Beyond 'migrant background': how to select relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories in educational research
- Across continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by 'migrant background', a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging.
This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psychological and educational research. Using a preregistered empirical example, we first compare selected social categories ('migrant background', family heritage, religion, citizenship, cultural identification, and generation status) in their potential to reveal participant heterogeneity.
Second, we investigate differences in means and relations between variables (discrimination experiences, perceived societal Islamophobia, and national identity) and academic motivation among 1335 adolescents in Germany (48% female, M-age = 14.69). Regression analyses and multigroup SEM revealed differentialAcross continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by 'migrant background', a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging.
This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psychological and educational research. Using a preregistered empirical example, we first compare selected social categories ('migrant background', family heritage, religion, citizenship, cultural identification, and generation status) in their potential to reveal participant heterogeneity.
Second, we investigate differences in means and relations between variables (discrimination experiences, perceived societal Islamophobia, and national identity) and academic motivation among 1335 adolescents in Germany (48% female, M-age = 14.69). Regression analyses and multigroup SEM revealed differential experiences with and implications of discrimination for academic motivation.
Results highlight the need for a deliberate, transparent use of social categories to make discrimination visible and centre participants' subjective experiences.…
| Author details: | Jana VietzeORCiD, Miriam SchwarzenthalORCiDGND, Ursula Moffitt, Sauro Civitillo |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-022-00611-2 |
| ISSN: | 0256-2928 |
| ISSN: | 1878-5174 |
| Title of parent work (English): | European journal of psychology of education |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| Place of publishing: | New York |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2022/03/11 |
| Publication year: | 2022 |
| Release date: | 2024/04/22 |
| Tag: | academic; discrimination; labels; migrant background; motivation; national identity; social categories |
| Volume: | 38 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Number of pages: | 20 |
| First page: | 389 |
| Last Page: | 408 |
| Funding institution: | Foundation of German Business (Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft) |
| Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Bildungswissenschaften / Department für Inklusionspädagogik |
| DDC classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
| 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 300 Sozialwissenschaften | |
| 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung | |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Publishing method: | Open Access / Hybrid Open-Access |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
