Exploring Multicultural Classroom Dynamics:

A Network Analysis
Ceren S. Abacioglu*,1, Adela-Maria Isvoranu1, Maykel Verkuyten2, Jochem Thijs2, & Sacha Epskamp1

1 University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2 Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

“ METHOD
INTRODUCTION

Ethnic minority (vs. majority) Current Study Data (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002)
students are more likely to be 3.806 children from 182 classes; Native-
subjected to ethnic victimization A first application of psychological Dutch group (N = 1641), Turkish-Moroccan-
(Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002). network models Dutch group (N = 1175)

Conflictual relationships & To explore relationships between

exclusion undermine school Student reflections on themselves and their
students’ perceptions of various teachers (ordinal data)
motivation & engagement classroom experiences
(Wentzel, 2009).

To inspect plausible mechanisms

Teachers & their approach to Network Construction
with which teachers’ perceived
multiculturalism can facilitate
approach to multiculturalism Gaussian graphical models
reaching social & educational
influences student motivation  Undirected
goals (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009) :
 Partial Correlations
 Level of Multicultural Education,
 guidelines for children’s social
behavior Teacher Reactions to
Victimization L1 regularization: only statistically
 explicit messages about their
meaningful: no connections due to
interactions
sampling variation

RESULTS

Figure 1. Networks depicting the shortest pathways (solid lines) between teachers’ approach to multiculturalism and student motivation, based the estimated item
partial correlations between the teachers’ approach to multiculturalism, student peer relationships, and motivation. Item groups are differentiated by colors. Thicker
and darker edges represent stronger connections.

CONCLUSION

Generated mediation hypothesis: main and immediate factors of Not only ensuring non-victimization but also
influence over student motivation promoting positive relationships is needed

Should be directly tested: Yet, a multicultural approach is seen as extra as

teachers are not sure of benefits, or have no training
for dealing with diversity

*Corresponding author: C.S.Abacioglu@uva.nl, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, Room D8.04, 1018 WS Amsterdam, the Netherlands