Embracing diversity: A multi-method study of the social inclusion and school success of minority youth

Desegregated schools were once thought to be the solution for children from disadvantaged groups. Research has shown the benefits of school diversity (one result of desegregation) for minority students by creating wider and richer peer networks. Yet, diversity may have a downside if school environments (implicitly or overtly) communicate that minority identities are devalued. Then, minority students can feel more socially rejected and more threatened academically. In this thesis, I assess social inclusion and academic achievement as two adjustment outcomes which are robust predictors of better life chances for minorities. My focus is on what the social environment (e.g., peers, schools) communicates about cultural diversity: whether diversity is valued, ignored, or rejected constitutes different ‘diversity approaches’ which include or exclude minorities through protecting or undermining their social self-worth. While evidence suggests that a diversity approach valuing minority cultures is key for the inclusion and success of minorities, it is less well understood (1) how diversity approaches inform—and are informed by— intergroup relations and group norms in culturally diverse settings and how self-context acculturation (mis)fit affects minority inclusion, and (2) how schools can intervene to create supportive diversity approaches that include minorities through affirming minority identities. I address these two questions with five studies, using multiple research methods and designs (multi-level, longitudinal, experimental and qualitative) across various minority groups and settings (in the U.S., Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and the U.K.).

Taking a social identity perspective on acculturation, I conceive of diversity approaches as arising from the interplay between minority and majority acculturation attitudes and interactions. Chapters 2-4 address research question (1). In Chapter 2, I test the mutual influence of minority and majority acculturation attitudes experimentally by manipulating (perceived) outgroup attitudes and measuring their impact on the behavioral inclusion of outgroup members in California. In Chapter 3, I examine the interplay of peer acculturation norms and minority acculturation attitudes on minority experiences of peer rejection in a large-scale field study in secondary schools in Belgium (data source: CILS Flanders). Chapter 4 compares the role of peer acculturation norms in intergroup victimization as a more narrow and objective measure of exclusion using international field studies in Dutch and German secondary schools (data source: CILS4EU). Chapters 5 and 6 address question (2). In Chapter 5, I show how school diversity policies longitudinally impact all pupils’ social inclusion and achievement with a qualitative analysis of school policy documents from 70 Belgian schools. Lastly, with an intervention study, I experimentally induce a supportive school diversity policy, aiming to improve minority performance by reducing identity threat, in a diverse British school (Chapter 6).

The thesis envisages improving the theoretical understanding of acculturation processes by taking an intergroup relations perspective and articulating different diversity approaches as the normative context in which acculturation takes place. I focus on diverse schools as strategic institutional settings which can (re)define intergroup relations so as to embrace diversity. The research contributes to an applied goal of developing feasible context-relevant interventions with a view to enhancing the inclusion and success of minority youth.