The Relationship Between Multicultural Education and Academic Achievement: The Quantitative Evidence

• In Event: 30.063 - Multicultural/Multiethnic Education: Exploring Learning Environments and Student Outcomes

Abstract

A central promise of multicultural education (MCE) is that it will promote academic achievement, in particular for pupils from marginalized communities. However, there is little direct quantitative evidence for this claim as most studies on MCE use only a qualitative approach. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to examine whether MCE has a positive effect on the academic performance of pupils. We use data that are collected from 706 teachers and 2,845 pupils in a sample of 68 primary schools in Flanders, Belgium. The results of the multilevel regression analysis revealed that that MCE improves the academic performance of immigrant Turkish children, while it does not do any harm to the academic performance of native Belgian children.

Author

• Orhan Agirdag, KU Leuven