Ideological Composition of the Classroom: Testing effects of polarization on perceptions of open classroom climate

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Investigating ideologies shaping citizenship education in formal curricula and non-formal educational spaces

Proposal

This quantitative study tests the relationship between ideological classroom composition and perceptions of open classroom climate. Using data from the 2016 IEA International Civic and Citizenship Study, the study uses latent class analysis and multilevel structural equation modeling across five countries. First, latent class analysis identified students as low or high socioeconomic status. To assess ideological polarization, the gap between support for gender equality and ethnic rights was calculated between groups. Finally, a structural regression model measured the relationship between ideological polarization and students’ perception of open classroom climate. Across five countries, results found negative associations between increased polarization and perception of an open classroom climate, however the relationship was generally stronger among High-SES students.

Based on the assumptions above, the present study works to make two contributions to the field of civic engagement among youth. First, this study connects the ideological composition of the classroom to students’ perception of classroom climate. While this has phenomenon has been addressed conceptually and in small scale studies, a tremendous lack of large-scale analysis exist making these comparisons. However, the data source used in this study makes such comparisons possible. Secondly, the emphasis on students’ socioeconomic status considers that classroom experiences may differ based on a student’s identity. This analysis builds on Ekman and Zetterberg assertion that the composition of students that populate a school has as strong of a relationship, perhaps stronger, with the development of political citizenship than the implemented curriculum and instruction. However, most large scale analysis have considered the implications of classroom composition based on race or SES status (Campbell, 2007; Collado, Lomos, & Nicaise, 2015; Janmaat, 2012; Isac, Maslowski, & van der Werf, 2012). The present study extends this work by focusing on the ideological composition of students across socio-economic status.

This study assess whether the ideological polarization of students within a classroom relate to the perceptions of an open classroom climate.
This was accomplished using secondary analysis of data from the International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS:16) to analyze the relationship between students’, identified as high socioeconomic status (High-SES) and low socioeconomic status (Low-SES), classroom ideological composition perceptions of open classroom climate (Schulz, Ainley, Fraillon, Kerr, & Losito, 2010). Latent class analysis identified High-SES and Low-SES students’ five countries including Croatia, Italy, Taiwan, Peru, and Chile. As will be discussed further, countries were selected based on sample size, both total and SES groupings, and performance in the statistical analysis. Subsequently, the classroom averages of individual items measuring classroom polarization between High-SES and Low-SES students. Using a two level structural regression model (Kline, 2015), with appropriate survey weights, the classroom level variables were used to create corresponding latent measures, which were then used to predict the sense of an open classroom climate. The findings provide evidence whether the ideological composition of the classroom is associated with perceptions of open classroom climate.

Author

• Ryan Knowles, Utah State University