The attitude–achievement paradox in Belgium

Abstract

In Belgium, students of Turkish and North African descent express optimistic attitudes toward education. However, these attitudes conflict with their achievement results, as many underachieve compared to their peers of Belgian descent. Mickelson’s work discusses this attitude–achievement paradox in the United States. In the current study, we use Mickelson’s framework to investigate the attitude–achievement paradox in Belgium. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, we find that students of Turkish, North African and Belgian descent believe in the importance of education to get ahead in society, holding optimistic abstract attitudes. Students of Turkish and North African descent hold more optimistic attitudes than students of Belgian descent. However, these abstract attitudes toward education do not translate into ethnic minority students’ concrete attitudes toward education, which depend mainly on the socioeconomic background of the student. Students with a low socioeconomic background are much more pessimistic than students with a high socioeconomic background. Concrete attitudes influence the achievement of students of Belgian descent; this is not the case for students of Turkish and North African descent. Qualitative research shows that to understand the interpretation of concrete school attitudes and its relationship with achievement results, we need to consider students’ definitions of success, frames of reference and perceived constraints and opportunities.

Keywords

Attitude–achievement paradox secondary education ethnic minority students Belgium Mickelson

Introduction

The relationship between ethnicity and educational inequality has received considerable research attention. Both in the United States and in Europe, empirical findings indicate that many ethnic minority students underachieve in school compared to their ethnic majority peers (Jencks and Phillips, 1998; Stevens and Dworkin, 2014). It is intriguing to note, however, that many ethnic minority students hold optimistic attitudes toward education and have high educational aspirations (Kao and Tienda, 1998; Ogbu, 2008; Phalet and Claeys, 1993; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, 2002). The phenomenon of underachievement in spite of positive attitudes toward schooling is known as the attitude–achievement paradox. In the current study, we focus on the attitude–achievement paradox, as discussed in Mickelson’s (1990) theory.

Mickelson (1990) examined African American students’ optimistic school attitudes in depth to unravel the attitude–achievement paradox. She concluded that these students have multi-layered attitudes toward education. On the one hand, they hold abstract attitudes that relate to the widespread idea that schooling is key factor to achieving success and upward mobility. On the other hand, life experiences help to develop more concrete school attitudes that represent students’ opinions about the role of schooling for their personal futures. Mickelson’s analysis revealed that students developed these concrete, situation-specific attitudes based on the perceived rewards of education, opportunities and wages. For middle-class white students, concrete and abstract attitudes converge. However, for ethnic minority and working-class students who have experienced discrimination or witnessed its effect on significant others, there is a gap between abstract and concrete attitudes (Mickelson, 1990, 2008; Ogbu, 2008). Therefore, ethnic minority students have optimistic abstract attitudes, but hold more pessimistic concrete attitudes about the role of schooling for their individual future success. According to Mickelson, this distinction between abstract and concrete attitudes helps to explain the attitude–achievement paradox. Abstract attitudes are not related to the achievement of ethnic minority students; concrete attitudes are.

Mickelson’s findings have been affirmed in some studies (Carter, 2005; Mickelson, 2001, 2008: using different data; Herman, 2009; Steinberg et al., 1992). Not all scholars could replicate her study, however (Downey, 2008; Downey et al., 2009; Harris, 2006, 2008), and few used the same measurement tools (except for Carter, 2005; Mickelson, 2001, 2008). These mixed results suggest two things. First, they indicate the importance of maintaining conceptual and methodological clarity between different types of school attitudes, as research shows that students make nuanced distinctions about the role schooling will play in their future (Harris, 2008). Second, they suggest that more attention should be given to the importance of context, especially given the situational character of concrete attitudes. Students may perceive different opportunities depending on the context in which they live, and this may vary according to the ethnic minority group they belong to (Carter, 2005; Herman, 2009; Steinberg et al., 1992) or the country of residence (Herman, 2009).

Since previous research in Belgium has indicated the existence of an attitude–achievement paradox (Phalet and Claeys, 1993; Stevens and Dworkin, 2014), the current study wants to explore if Mickelson’s key idea can be applied to a context other than the United States – namely, Flanders (northern part of Belgium) – and focus on ethnic majority students (i.e. students of Belgian descent) and ethnic minority students (i.e. students of Turkish and North African descent, the two largest non-Western European ethnic minority groups in Flanders (Noppe and Lodewijckx, 2013)).

Flemish context

When reviewing the situation of Turkish and North African students living in Flanders, there is reason to believe Mickelson’s key idea will apply to this group of students in a way that is similar to how it applies to African American students in the United States. First, these students of Turkish and North African descent hold optimistic attitudes toward education (Phalet and Claeys, 1993; Teney et al., 2013), but these school attitudes are not reflected in their overall academic achievement results. Compared to peers of Belgian descent, they are overrepresented in less esteemed educational tracks, have higher dropout rates and higher levels of grade retention, and are underrepresented in higher education (Crul et al., 2012; Duquet et al., 2006).

