The influence of an immigrant background on the educational expectations of pupils in Flanders: the role of religious affliation and practices

Research on educational expectations, what people hope to achieve in education is well established since the 1960's. More recent work digs into the interrelation between educational expectations and immigrant background. According to this literature, students with an immigrant background are more likely to have higher educational expectations than their non-immigrant counterparts. There is however a lack of academic research going into plausible explanatory variables. Sociological literature points to the specific role of religious affiliation and practices of the students in order to explain differences in expectations. The current contribution digs into this association and tries to answer the question whether religion (affiliation and practice) enables us to understand the connection between immigrant status and expectations. This question is tested statistically, using the Flemish subsample from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009-data (ICCS), a survey from 8th grade pupils. The results validate previous findings, concerning the higher educational expectations from students with an immigrant background as compared to those with a native background. Moreover, the analysis shows that being religiously affiliated contributes to these expectations. Also, the participatory aspect of religious practice is more important than the religious affiliation as such.

Publication year:2014

Keywords:educational expectactions, religious affiliation, ICCS-data