Do Attitudes toward School Influence the Underachievement of Turkish and Moroccan Minority Students in Flanders? The Attitude-Achievement Paradox Revisited

Abstract

While many ethnic minority students underachieve compared with their ethnic majority peers, they often hold very positive school attitudes. Mickelson (1990) explained this attitude-achievement paradox by the existence of a double set of attitudes. Abstract attitudes reflect the dominant ideas about schooling, while concrete attitudes refer to a person’s perceptions of reality and originate from the educational benefits people expect to obtain on the labor market. According to Mickelson, only students’ concrete attitudes influence achievement. Applying Mickelson’s theory in Flanders, regarding students of Turkish and Moroccan descent, we could not find evidence that abstract and concrete attitudes play a role in the achievement of ethnic minority students. Qualitative research suggests that this could be due to distinct interpretations of success and ways of dealing with perceived constraints. This contrasts with ethnic majority students, who are more likely to end the school year unsuccessfully if they hold pessimistic concrete attitudes.