Reading focus
Syllabus: How Do People Navigate Multiple Cultural Worlds?
Track the level of each comparison.
Why you’re reading it. Connect cultural experience with institutional conditions.
A question to consider. What evidence would distinguish a school-policy effect from differences in students’ perceptions?
Why this reading
Schachner and colleagues distinguish equal treatment and inclusion from recognition of cultural difference. Their school study examines these conditions as perceived by adolescents.
Before you read
Individual perceptions and classroom averages describe different levels. An association at one level need not recur at the other.
Read for
- Compare the two climate measures and their links with cultural orientations.
- Track which findings concern individual adjustment and which concern classroom-level patterns.
Consider afterwards
- How would teacher reports or classroom observations strengthen the interpretation?
Editorial context
The longitudinal analyses included 386 adolescents of immigrant background, mostly born in Germany. Two waves of student reports do not establish effects of changing school policy. Classroom-level adjustment was not explained by the proposed model. Treat the authors’ educational recommendations as implications to evaluate, rather than tested interventions.