BACKGROUND: The over-representation of Roma children in segregated schools is well documented as a prevalent form of institutional racism in the Czech Republic. In the paper, we examine the inclination of parents to support school segregation. OBJECTIVE: The paper looks at parents' preference for school segregation and explores its association to social dominance orientation, intergroup contacts, belief in traditional schooling and the absence of Roma children in school as proof of the school's good quality. The first hypothesis examines an association between parents' preference to withdraw their children from ethnically diverse schools and social dominance orientation (one's degree of preference for inequality among social groups). The second one tests the belief in traditional schooling as a factor contributing to a preference for ethnically motivated withdrawal. The third one studies the extent to which parents' preference to withdraw their children from ethnically diverse schools is affected by contact with Roma in their everyday life. The final hypothesis tests if parents who view Roma students as an indicator of poor education in a given school are more likely to oppose the presence of Roma students among their children's peers. METHODS: Quantitative data collection was carried out on a sample of 1,803 respondents. The target group were families with at least one child of primary school age (6-14 years). A binary logistic regression analysis was implemented to assess these relationships. RESULTS: The study confirmed that ethnically motivated school withdrawal is associated with social dominance orientation, belief in traditional school culture and education. On the other hand, the role of inter-group contact in a school environment was not proved. However, the final statistical model was rather weak explaining approximately 9% of variance in segregation endorsement. The model fit improved significantly when an additional variable - absence of Roma as a sign of a good school - was added. Approximately 15% of the variance in segregation endorsement was explained by the modified set of predictors. CONCLUSION: The study argues that ethnically motivated school withdrawal is a result of individual attitudes and situational factors. This means that researchers interested in informal school segregation will need to consider both groups of factors.

Department of Managerial Psychology and Sociology Faculty of Business Administration Prague University of Economics and Business Prague Czechia

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Amnesty International (2009). Nedokončený úkol: Romští žáci v České republice stále čelí překážkám ve vzdělávání. Praha: Amnesty International.

Ball S. J. (2003). Class strategies and the educational market: the middle classes and social advantage. New York/London: Routledge.

Bifulco R., Ladd H. F. (2007). School choice, racial segregation, and test-score gaps: evidence from North Carolina’s charter school program. J. Policy Anal. Manage. 26, 31–56. doi: 10.1002/pam.20226 DOI

Beach D., Dovemark M. (2011). Twelve years of upper-secondary education in Sweden: The beginnings of a neo-liberal policy hegemony? Educational Review 63, 313–327.

Braddock J. (1980). The perpetuation of segregation across levels of education: a behavioral assessment of the contact hypothesis. Sociol. Educ. 53, 178–186. doi: 10.2307/2112412 DOI

Braddock J., McPartland J. (1982). “Assessing school desegregation effects: new directions in research” in Research in sociology of education and socialization, vol. 3. ed. Corwin R. (Greenwich, CT: JAI; ), 259–282.

Breen R., Goldthorpe J. H. (1997). Explaining educational differentials: towards a formal rational action theory. Ration. Soc. 9, 275–305. doi: 10.1177/104346397009003002 DOI

Burgess S., Greaves E., Vignoles A., Wilson D. (2011). Parental choice of primary school in England: what types of school do different types of family really have available to them? Policy Stud. 32, 531–547. doi: 10.1080/01442872.2011.601215 DOI

Bustillos A., Silván-Ferrero M. D. P. (2013). Attitudes toward peers with physical disabilities at high school: applying the integrated threat theory. Rehabil. Couns. Bull. 56, 108–119. doi: 10.1177/0034355212451145 DOI

Butler J. S., Carr D. A., Toma E. F., Zimmer R. (2013). Choice in a world of new school types. J. Policy Anal. Manage. 32, 785–806. doi: 10.1002/pam.21711 DOI

Carrington S., Elkins J. (2002). Comparison of a traditional and an inclusive secondary school culture. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 6, 1–16. doi: 10.1080/13603110110061754 DOI

Clotfelter C. T. (2004), After Brown. The rise and retreat of school desegregation. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Coleman J. S., Campbell E. Q., Hobson C. J., McPartland J., Mood A. M., Weinfeld F. D., et al. . (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Cortina K. S., Arel S., Smith-Darden J. P. (2017). School belonging in different cultures: the effects of individualism and power distance. Front. Educ. 2:56. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2017.00056 DOI

