Is classroom diversity related to citizenship competences of ethnic minority and majority students?

This study examines whether classroom ethnic diversity is related to citizenship outcomes of ethnic minority and majority students. Hypotheses, derived from the social capital literature, are tested using the Dutch nationally representative data of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study of 2016 (2812 students, from 123 classrooms at secondary schools). The association between classroom ethnic diversity and five aspects of citizenship are examined: citizenship knowledge, support for gender equality, support for ethnic equality, institutional trust, and voting intentions. Results of multilevel analyses show that classroom diversity is related to stronger support for gender equality as well as support for ethnic equality, but negatively related to institutional trust, and not related to citizenship knowledge and voting intentions. These effects remain when controlling for socio-economic aspects of the school environment (educational track, classroom SES, urbanization, classroom climate) and are the same for both ethnic minority and majority students.