMi students who assess themselves as highly proficient in their home language use the content more in the other language than language majority students. However, even LMi students focus mainly on content in the language of instruction, which indicates that they particularly apply their home language to support their learning process in the language of instruction. Additionally, students who perform higher on science subjects access content more in the language of instruction. The presence of linguistic diversity in the classroom and the positive use of linguistic diversity by the teacher do not seem to matter. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. A computer-based learning environment offering bilingual content is presented.Language minority students access the language of instruction and their home language.They use their home language particularly as a support for learning.Proficiency in their home language plays a role in the use of bilingual content.Higher science achievement is positively related to use of the language of instruction.

Trends in pre-school enrolment in Turkey: unequal access and differential consequences

In this study, a historical and international analysis of early childhood education in Turkey is made. More specifically, we explore the trend in pre-school enrolment, compare Turkeys enrolment rate with other countries, study whether access to pre-school is related to social class and gender, and investigate the impact of pre-school attendance on later academic performance. We use data from the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012 study and World Bank EdStats. The results indicate that Turkeys pre-school enrolment has strongly increased over the years. However, compared with other (newly) industrialised countries, Turkey has a very low pre-school enrolment rate. Regression analyses revealed that pupils from wealthy families are much more likely to attend pre-school than pupils from poor families, while no difference was found between girls and boys. Importantly, pre-school attendance was related to higher academic achievement, even though pupils from wealthy families benefited more than middle-class and poor pupils.