How Classroom Composition Impacts Alienation from Learning Among Different Student Groups: A Study of Secondary Schools in Luxembourg and the Swiss Canton of Berne

School alienation, and alienation from learning in particular, appears to be a major cause of deviant behaviour in school, school failure and even school drop-out. Research indicates that students of low social origin and boys show a higher level of alienation, while students with an immigrant background are less alienated from learning. This paper aims at analysing how classroom composition impacts alienation from learning and differences in alienation from learning along the axis of gender, immigrant background and social origin. While the education systems in Luxembourg and Switzerland are both externally differentiated (several parallel secondary school tracks), and thus, prone to educational inequalities, they differ in their school landscapes: Luxembourgish secondary schools are characterised by homogeneous classrooms regarding different school tracks or levels are more common, more integrative schools and, thus, heterogeneous classrooms, are common in the Swiss canton of Bern. Based on conceptual considerations on the role of classroom contexts, we will study the impact of classroom composition regarding the proportion of low-social origin students, immigrants and boys on alienation from learning among certain groups. We will distinguish between vulnerable immigrants, immigrants with a privileged social origin and non-migrants of low and high social origin. Analyses are based on quantitative panel data gathered in the framework of the international mixed-method project SASAL – School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg. To analyse the outlined research issues, multilevel models will be employed allowing to separate individual level from context level mechanisms. Preliminary findings show that alienation from learning is lower in classrooms with a higher proportion of immigrants and higher in classroom with a higher proportion of students of low social origin.