NaDiRa short study: Racism at school

Racial discrimination in schools: an empirical analysis

National Monitoring of Discrimination and Racism (NaDiRa)

Project team:

• Sebastian Otten
• Julia Bredtmann
• Christina Vonnahme
• Christian Rulff

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Project description:

The research project investigated racist discrimination in schools in Germany. For this purpose, we empirically analysed whether and to what extent teachers systematically assess the performance of pupils belonging to an ethnic or religious minority worse than the performance of fellow pupils who do not belong to a minority group.

Results:

The study provides preliminary results for a selected age group of students. These indicate that pupils with a migration background are graded worse on average than children without a migration background in the subjects German and mathematics with the same performance. Pupils with a migration background are also less likely to be recommended to a Gymnasium than children without a migration background - despite the same results in standardised achievement tests or in tests of cognitive abilities.

However, children with a migration background who were born in Germany are rated less negatively than children of the first generation of immigrants. For children of the second immigration generation, we no longer found any significant disadvantage in the subject of mathematics.

Surprising insights:

Based on findings for other countries, we had expected that children with an immigrant background would be even more disadvantaged than our results show. To verify our findings, the analyses should therefore be repeated for further grades. It should also be noted that our study design does not allow for causal analyses. For this, experiments would have to be implemented. 

Significance for practice:

The study finds signs of disadvantage for children with a migration background. This makes it relevant for educational policy makers and for all those working in the field of education. Decisions such as recommendations for a secondary school have a significant impact on the further life of children. Here, new procedures should be discussed that reduce the subjective character of these recommendations and reduce the risk that children with a migration background are disadvantaged. 

Short studies in preparation of the Racism Monitor:

In order to prepare a comprehensive Racism Monitor, DeZIM called on scholars* from the DeZIM research community in 2020 to develop innovative study ideas. These should extend existing research projects, pursue new and innovative approaches or build an infrastructure to research racism. By 2021, more than 120 researchers at the six locations of the DeZIM research community had conducted a total of 34 short studies. These are divided into six thematic priorities:

• Health system
• Education system and labour market
• Institutional racism
• Dealing with experiences of racism
• Participation and the media
• Racist ideologies and attitudes

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)