scholarly journals The Impact of National and School Contextual Factors on the Academic Performance of Immigrant Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holmes Finch ◽  
Maria E. Hernández Finch ◽  
Brooke Avery

The issue of immigration has become central to the politics of nations across the world, impacting many aspects of life over the last decade. Researches investigating educational achievement through a cross-national lens have found that immigrant children tend to exhibit lower academic achievement than their native born peers, and that these differences are exacerbated by both family level variables (e.g., socioeconomic status) as well as the school climate. The goal of the current study was to build on earlier work in this area by investigating the nature and degree to which national attitudes towards immigration have changed over time, and whether any such changes were associated with academic achievement for immigrant and native born students. In particular, the relationship between changing attitudes towards immigration and the achievement gap between native and immigrant students. Results of the study demonstrated that nations with more negative attitudes towards refugees in general, and those for which these attitudes became more negative over time had greater achievement gaps than did those nations with more positive attitudes. In addition, these change trajectories moderated relationships between teacher attitudes towards multiculturalism and academic achievement.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Sacco ◽  
Patrizia Falzetti

AbstractThe study of the territorial difference in educational achievement is a widely debated topic, in particular in Italy for the presence of the well-known strong regional disparities. National and international large scale assessments confirmed that the main characteristic of the Italian school system is the geographical cleavage between North and South. Policymakers have pressing needs to find solutions to reduce geographical disparities. In this study, we investigate the spatial disparities of academic achievement from a new perspective, assuming that the relationship between academic achievement and predictors varies across Italy. Our aim is to examine the extent of the spatial disparities in the relationship between academic achievement and some school-level factors related to inequalities in educational outcomes, moving beyond the regional administrative confines, in order to identify new spatial patterns. We exploited the reading standardized tests administered by INVALSI in 2018–2019 focusing on the 8th-grade students. Crucial to our contribution is the use of the geographically weighted regression and the k-mean clustering, which allows studying the spatial variability of the impact of the school-level factors on academic achievement and to gather schools in new spatial clusters. The findings of this paper demonstrate the necessity to design a more specific education policy and support the identification of the main critical factors for different geographical areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.


1989 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail F. Munger ◽  
Brenda H. Loyd

In education, computers and calculators historically have been associated with mathematics and the sciences, and are frequently incorporated into these areas of the curriculum. This may have serious implications for females because of the long history of reported sex differences in achievement and attitudes in mathematics and related disciplines. This study of sixty high school students examines the relationship between mathematics performance and students' attitudes toward technology (computers and calculators), and whether the relationship is similar for males and females. A practice form of the General Educational Development (GED) test was used to measure mathematics performance. Students' attitudes toward computers were assessed by the Computer Attitude Scale, and attitudes toward calculators were assessed by a 4-item measure developed by the authors. In general, students with more positive attitudes toward computers and calculators were found to perform better than students with more negative attitudes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s843-s843
Author(s):  
K. Vaiphei ◽  
P. Sreedaran ◽  
V. Sathyanarayanan

AimsStudies investigating attitudes of people with mental illness are scarce. The aim of the present study was to investigate person living with psychosis on their attitudes and perception towards the mental health professionals in contact with mental health services.MethodsAn in-depth interview was used to explore their lived experiences and attitude towards mental health professionals.ResultsBoth negative and positive attitudes were prevalent among the patients. Most negative attitudes concerned on not giving time, the MHPs are most interested in financial gains. They felt attitude changes according to diagnosis, psychosis perceived as diagnosis with violence; they are more interested in protecting themselves, perception that treating symptoms and not cause of illness. On the contrary, they felt positive on the relationship and time given to them.Discussion and conclusions The PLWI's attitude to MHPs could be a product of the type of admission (forced upon), symptoms related or on the type of service settings. The present study is purely qualitative, single settings, could not be generalised. However it points on the need for sensitization of MHPs and relationship building oriented intervention.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Kelly

ABSTRACTThe theory of incrementalism is a long-standing and influential perspective on policy making and resource allocation in the public sector. Previous research on social services budgeting suggests that resources are allocated incrementally, although there has been some debate as to whether this would persist in an era of prolonged expenditure restraint. Incremental budgetary outcomes are operationalised as percentage changes in budgets pro-rata with percentage changes in the total budget, and as stable shares of total expenditure for each activity. Data for 99 English social service departments supports incrementalism in that budget shares change by only 1.8 per cent, but percentage allocations depart from pro-rata incrementalism by a mean of 74 per cent. The comparison of the two summary indices over time supports those who have argued that prolonged restraint would encourage non-incremental budgeting, but change in the agency's total budget does not consistently predict budgetary outcomes. The effect of restraint on incrementalism varies with the measure used and across the component activities of the measures, but there is enough evidence to suggest a significant decline in the level of incrementalism in social service departments. In particular, non-incremental budgeting is strongly associated with the growth of day centre expenditure on the mentally ill and the elderly before 1982–3, and after that with the pursuit of the ‘community care’ strategy within state provided services for the elderly and children. Incrementalism as a general theory of agency budgeting is limited in its ability to explain variations in the degree of incrementalism between agencies, between component budgets and over time. The conclusion suggests that further research should seek explanations for these variations in the varying balance of the competing forces which shape outcomes in welfare bureaucracies and in the relationship between these forces and the organisation's environment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 306-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Geisler Asmussen ◽  
Bo Bernhard Nielsen ◽  
Tom Osegowitsch ◽  
Andre Sammartino