Mickelson’s theory was developed in relation to African American students in the United States, and considers the African American’s history of slavery and suppression. United States studies often contrast the situation of African Americans with the situation of immigrants who have migrated voluntarily (e.g. Ogbu, 1983). However, the United States is an immigrant country characterized by a long history of immigration. This is in contrast with the relatively new immigrant receiving countries, such as Belgium, which have experienced an inflow of immigrants only since the economic boom after World War II. Therefore, when considering the study of United States theories in other countries, it might be more useful to look at the conditions in which ethnic minorities live and the social problems they experience than to look at the voluntary nature of their migration history. Hence, despite differences in migration history, time frame, and country, the situation of Turkish and North African minority students in Belgium shows important similarities to that of their African American peers in the United States (Gibson, 1997; Hermans, 2004; Suárez-Orozco, 1991). As with African Americans, Turkish and North African immigrants face inequality, racism and ethnic discrimination in Belgium about different and essential domains in life, such as discrimination in the labour market (OECD, 2008), in the housing market (Van der Bracht and Van de Putte, 2014) and in school (D’hondt et al., 2015a). Over the years, the ethnic community may have internalized these experiences, which then affect their relationship with the dominant society. For example, Dutch qualitative research shows that parents of Moroccan descent believe that education is essential to be successful in society. However, they do not believe that academic achievement is proportionally rewarded with good jobs for Moroccans. Research seems to indicate that Turkish and North African immigrants’ initial optimism about the search for a better life changed due to countless encounters with racism and ethnic discrimination in society and unequal access to good jobs and wages (Hermans, 2004).

Based on the experiences of racism, ethnic discrimination and inequality, therefore, we expect students of Turkish and North African descent to hold positive abstract attitudes but negative concrete attitudes toward education. Additionally, because of the favourable position they hold in Belgian society, students of Belgian descent are hypothesized to have positive abstract and concrete attitudes toward the role of schooling in achieving success. For both groups, we expect that concrete attitudes will predict achievement, while abstract attitudes will have no effect on achievement.

Although there are similarities in living conditions and school results, we cannot ignore the important differences between African American students in the United States and the students of Turkish and North African descent in Belgium, regarding time frame (from 17th century onwards vs. World War II to present), migration history (involuntary vs. voluntary), socio-political context (e.g. weak social security vs. strong social security) and school systems (e.g. large difference in resources between public and private schools vs. small difference in resources between public and private schools). Therefore, the question remains whether Mickelson’s key idea will apply to a different group of ethnic minority students in a different national context.

In conclusion, this study makes use of a mixed-methods approach. First, we used quantitative research methods to answer the following two research questions: (a) Do the scores for abstract and concrete attitudes differ between ethnic majority and minority students?; and (b) What role do abstract and concrete attitudes play in the achievement of students of Turkish and North African descent compared to students of Belgian descent? Second, we made use of ethnographic observations and interviews to understand the (distinct) development of school attitudes and to interpret the quantitative findings. The combination of both methods can give us a unique insight into how school attitudes relate to achievement results. The use of a mixed-methods approach not only helps to test whether there is an association between school attitudes and achievement results, but also helps to identify the reasons (if any) for such an association.

Data and methods

In this mixed-methods study, the quantitative and qualitative sampling strategy and data collection were done independently of each other, but focused both on the achievement and well-being of ethnic minority students in Flemish secondary schools. Furthermore, the qualitative data were gathered in a city that was also part of the quantitative sample. We decided to use a sequential explanatory design that combines the strengths of each technique (Ivankova et al., 2006). In line with this design, the quantitative data are used as the starting point to test Mickelson’s theory in the Flemish context. Subsequently, ethnographic observations and interviews were employed to delve deeper into the test results gleaned from the quantitative analysis. The quantitative and qualitative data collection and operationalization of the quantitative control variables are discussed in depth in the online supplementary appendices (Appendices A and B).

Quantitative sample

The quantitative data that are used in this study are part of RaDiSS (Racism and Discrimination in Secondary Schools), collected during the school year 2011–2012 from 4,322 students (average age 15.5 years) in a sample of 55 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium).

In the current study, we focus on a sample of 2,106 students of Turkish, North African and Belgian descent. Within this subsample, 527 students (25%) are of Turkish or North African descent (10.2% and 14.8%, respectively). The ethnicity of the students was assessed primarily by the birthplace of the students’ maternal grandmother. This is common practice in Belgium, as the level of naturalization is high in Belgium and most students of immigrant descent are second or third generation (Duquet et al., 2006; Timmerman et al., 2003). If these data were not available, we replaced missing values with the mother’s nationality and, if those data were also not available, with the students’ country of birth. We created a dichotomous variable (Belgian descent = 0, immigrant descent = 1), as the selected immigrant groups have a very similar migration history and comparable educational outcomes as a group (OECD, 2008; Verhaeghe et al., 2012).

