With the influx of migrants, the integration of ethnic minority children in the Dutch school system has become an urgent societal question. The proposed project investigates the role of cultural integrity in the classroom (i.e. cultural classroom climate) in promoting school engagement of specifically pupils from ethnic minorities. We focus on teachers’ cultural tolerance and emotional sensitivity and investigate how these influence pupils’ school engagement. We hypothesize that this relationship is mediated by pupils’ perceived social and cultural integration. We also aim to develop and test an intervention strategy that can improve classrooms’ cultural climate and pupils’ school engagement. 

The project is part of the NWO Yield Graduate Programme