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Perception of Primary and Secondary School Students of School Ethnic Climate in Multi-Ethnic Settings in Croatia

Educational process within the school context creates formal as well as informal environment in which pupils interact and shape their experiences of everyday school life, and ethnic diverse contexts provide more opportunities for pupils to explore and reflect on ethnicity and ethnic group membership in various situations. Previous studies indicated that ethnic heterogeneity can account for differences in pupils’ perception of school climate. Additionally, pupils’ age can be another factor accounting for differences in school ethnic climate perception. The purpose of this study was to examine how primary and secondary school pupils perceive ethnicity-related aspects of climate in their schools (ethnicity-based conflicts in schools, cultural socialization and intergroup contact norms) in relation to the multi-ethnic context they live in and their majority/minority status. Results presented in this paper are part of a more comprehensive longitudinal study (funded by The Croatian Science Foundation) on integration processes of minority and minority children and youth in multi-ethnic contexts in Croatia. A total of 1568 pupils participated in the study (846 pupils who attend education in majority language i.e. Croatian language, and 722 pupils who attend education in their respective minority language – Czech, Italian, Hungarian and Serbian). Results generally revealed differences between pupils’ perception of school ethnic climate depending on context, majority/minority status and school level, including interactions between these factors. In general, results indicate that pupils from the most tense Croatian-Serbian context perceive higher level of ethnicity-based conflicts in schools compared to pupils from other contexts. On the other hand, pupils from the most peaceful Croatian-Czech context generally perceive school norms regarding intergroup contact more positive compared to their peers from other multi-ethnic contexts. Elementary school pupils estimate their cultural socialization and competence in school generally higher and also perceive more positive intergroup contact norms in schools. Further, minority pupils from Croatian-Italian context perceive higher level of ethnicity-based conflicts in primary than in secondary schools. Pupils in Croatian-Czech context perceive the same level of cultural socialization regardless of school level, while in all other contexts ratings of primary school pupils tend to be higher compared to those of secondary school pupils. Finally, pupils from secondary schools in Croatian-Serbian context and Croatian-Hungarian context perceive intergroup contact norms in schools less positive compared to elementary school pupils in the same contexts. Obtained differences could imply possible variations in dynamics of intergroup school processes within specific multi-ethnic contexts. Additionally, the effects of the school level on the school ethnic climate can reflect potential developmental differences in ethnic identity exploration of pupils in primary and secondary schools.

multi-ethnic settings, school ethnic climate, majority/minority status, primary and secondary schools

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