Variables

The results of the descriptive statistics are shown in Table 1. More information about the measurement of the control variables can be found in the online supplementary appendices.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics for dependent and independent variables: frequencies (%), means and standard deviations (SD), and results of analysis of variance comparing ethnic majority and minority students on abstract and concrete attitudes.

	Mean or %	SD	Mean or %	SD
Individual level variables	Ethnic majority students		Ethnic minority students		F
Completed the school year successfully	87.50%		72.30%
Abstract attitudes	3.60	0.50	3.83	0.60	74.57***
Concrete attitudes	3.16	0.63	2.99	0.73	25.87***
Socioeconomic status	53.85	16.0	38.06	12.7
Gender: male	58.10%		48.00%
Track: academic	51.20%		24.30%
technical	24.90%		27.10%
vocational	23.90%		48.60%
Prior academic attainment: repeat grade	26.60%		60.20%
N = 2106	N = 1579		N = 527
School level variables	Mean or %		SD
Socioeconomic context	49.91		9.55
Ethnic school composition	37.56%		28.15
School size	649.50		274.18

***p < 0.001.

Dependent variable

In the Flemish educational system, there are no general standardized tests. This makes it difficult to compare achievement results across schools and class groups. The only uniform system was the use of a certificate given at the end of the school year in which the survey was taken. This certificate was the result of a decision made by teachers based on the grades of the student on different subjects. It indicated whether a student had passed (A), had to change track (B), or had to repeat a year in the same track (C). Although the evaluation criteria may differ between schools (e.g. some schools more readily give a B rather than a C to students (Stevens, 2007)), the consequences were the same for all students. Students were free to change between schools, but the outcome of the certificate had the same effect in all schools. We obtained this information directly from the schools at the end of the school year. We created a dichotomous variable that indicates whether a student had successfully ended his or her school year (0 = A, ended the school year successfully; 1 = B or C, did not end the school year successfully).

Individual-level independent variables

Abstract attitudes were measured using a 7-item scale and concrete attitudes using a 6-item scale adapted from Mickelson (1990, 2008). The full scale is presented in the online supplementary Appendix C. We obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.71 for abstract attitudes and 0.63 for concrete attitudes. The latter is on the low side; however, these results are very similar to the estimated reliability coefficients of Mickelson (1990). Although Mickelson used a 7-point Likert scale, a 5-point scale was used in this study to maintain conformity with the other scales in the questionnaire. These scales were measured by calculating a mean and range from absolutely disagree = 1 to absolutely agree = 5. Both scales were aligned in the same direction: the higher the student’s score, the more optimistic they were about the role of schooling in future success.

Strategy of analysis

First, we verified whether students held both abstract and concrete attitudes toward school. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, the validity of both inventories is confirmed for the whole sample, as well as for the native and immigrant sample separately at the level of partial scalar invariance (abstract attitudes scale: CFI = 0.908, RMSEA = 0.052; concrete attitudes scale: CFI = 0.902, RMSEA = 0.056). Multilevel modelling (MLwiN 2.26) is used because of the hierarchical structure of the data. In variables measured by means of a scale, responses were imputed for missing values by item correlation substitution (Huisman, 2000). All metric variables were standardized for the comparison of effect sizes. It is also important to indicate that students filled in the survey between November 2011 and April 2012, but decisions on the certificates were not made before June 2012.

Regarding our first research aim, we started with a one-way analysis of variance to compare means of abstract and concrete attitudes between ethnic majority and minority students. Then, we explored the net effects of ethnicity and socioeconomic status on school attitudes using a multilevel regression model. Finally, we performed a multilevel regression to test the relationships between abstract and concrete attitudes and the academic achievement of ethnic minority and majority students. In addition to ethnicity and school attitudes, we also added several control variables that have been demonstrated to relate to achievement to rule out spurious relationships. At the student level, these variables were socioeconomic status, gender, track and prior academic attainment (Jencks and Phillips, 1998; Mickelson, 1990, 2008; Stevens, 2007; Van Landeghem and Van Damme, 2004). At the school level, we controlled for the socioeconomic and ethnic school composition and for school size (Agirdag et al., 2012; Coleman, 1968; De Fraine et al., 2002).

Qualitative sample and design

The qualitative data were gathered from 2009 through to 2012 in three schools in a large Flemish city. Theoretical sampling was used based on track composition, number of students of non-Belgian descent and the track/field of study within a school. St-Bernardus¹ was a medium-sized (444 students) school that offers vocational, technical and academic tracks. Mountain High was a large (1,159 students) school that offers only academic tracks. Catherine Atheneum was a medium-sized (404 students) school that offers technical and vocational tracks. In these schools, 41.44%, 13.54% and 27.48% of the students, respectively, spoke another language at home other than Dutch. This served as an indicator for the proportion of students of non-Belgian descent. The sample consisted of a group of secondary students, average age 18, and one post-secondary vocational one-year specialization year, average age 20. Out of the sample of 129 respondents (18 group interviews (15 interviews with 2 respondents, 3 interviews with 3 respondents) and 90 individual interviews), there were 33 students of Turkish descent, 18 of North African descent and 52 of Belgian descent. In our sample, most students of Turkish and North African descent were born and raised in Belgium (except for 3 Turkish students) and could be considered ‘second generation immigrants’. All students of the observed classrooms were asked to participate in an individual interview (participation rate = 94%, N = 33), however, when students indicated that they would feel more comfortable with a peer, a group interview of up to three students was conducted (N = 9).

