- DATE / TIME:
- 2020•11•25 19:00 - 20:30
- Location:
- Maastricht
Cross-nationally comparative research on racial and ethnic skill disparities: questions, findings, and pitfalls
The future successful participation of immigrant children and the children of immigrants in societies and labor markets of western countries depends largely on their childhood experiences. I discuss racial and ethnic inequalities in skills and attitudes of children in primary and secondary education between 2000 and 2017. I present the findings of a systematic review of studies that used large-scale assessment data (i.e. PISA, PIRLS, and TIMMS) data for studying immigrant children’s educational performance. I discuss the relevance of origin and destination country differences, for explaining differences in math, reading, and science performance, and identify the evolution of research questions that have been addressed with such data, discuss major strengths and shortcomings, and discuss the main findings. I also present findings from a study on civic attitudes of immigrant children. I place this literature in a wider societal context, discuss implications, and critically assess how findings are used in the public and political debates.