The ethnic prejudice of Flemish pupils: the roles of school gender composition and laddish culture

ABSTRACT

This study examines whether secondary schools’ gender composition and levels of laddish attitudes influence the degree of ethnic prejudice among Flemish pupils. We hypothesize that in addition to pupil-level predictors of prejudice, the school’s gender composition and its laddish culture play roles in pupils’ attitudes toward ethnic minorities. We use multilevel analysis with data obtained in 2014–2015 from 2250 Flemish pupils in 48 secondary schools in Flanders. Both girls’ and boys’ ethnic prejudice is related to their laddish attitudes. Boys’ levels of ethnic prejudice are associated with the gender composition and the laddish culture of their school, while girls’ ethnic prejudice is more likely to be influenced by the laddish culture of the school when the proportion of male pupils in the school increases. The findings suggest that in order to reduce ethnic prejudice it might be fruitful to focus on macro-level factors, such as tackling laddish cultures at school.

KEYWORDS:

• Sociology
• difference and diversity
• migration
• surveys
• quantitative methods and statistics
• secondary education
• youth culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mieke Van Houtte is full professor of sociology and head of the research team CuDOS at the Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Belgium. Her research interests cover diverse topics within the sociology of education, particularly the effects of structural and compositional school features on several diverse outcomes for students and teachers, and sexual minorities. She is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

Roselien Vervaet is a PhD student working for the research team CuDOS (Cultural Diversity: Opportunities and Socialisation) at the Department of Sociology at Ghent University (Belgium). Her core topic are the determinants of ethnic prejudice among Flemish teachers and pupils against Turkish, Moroccan and Eastern European minority students.

Roslyn Arlin Mickelson is Chancellor’s Professor and professor of sociology, public policy, and women and gender studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Her interests include how race, gender, and social class shape educational opportunities, processes, and outcomes. Her current research investigates social and organizational contexts that predict female and underrepresented minority college students’ success in STEM, and the cumulative disadvantages of race and class segregation on educational outcomes.

Peter A. J. Stevens is associate professor in Qualitative Research Methodology at Ghent University, Department of Sociology. His research focuses on race and ethnic relations and sociology of education.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (grant number FWO G062114N).