Results

Quantitative findings

First, we tested if students of Turkish and North African descent had different school attitudes than students of Belgian descent. Table 1 indicates that students of Turkish and North African descent scored significantly higher (p < 0.001) on the abstract attitudes and significantly lower (p < 0.001) on the concrete attitudes than students of Belgian descent. At an abstract level, ethnic minority students strongly believed in the idea that schooling is important. However, they were more pessimistic about the role that schooling could play in their individual professional success. The multilevel analysis presented in Table 2 indicates that only ethnicity had a significant influence on abstract attitudes (p < 0.001). Thus, net of socioeconomic status, ethnic minority students ascribed more importance to schooling for societal success than their majority counterparts did. Nevertheless, distinct patterns emerged with regard to concrete attitudes. While initially ethnicity had a significant impact on concrete attitudes, this shifted when socioeconomic status was added to the model. As a result of these findings, we find that the impact of socioeconomic status on concrete attitudes was stronger than the impact of ethnicity.

Table 2.

Ethnicity and socioeconomic status on school attitudes. Results of stepwise multilevel analysis (observations N = 2106, groups N = 41).

Abstract attitudes
	Model 0	Model 1	Model 2
Constant	3.672	3.600	3.601
Ethnicity (ref: Belgian descent)		0.230*** (0.027)	0.225*** (0.029)
Socioeconomic status			–0.005 (0.013)
Individual-level variance	0.282	0.279	0.279
Concrete attitudes
	Model 0	Model 1	Model 2
Constant	3.068	3.102	3.103
Ethnicity (ref: Belgian descent)		–0.096* (0.039)	–0.065 (0.040)
Socioeconomic status			0.052** (0.017)
Individual level variance	0.399	0.398	0.397

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Second, we made use of logistic multilevel analyses (Table 3) to test the main idea of Mickelson’s theory, namely, that abstract attitudes have no impact on achievement, but concrete attitudes do. The first model showed that ethnic minority students underachieved compared to their majority peers (p < 0.001). However, step-by-step analyses² (not shown here) indicated that adding school attitudes to the model did not reduce the effect of ethnicity. As expected, concrete attitudes had a significant influence on achievement (p < 0.001), net of individual and school factors. The more pessimistic attitudes students had about the role of schooling in their personal future success, the more likely they were to obtain a B or C certificate at the end of the school year.

Table 3.

Abstract and concrete attitudes on achievement. Results of logistic multilevel analysis (observations N = 2106, groups N = 41).

	Model 1	Model 2
Individual level
Ethnicity (ref: Belgian descent)	0.538** (0.174)	0.607*** (0.177)
Abstract attitudes	–0.105 (0.062)	–0.094 (0.062)
Concrete attitudes	–0.201** (0.065)	–0.310*** (0.085)
Gender (ref: male)	–0.378** (0.139)	–0.381** (0.139)
Prior academic attainment (ref: no past failure)	0.616*** (0.143)	0.606*** (0.143)
Socioeconomic status	–0.078 (0.078)	–0.069 (0.079)
Technical track (ref: academic track)	–0.142 (0.245)	–0.122 (0.244)
Vocational track (ref: academic track)	–0.608* (0.265)	–0.604* (0.264)
Ethnicity* Concrete attitudes		0.247* (0.123)
School level
Socioeconomic context	0.098 (0.118)	0.086 (0.236)
Ethnic school composition	0.387 (0.199)	0.383 (0.197)
School size	0.098 (0.118)	0.095 (0.117)
Constant	–1.752	–1.771
School-level variance	0.292	0.283

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Next, an interaction between concrete attitudes and ethnicity was added to the model. The impact of concrete attitudes about achievement was greater for students of Belgian descent than for those of immigrant descent. To obtain a better understanding of these results, we performed a simple slope analysis. Probing the interaction effect through simple slopes analyses confirmed the differential slope for ethnic majority and minority students. For ethnic majority students, concrete attitudes were significantly related to achievement (γ = −0.309; p < 0.001). For ethnic minority students, concrete attitudes were unrelated to achievement (γ = −0.065; p > 0.05). Hence, while we confirmed Mickelson’s key idea for students of Belgian descent, we found no evidence that concrete attitudes were related to the academic achievement of ethnic minority students.

