TRajectories of Acculturation and Contact in Ethnically diverse Social networks

Across Europe even high-achieving children of immigrants are at risk of underperforming and disengaging from school, with long-lasting consequences for their future life chances in today’s knowledge economy (OECD, 2012). Ethnic inequalities are not fully explained by individual abilities or family resources on the side of minority students (Heath & Brinbaum, 2014); and cross-national comparison suggests the key role of different intergroup climates, with less unequal achievement in less segregated and more integrationist societies and school systems (Alba, Sloan & Sperling, 2011; Crul, Schneider & Lelie, 2013). Accordingly, Belgium is among the most unequal countries with large ‘ethnic penalties’ on early achievement and a widening gap between minority and majority careers (Baysu & Phalet, 2012), while Britain evinces smaller penalties, a narrowing gap, and even ‘ethnic premiums’ with some minorities outperforming the majority (Heath & Brinbaum, 2014). Against this backdrop, this proposal focuses on the school environment as proximal intergroup context of minority trajectories. Looking beyond school composition effects (Goldsmith, 2011), we will examine daily intergroup contact and acculturation processes in ethnically diverse school-based networks as a promising yet under-researched explanation of the diverging trajectories of minority and majority students. Moreover, we study teachers as ‘diversity managers’ who define students’ intergroup contact and acculturation experiences in diverse networks of students.