The Impact of Perceived General and Ethnic Victimization By Peers and Teachers on the School Belongingness of Ethnic Majority and Minority Students in Flanders

The relationship between ethnicity and educational inequalities, especially in relation to the achievement of ethnic minority students, is an important topic in educational research. However, the present study does not want to focus on achievement, but wants to examine a less researched factor that plays an important role in the academic and personal success of students, namely school belongingness. Belongingness has a positive influence on the behavior and motivation of both ethnic minority and majority students, and because of that it is interesting to explore if both groups of students feel to belong in Flemish schools. In addition, it seems very interesting to examine which factors influence the school belongingness of ethnic minority and majority students, especially since the determinants of school belongingness received little research attention. This study focuses on the impact of victimization. We might expect that victimization will have a negative impact on school belonging, but we have little knowledge about the difference in impact for ethnic majority and minority students. Furthermore, in relation to ethnic minority students, it is important to differentiate between general victimization (e.g. because of clothes or appearances) and ethnic victimization (e.g. because of race, ethnicity or skin color). In sum, this study focuses on these three research questions: 1) Do ethnic minority and majority students feel to belong to Flemish schools?, 2) Which impact does victimization have on school belongingness and does this differ for ethnic minority and majority students?, 3) Is there a difference in impact of ethnic and general victimization on the school belongingness of ethnic minority students? To answer the research questions, we will analyze data from a large-scale study (N=4322 students, 56 schools) collected during the school year 2011-2012 and designed to study ethnic discrimination in Flemish secondary schools.