Qualitative findings

Definition of success

While most ethnic minority students believed in the instrumental value of education to achieve success in society, their actual definitions of success seemed to reflect the existing resources, opportunities and labour market conditions within their networks (Bourdieu, 1986; Mickelson, 1990; Ogbu, 2008; Phalet et al., 2004). As most students of Turkish and North African descent live in neighbourhoods where the majority of the inhabitants have a low socioeconomic or a migrant background, they were primarily concerned with the specific job conditions they wanted to avoid, such as physically hard labour and racism at the workplace (Matthew, 2011; Van Praag et al., 2015). For instance, as illustrated by Zania’s quote, many students of immigrant descent wanted to have a ‘good job’ without referencing the particular job content or specific profession.

Zania: I have a lot of relatives who are performing an office job and I want to become like them. They earn enough money. One is a secretary, another works in administration. I prefer working with my head, instead of working with my hands. Working at an office is always working with your head, so, that’s better. (Turkish descent, academic track)

Zania’s quote illustrates that many students of immigrant descent wanted to earn ‘sufficient’ money and ‘be at an office’ without defining a specific job description, a necessary step when making educational choices in their secondary education. Similar accounts were found across all tracks. Sarah (Turkish descent, academic track) wanted to ‘do something with mathematics’ so she can buy a Lamborghini; Akasma (Turkish descent, technical track) stated that she likes to work with a computer and that ‘it really does not matter’ in which sector or what kind of job she ends up with; and Saimir (Moroccan descent, vocational track) just wanted to finish his secondary education, then see what happened next. Optimistic attitudes toward education did not necessarily mean that students opted for more highly esteemed educational tracks. Rather, these attitudes gave students a reason to continue their current track. Similar general, vague definitions of future aspirations and goals were also found in African Americans and Hispanics in the United States (Kao and Tienda, 1998). Although most ethnic minority students had optimistic attitudes about school, it should be noted that a relatively small proportion of them – mainly girls enrolled in the vocational track – had low future aspirations, because they did not anticipate a future in the labour market and wanted instead to raise a family.

There was also some variability with respect to aspirations within the group of students of Belgian descent. However, it seemed that for students of Belgian descent, parental working experiences guided or inspired them when making educational choices (Boone, 2013): Researcher:

So you always knew you wanted to work with your hands?

Arnoud:

Yeah, like in construction or mechanics, like I wanted to be someone who could say: ‘I’m getting my hands dirty when I work’.

Researcher:

How come you knew this already since you were little?

Arnoud:

Because of my father, I always liked to ‘work’, to work really hard. He always said that we should work hard. I always wanted to help my father when he was doing something. (Belgian descent, vocational track)

In contrast to students of immigrant descent, students of Belgian descent knew how to translate their high aspirations into strategies to realize them. Students referred more often to specific jobs, such as teacher, photographer or mechanic. Even those who did not exactly know what they wanted to do had specific ideas about the kind of jobs they wanted to perform. Baziel (academic track), for instance, wanted to do something with languages or become a teacher (her mother is a Latin teacher); Lien (academic track) thought of enrolling in an arts school (like her father). Additionally, they more often followed educational tracks that actually prepared them for these jobs or left all possibilities open (i.e. academic track) and had more knowledge about the requirements needed to do such jobs (e.g. number of years in higher education, appropriate preparatory track in secondary education). For instance, Filiberke (vocational track) wanted to work in the same factory as his father, so he enrolled in the same educational track as his father.

Taken together, qualitative analyses revealed ethnic differences with respect to the interpretations of ‘achieving success through education’. These findings are innovative, as scholars have often neglected students’ more specific interpretations of ‘success’ and ‘getting ahead’. For instance, Mickelson (1990) presented her respondents broadly defined questions so students could interpret terms like ‘success’ or ‘having a good job’ freely within their specific frame of reference. Instead of doubting the reliability of ethnic minority students’ answers (Downey, 2008; Matthew, 2011), the validity of the quantitative survey questions with respect to ‘success’ for different (ethnic) subgroups should be questioned (Herman, 2009).

Perceived constraints and opportunities

A second way in which our qualitative data could complement and help to understand the quantitative research findings was by exploring students’ strategies to deal with perceived constraints and opportunities in school and in the labour market. The majority of students of Turkish and North African descent had experienced some form of racism or ethnic discrimination, such as being called names for wearing a headscarf, people preferring to not sit next to them on public transportation and teacher discrimination. Besides these actual experiences of racism and ethnic discrimination, many ethnic minority students seemed to be influenced by the expectation of racism and ethnic discrimination in school, in the labour market or in their daily lives (see also Glorieux et al., 2009; Hermans, 2004; Stevens, 2009).

Retrospective questions about students’ school career indicated that experiences and expectations of racism and ethnic discrimination were seen as constraints to achieving, and played a role in students’ school careers. This is illustrated in the interview extract of Burcu and Sidika (academic track, Turkish descent): Burcu:

We are in the fifth year…, you feel like ‘I did it’. Like in the first year, I always said ‘Oh no, I won’t be able to succeed because the academic track is difficult and I might be confronted with some racist teachers’.

