Abstract
This study investigates three important aspects of the classroom context in shaping adolescents' classroom engagement trajectories: (a) teacher support, (b) peer norms (i.e., descriptive and popularity norms), and (c) ethnic classroom composition (i.e., ethnic heterogeneity and proportion of majorities). An ethnically diverse sample of 730 adolescents from Grades 9 to 11 was followed annually. Longitudinal multilevel models revealed that more teacher support and higher classroom-levels of engagement (i.e., descriptive norms) promote adolescents' behavioral and emotional engagement. Moreover, more ethnic heterogeneity in the classroom related to less steep decreases in behavioral engagement over time, whereas higher proportions of majorities in the classroom were associated with steeper decreases in emotional engagement over time. Associations were the same for ethnic minorities and majorities. Furthermore, teacher support and descriptive norms jointly buffered against declining behavioral engagement trajectories. In general, this study underscored the importance of the classroom context in adolescents' behavioral and emotional engagement.
Highlights
A major concern in today's multicultural schools is that some ethnic groups consistently achieve below average (Uline & Johnson, 2005)
To examine whether the factorial structure of behavioral and emotional engagement, and teacher support holds across waves and ethnic groups, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were conducted
Scalar invariance was established across waves and between ethnic minorities versus majorities
Summary
A major concern in today's multicultural schools is that some ethnic groups consistently achieve below average (Uline & Johnson, 2005). One possible explanation for this achievement gap may be found in differences between adolescents' level of engagement in school (Bingham & Okagaki, 2012). Few studies have investigated the classroom engagement of ethnic minorities, and even fewer have included aspects of the classroom context that might explain their engagement trajectories. This longitudinal study investigates the role of the classroom context in shaping adolescents' engagement trajectories during secondary school, and examines whether there are differences between ethnic minorities and majorities in the role of the classroom context. Possible risk factors include low academic expectations by teachers, peer exclusion, and facing stereotype threat
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