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model and test the dynamics of home-regional and global penetration by multi-national enterprises (MNEs). Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on international business (IB) theory, the authors model MNEs adjusting their home-regional and global market presence over time. The authors test the resulting hypotheses using sales data from a sample of 220 of the world’s largest MNEs over the period 1995-2005. The authors focus specifically on the relationship between levels of market penetration inside and outside the home region and rates of change in each domain. Findings – The authors demonstrate that MNEs do penetrate both home-regional and global markets, often simultaneously, and that penetration levels often oscillate within an MNE over time. The authors show firms’ rates of regional and global expansion to be affected by their existing regional and global penetration, as well as their interplay. Finally, the authors identify differences in the steady states at which firms stabilize their penetration levels in the home-regional and the global space. The findings broadly confirm the MNE as an interdependent portfolio with important regional demarcations. Originality/value – The authors identify complex interdependencies between home-regional and global penetration and growth, paving the way for further studies of the impact of regions on MNE expansion.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-166
Author(s):  
Obed I. Ojonta ◽  
Jonathan E. Ogbuabor ◽  
Peace N. Ojonta ◽  
Anthony Orji ◽  
Onyinye I. Anthony-Orji

Abstract Introduction: Educational achievement has remained the common yardstick for assessing human capital development across the world. However, it has been observed that Nigeria is one of the developing countries facing the challenge of low level of academic achievement by employees in the university system, which in turn has grave implications for the overall performance of the Nigerian university system in terms of efficient work delivery. Methods: This study adopts a robust and stratified sampling technique to select 4,122 employees in selected federal universities in the southeast of Nigeria and uses structural questionnaire and binary logistic regression to analyse the effect of employment status on academic achievement in South East Nigeria. Results: The findings show that employment status negatively and significantly influences the academic achievement of employees in Nigerian universities. Discussion: The major focus of this study is to examine the impact of employment status on educational achievement in the universities for southeast, Nigeria. To drive more effective and efficient service delivery in the universities, there is need for adequate salary enhancement for employees in order to motivate them to strive for higher educational attainments. Limitations: The study was carried out in federal universities in Nigeria. It is expected to expand the study to cut across both private, states in Nigeria for effective and efficient comparison among the universities found in southeast geopolitical zones. Conclusion: The study concludes that government should continuously motivate these employees so that they can strive for higher educational attainments.


Author(s):  
Stepan Dankevych

The problem of ensuring the balanced use of forest lands determines the search for new economic and environmental tools that can influence this process. The need to improve the certification tool as part of the financial and economic mechanism for ensuring balanced forestry land use corresponds to the directions of state policy and European integration intentions of Ukraine, modern requirements of the ecological aspect of forestry land use. The work examines the practice in the field of forest certification in Ukraine from the point of view of balanced land use. Spatial-temporal analysis and assessment of the scale and dynamics of the spread of forest FSC certification in Ukraine has been carried out. The study was formed in three stages: (I) study of changes over time in the volume of forest certification on a national scale, (II) assessment of trends over time for indicators on a regional scale, (III) study of the relationship between individual indicators. The analysis of the impact of FSC-certification of forest management in Ukraine on the environmental indicators of forestry land use based on the results of the correlation between the statistical characteristics of certain economic and environmental indicators, such as the area of certified forests, capital investments, reforestation. Analysis of statistical data showed the relationship between environmental and economic performance over time and changes in specific characteristics on a regional scale. The study makes it possible, on the basis of an objectively existing causal relationship between phenomena and indicators, to identify the course of certain positive or negative processes in forestry land use. Forest certification can play a role in maintaining a balanced use of forest lands, preventing illegal logging, forest degradation and contributing to reforestation and capital investments. The study helps to identify certain key variables that limit the ability of forestry operators to ensure balanced use of forest lands and how forest certification can affect this. Foreign experience in stimulating forest certification has been investigated for the possibility of borrowing the experience of using management tools in order to motivate forest certification in Ukraine. It has been proven that certification is a significant environmental tool for ensuring a balanced level of land use and has the potential for further development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. p70
Author(s):  
Lewis R. Gale ◽  
Clifford Nowell

The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of amotivation on academic performance and to test whether the impact of motivation on academic performance differs across students from China and the U.S. Using data from Chinese and U.S. students located in their home countries, we find amotivation negatively impacts academic performance of both groups of students. We also show that external motivation is positively associated with academic achievement. While these findings are consistent with results from previous studies, we extend the understanding on the relationship between motivation and academic performance by demonstrating that the magnitude of the detrimental impact of amotivation differs between students in the two countries and that the positive impact of higher levels of external motivation provides similar benefits for both groups of students.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naim Fanaj ◽  
Sevim Mustafa ◽  
Erika Melonashi

Numerous studies have investigated the impact of self-esteem and intelligence on academic achievement. The findings are generally inconsistent. The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between intelligence, self-esteem and academic achievement among young people in Kosovo. It was a quantitative cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 1856 participants, aged 10-18 years old (Mage = 15.29, SD = 1.76). Participants completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and The Raven Standard Progressive Matrices. Grade Point Average (GPA) was used to measure academic achievement. Data processing was done with SPSS 21.0 and Microsoft Excel 2013. Participants according to self-reported academic achievement were classified as follows: fail (0.1%), sufficient (2%), good (15.6%), very good (26.7%) and excellent (55.7%). As regards self-esteem participants were classified as follows: low self-esteem (26.9%), and normal self-esteem (73.1%). A significant positive correlation was found between academic achievement and intelligence (r = .31; p = .00) but not between achievement and self-esteem. This significant correlation resulted for both genders separately. The Mann-Whitney test found significant differences in academic achievement between genders and between groups with high intelligence and those with normal intelligence. Intelligence, but not self-esteem revealed a significant relationship with academic achievement. Future studies on the topic might focus on explanatory factors or the possibility of interaction of other variables related to academic achievement.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document