Interviewer:

And were you already confronted with racist teachers or was it only your expectation?

Sidika:

I think it’s mainly the idea, like when you don’t study, you don’t get good grades.

Burcu:

But even if you study, I had that in the second year.

Sidika:

But, if you get an eight, he won’t be able to let you repeat your year.

Burcu:

It’s just…some teachers, not many but some…are really racist but you will never be able to say ‘you’re a racist’, they will never listen to you. But, if you feel that they won’t respect you, you shouldn’t be polite to them. They are never polite to us, because we are allochtons. They are polite to others. And I often saw that, for instance, you receive a six, but the others get a seven or an eight.

Similarly, students seem to expect racism and ethnic discrimination in the labour market:

Lola: I hope I will not be confronted with racism later but it can always happen and it has happened before. Like, when they see a foreign name and a Belgian one, that they rather opt for the Belgian name instead of the foreign one. (technical track, Moroccan descent)

However, students not only discussed experiences and perceptions of racism and ethnic discrimination, they also discussed different strategies to manage racism and discrimination. The data suggested the usefulness of Mellor’s (2004) inductively constructed classification of coping styles in response to racism. Mellor made a distinction between defensive coping styles that enabled a person to protect the self and controlled and counter-attacking coping styles aimed at exercising self-control or confronting racism. Most respondents mentioned defensive coping styles.

Initially, many students of immigrant descent explicitly mentioned avoiding particular jobs, like being an employee, in which they thought they would be confronted with some form of racism or ethnic discrimination. Again, the avoidance of particular jobs did not necessarily help students to choose an educational track in line with their future goals. Rather, students searched for ways to avoid such jobs based on the particular track they were enrolled in. For example, Punjami (Turkish descent, sales) thought of starting a car wash or ‘something independent’ with his cousin, while Fenerli (Turkish descent, academic track) considered becoming a lawyer or a doctor because ‘people come to you, but you don’t have to go to the people; there will be no racism.’

Obtaining a degree of secondary or higher education was also sometimes seen as a strategy to cope with racism and ethnic discrimination. This was the case for Tristan (technical track, Tunisian descent): Interviewer:

Do you think it [discrimination] will matter when you are looking for a job?

Tristan:

It won’t be possible. When I have a university degree, do you think they will be able to laugh with me…? I am not the kind of person who just sits there when they offend me.

Interviewer:

Do you think the university degree will change the way they look at you?

Tristan:

I just know for sure that when I will work, that there will be racists on the work floor, that’s sure for 100 or 150%, that’s everywhere, even at school, in the small shops, everywhere. So it does not matter – but they will know that I will have a degree and that they won’t be able to laugh and play with me.

While some students thought that having a diploma would protect them against racism and ethnic discrimination, others saw getting a diploma as a way to prove racists wrong and to demonstrate their worthiness: Hande (Turkish descent, academic track):

They [teachers] were more easily angry at foreigners. ‘Ah, it’s you again, that Turk’.

Interviewer:

How did that affect you?

Hande:

They gave me lower grades and said ‘you won’t be able to continue ASO [academic track]; you have to enrol in TSO [technical track]’. Then I changed schools…

Interviewer:

How did that make you feel?

Hande:

Of course, I felt bad! But they saw I wore a head scarf, so they had problems.

Interviewer:

Because of the headscarf?

Gonca (Turkish descent, academic track):

No, because they knew we were foreigners.

Interviewer:

Did it affect your motivation at school in a positive or negative way?

Hande:

It was a real motivator because you study for ‘them,’ because ‘they’ treat you in a discriminatory way.

Gonca:

Most Turks do not really have a profession, they did not continue higher education, some study only part time, like in School X. I really find that a pity. They have brains but they don’t use it. They don’t really have a profession, they become a hairdresser or electrician, or even in those tracks they cannot succeed. They don’t have a profession but they want to marry and then they divorce. When you don’t study, bad things will happen.

Like many others, these students wanted to counteract prevailing negative stereotypes about their particular immigrant group, to do better and to become a role model for their immigrant community by improving overall achievement levels.

Although the attempt to achieve is categorized by Mellor (2004) as a defensive coping style, it may also be seen as a counter-attacking style in which they can confront people with racism. In sum, students used several ways to deal with racism and ethnic discrimination – namely, avoidance by choosing to perform only specific jobs, and attempting to achieve and prove their worthiness. This eventually seemed to affect their educational outcomes.

The choice of specific coping strategies should be studied within its context (Brondolo et al., 2009; Mellor, 2004). In response to perceived racism and discrimination, some students seemed to rely on their local ethnic community for support. For example, Bilal (Moroccan descent, vocational track) lives in another city with extensive Moroccan immigrant networks and mentioned he relied on those networks. In doing so, he suggested that a person can work as a car mechanic without having an officially declared job. He argued that when a car needs repairing, he would be able to fix it and set a price himself (see also Ogbu’s (1983) ‘street economy’). Other students referred to starting an independent business, such as a bakery or grocery store, and focusing on clients from their own ethnic community. The idea of starting an independent business/profession that could flourish in a local ethnic economy seemed more important for students embedded in extensive local immigrant networks (Ogbu, 2008; Shah et al., 2010). Students’ choice for more defensive coping styles is understandable, as avoidance might be perceived as one of the only ways to deal with persistent racism and discrimination.

