Predictors of Pupils’ and Teachers’ Identification With a Merged School

Abstract

This questionnaire study was designed to assess the relative impact of 8 social psychological predictors of identification with a merged school (i.e., pre‐merger identification, in‐group representation, satisfaction with in‐group representation, in‐group continuity, merger success, perceived necessity, satisfaction with information provision, and satisfaction with participation). Respondents were 317 pupils and 68 teachers of a Flemish high school that had merged the previous school year. The results revealed that pupils’ identification with the merger school clearly was predicted best by a direct measure of the perceived success of the merger. By contrast, teachers’ identification with the merger school was predicted best by their satisfaction with the representation of their pre‐merger school in the new merger school. Overall, the included concepts explained 58% of the variance of pupils’ identification and 68% of the variance of teachers’ identification. These results underline the relevance of a social psychological perspective on school mergers.