Research Seminar - Visiting Speaker Diana van Bergen (Univeristy of Groningen, Netherlands) - 29th November 2018, 12-1pm

*** Everyone Welcome!  No need to book in advance ***

Date: Thursday 29th November 2018
Time: 12-1pm
Room: Building 9 BG09A

Diana Van Bergen, (University of Groningen)

Abstract:

Objectives: Many minority youth experience discrimination, in the Netherlands and elsewhere and negative associations with their adjustment are likely. Remarkably, especially in post-9/11 climate, young people’s accounts of ethno-religious discrimination have received little attention, resulting in various gaps in the literature. This article examines whether and how young people’s adjustment is related to the source of discrimination, and particularly explores the importance of discrimination in the school context.

Method: Links between perceived discrimination and externalizing behavior among Turkish- (n = 143) and Moroccan-Dutch (n = 164) youth aged 14 to 18 were first examined quantitatively, with a focus on the relevance of discrimination source (classmates, teachers, peers outside school, adults outside school). Findings then guided the qualitative exploration of ten Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch students’ experiences to better understand how youth perceive of discrimination in relation to its source.

Results: When different discrimination sources were examined simultaneously, only teacher discrimination remained a significant predictor, explaining 15% of the variance in externalizing behavior. The qualitative follow-up further illustrated the significance of teacher discrimination: Whereas some Moroccan-Dutch and Turkish-Dutch Muslim youth felt held back by their teachers from progressing in school, others reported derogatory comments about their native country and religion.

Discussion: We argue that the perceived powerlessness in the teacher-student relationship deserves further attention as Moroccan-Dutch and Turkish-Dutch youth not only report harsh experiences, perceived teacher discrimination is also linked to higher levels of externalizing behavior. We discuss the role of the socio-political climate in relation to discrimination experiences by Muslim youth in the West.

Biography:

DIANA D. VAN BERGEN received her PhD in sociology from the VU University in Amsterdam. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, at Groningen University, the Netherlands. Her research interests are “vulnerable” ethnic minority and sexual minority youth. She has investigated topics such as youth’s psychosocial development, and wellbeing in relation to victimization and perceived discrimination. For example, Van Bergen’s PhD thesis focused on suicidal behavior in young minority women. In her postdoctoral research, she focused on ethnoreligious conflicts and discrimination experiences among Muslim immigrant youth. Over the past ten years Van Bergen has conducted quantitative and qualitative fieldwork among immigrants youth in the Netherlands, as well as among sexual minority youth. She used mixed methods i.e. both in-depth interview and large scale surveys in her projects, but has developed a particular expertise in qualitative research approaches including life stories interviews.