Such perceptions and experiences of racism and discrimination appeared to guide students in the development of future aspirations and goals during their school careers. These goals were considered when making educational choices (e.g. track choice). Students seemed to refine their educational choices and motivations, and put increasing effort into school over the course of their secondary school career. These students also appeared to consider the local (ethnic) context and labour market of the society in which they lived. They adapted their future educational and professional aspirations based on earlier educational choices, such as the tracks they had enrolled in. This finding contrasts with previous research, which often assumed that racism and ethnic discrimination would result in a total loss of motivation in putting effort into school or in the development of anti-school attitudes (Ogbu, 2008). A more nuanced view is required with respect to students’ study involvement and their concrete attitudes toward education. For example, students of immigrant descent frequently mentioned that because of a negative experience of discrimination by a teacher, they found it difficult to stay motivated in school for a particular period of time. Consequently, many students indicated that they changed track/field of study so they would be able to put in less effort at school but also that they changed school to avoid a particular person that discriminated against that student (see quote from Hande and Gonca). Changing to a less prestigious educational track might be seen as an indicator of lower achievement in the Flemish context (Van Praag, 2013). However, when students changed track, it was often to help them avoid repeating a year, since those students would have to put less effort into schooling in their new, less demanding track, although that track change may also impede students’ access to higher education and highly skilled jobs. Still, students’ reactions toward racism and ethnic discrimination during the period when they experienced racism and ethnic discrimination were often dependent on support and guidance of parents, peers and significant others.

In conclusion, although racism and ethnic discrimination seemed to have a considerable effect on the school careers of many students of immigrant descent, we found that this does not leave students disappointed for their entire school career. Rather, based on the various ways they deal with perceptions and experiences over time, it appears to shape the course of their school career. This could partly explain why no relationship was found between ethnic minorities’ concrete attitudes toward schooling and their educational outcomes. Our analyses suggest that how students try to deal with racism and ethnic discrimination matter for their final educational outcomes and behaviour (Eccles et al., 2006; Ogbu, 1983, 2008). Furthermore, our results demonstrate the importance of context characteristics – such as local immigrant networks – and of considering the nature of discrimination when choosing a specific coping style (see also Mellor, 2004). Finally, the possibility of addressing alternative labour market segments and searching for specific future professions that are expected to yield fewer problems of racism and ethnic discrimination may fit together with the relatively lower standards and broader definitions of the ‘success’ of students of immigrant descent, when seen from a dominant perspective.

Discussion and conclusion

The unique contribution of this study is twofold. First, we aimed to replicate Mickelson’s theory quantitatively in a different context than the United States, using the same measurement tools as she did. Second, making use of qualitative data, we wanted to provide unique insight into the relationship between abstract and concrete school attitudes and achievement. The use of a mixed-method design allowed us to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the attitude–achievement gap.

While all students hold more optimistic abstract than concrete attitudes, students of Turkish and North African descent are more optimistic than their Belgian descent peers (see also Kao and Tienda, 1998; Ogbu, 2008; Phalet and Claeys, 1993; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, 2002; Van de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen, 2007). This overall abstract optimism of students of Turkish and North African descent is in line with Mickelson’s findings for African American students in her 1990 and 2008 studies. Furthermore, in line with Mickelson’s findings, socioeconomic status did not have any influence on the interpretation of abstract attitudes. However, when we shifted the focus from the abstract to the concrete level, socioeconomic status had a larger impact on concrete attitudes than ethnicity. Students with a lower socioeconomic status are more pessimistic about the role of schooling in future success. Mickelson found that both ethnicity and socioeconomic status have an impact on concrete attitudes; hence, our findings only partially replicate Mickelson’s. One possible explanation is that the relationship between ethnicity and socioeconomic background is not a coincidence and could partly be causal, suggesting that more ethnic minorities have a lower socioeconomic background because of processes of discrimination (Van de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen, 2007). A second explanation may relate to the fact that concrete attitudes are largely determined by the immediate living environment of students and their future opportunities. Therefore, this is not limited to students of immigrant descent, but also applies to students of non-immigrant descent (D’hondt et al., 2015b). The starting point of this study was Mickelson’s approach of the attitude–achievement paradox; however, this latter finding indicates that it would be interesting for future research to include Mickelson’s theory in the wider scientific debate of ethnicity versus class (Van de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen, 2007).

In the Belgian context, we could only replicate the key idea of Mickelson’s theory for the students of Belgian descent. Students of Belgian descent who hold more optimistic concrete attitudes are more likely to end the school year successfully, while abstract attitudes have no impact on their school results. For the students of Turkish and North African descent, the results were not in line with the findings of Mickelson. Although it was not the focus of the attitude–achievement paradox, it was interesting to note that the results for ethnic majority students are in line with Mickelson’s findings. In her study, the relationship between concrete attitudes and achievement was stronger for ethnic majority students than for minority students.

The absence of a relationship between concrete attitudes and achievement for students of Turkish and North African descent may be explained by contextual differences. Although there are important similarities in terms of relationship with the dominant society, living conditions, experiences of discrimination and achievement, there are also important differences (e.g. migration history, educational system and social security system). Furthermore, the two major findings of the qualitative analysis help to refine Mickelson’s theory. First, the qualitative findings showed that, although the quantitative data found no evidence of an influence of concrete attitudes, these attitudes about the value of education for future success do seem to affect ethnic minority students’ behaviour in school (Phalet and Claeys, 1993; Phalet et al., 2004). In contrast with Mickelson, however, this affected students’ behaviour in various ways. The prospect of labour market discrimination encouraged some students to achieve better in school and to fight the constraints they perceive. Simultaneously, it made many students look for alternative options for success that could be realized without any educational credentials or distinct educational choices (e.g. enrolment in less esteemed tracks). Hence, the perception of limited opportunities in the labour market did not result in a clear pattern of demotivation, but resulted in a wide variety of coping strategies, strategies that sometimes resulted in different pathways to ‘success’ through education. More research is required in different national contexts to assess if this contrast is a consequence of a more recent migration (e.g. still more optimistic about opportunities to have a better life), the migration history (e.g. a less hostile relationship with the dominant society since the migration was voluntarily instead of forced (Ogbu, 1983, 2008)), the socio-political context (e.g. opportunities in the labour market), differences in the school system (e.g. the structure of tracks and fields of study within these tracks (Crul et al., 2012)) and/or other unaccounted for factors and processes.

A second way in which the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods has shown more insight in Mickelson’s theory relates to the outcome variable. In the present study, the quantitative analyses focus on ‘being successful during one particular school year’. However, interviews and field notes indicate that students’ concrete attitudes shape the choices they make during their entire school career instead. If ethnic minority students highly value education, but do not believe that education will help them to be successful in life, then instead of losing their motivation to succeed and pass their school year, a wide variety of alternatives emerges that may result in specific track choices, instead of losing their motivation to succeed and pass their school year. For example, they can choose a vocational track that provides the opportunity to start a business in the local ethnic community (Crul et al., 2012). However, this choice also impedes their access to higher education and highly skilled jobs. Therefore, it might be interesting for future research to use longitudinal data to follow and understand the educational careers of students. It may also give insight into the development of particular concrete attitudes toward education and how these attitudes lead to varying educational pathways. The Norwegian longitudinal study by Hegna (2014) gives evidence of the complexity of different structural background characteristics and individual educational experiences that influence students’ educational aspirations at different points during students’ educational careers. Hence, this field of study would benefit from longitudinal research.

Finally, Mickelson’s theory can be enriched by paying attention to coping resources and contextual factors that inform the complex relationship between ethnic minority students’ concrete attitudes and their achievement results. First, studying coping resources, such as the availability of inspiring role models, could give more insight into how students cope with perceived limited future opportunities. Second, examining contextual factors, such as the features of the local immigrant networks and, related to this, the social and cultural capital available within these networks or the existence of a local ethnic economy (Van Praag, 2013), would help us understand why some students have a greater chance of translating highly abstract attitudes into actual successful educational strategies. Furthermore, depending on the prevailing ethnic stereotypes and relationship immigrant groups have with the dominant society, students of immigrant descent would be more/less likely to avoid particular jobs or be aware of possible racism and discrimination in the labour market (Hermans, 2004; Van Praag, 2013).

Some limitations of this study should be noted. First, the achievement outcome of the quantitative part is a rough indicator of failing a year versus succeeding a year. Although passing a year is an important indicator of success in the Flemish educational system, the exploration of more variation in achievement might help us to understand the relationship between attitudes and achievement. Second, the data of the quantitative part were gathered in the third year of secondary education, while the data of the qualitative part stem from students in the fifth year of secondary education. It could be that the latter are more oriented toward the labour market, have to deal to a larger extent with previous achievement results (secondary effects, Boudon, 1974) and are more aware of racism and ethnic discrimination.

In sum, Mickelson’s theory has been shown to be a useful theoretical framework; however, to gain full insight into how concrete attitudes affect ethnic minority students’ educational careers, more research has to be done about how ethnic minority students respond to perceived racism and ethnic discrimination in education and in the labour market, and about how these responses influence students’ educational behaviour (Brondolo et al., 2009; Mellor, 2004). Furthermore, if future research considered coping resources and contextual characteristics, this framework could be refined. Such research could inform policy makers about ways they can guide students in their educational choices.

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Supplemental material

The online [appendices/data supplements/etc.] are available at .

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