Dixon J., Durrheim K. (2003). Contact and the ecology of racial division: some varieties of informal segregation. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 42, 1–23. doi: 10.1348/014466603763276090, PMID: PubMed DOI

Ekehammar B., Akrami N., Gylje M., Zakrisson I. (2004). What matters most to prejudice: big five personality, social dominance orientation, or right-wing authoritarianism? Eur. J. Personal. 18, 463–482. doi: 10.1002/per.526 DOI

Furrer C., Skinner E. (2003). Sense of relatedness as a factor in children’s academic engagement and performance. J. Educ. Psychol. 95, 148–162. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.95.1.148 DOI

GAC (2006). Analýza sociálně vyloučených romských lokalit a absorpční kapacita subjektů působících v této oblasti. Praha. MPSV.

GAC (2010). Sociologická analýza přechodů romských dětí ze sociálně vyloučeného prostředí ze základních na střední školy. Praha: MŠMT.

GAC (2015). Analýza sociálně vyloučených lokalit v České republice. Praha: MPSV.

Gaertner S. L., Dovidio J. F., Rust M. C., Nier J. A., Banker B. S., Ward C. M., et al. . (1999). Reducing intergroup bias: elements of intergroup cooperation. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 76, 388–402. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.76.3.388, PMID: PubMed DOI

Glaesser J., Cooper B. (2014). Using rational action theory and Bourdieu’s habitus theory together to account for educational decision-making in England and Germany. Sociology 48, 463–481. doi: 10.1177/0038038513490352 DOI

Goldthorpe J. H. (1998). Rational action theory for sociology. Br. J. Sociol. 49, 167–192. doi: 10.2307/591308 DOI

Goodenow C. (1993). The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: scale development and educational correlates. Psychol. Sch. 30, 79–90. doi: 10.1002/1520-6807(199301)30:1<79::AID-PITS2310300113>3.0.CO;2-X DOI

Hamberger J., Hewstone M. (1997). Inter-ethnic contact as a predictor of blatant and subtle prejudice: tests of a model in four west European nations. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 36, 173–190. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1997.tb01126.x DOI

Hargreaves A. (2001). Changing teachers, changing times: teachers' work and culture in the postmodern age. London: Continuum.

Ho A. K., Sidanius J., Pratto F., Levin S., Thomsen L., Kteily N., et al. . (2012). Social dominance orientation: revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 38, 583–606. doi: 10.1177/0146167211432765 PubMed DOI

Kašparová I., Souralová A. (2014). Od lokální k cikánské škole: homogenizace školní třídy a měnící se role učitele. Orbis scholae 1, 79–96.

Kteily N. S., Sheehy-Skeffington J., Ho A. K. (2017). Hierarchy in the eye of the beholder: (anti-) egalitarianism shapes perceived levels of social inequality. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 112, 136–159. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000097, PMID: PubMed DOI

Kteily N. S., Sidanius J., Levin S. (2011). Social dominance orientation: cause or ‘mere effect’?: evidence for SDO as a causal predictor of prejudice and discrimination against ethnic and racial outgroups. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 47, 208–214. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.09.009 DOI

Loučný J. (2016). Teorie sociální dominance: Adaptace metody SDO6 – Scale a její ověření v českém kulturním prostředí. Magisterská diplomová práce (Katedra Psychologie, FF UP v Olomouci).

Lund S. (2015). School choice, ethnic divisions, and symbolic boundaries. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lupton R., Hayes D. (2021). Great mistakes in education policy-and how to avoid them in the future. Bristol: Policy Press.

Mifune N., Inamasu K., Kohama S., Ohtsubo Y., Tago A. (2019). Social dominance orientation as an obstacle to intergroup apology. PloS one 14, e0211379. PubMed PMC

Nekorjak M., Souralová A., Vomastková K. (2011). Uvíznutí v marginalitě: vzdělávací trh,romské školy a reprodukce sociálně prostorových nerovností. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociol. Rev. 47, 657–680. doi: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.4.03 DOI

Ombudsman (2018). Doporučení veřejné ochránkyně práv ke společnému vzdělávání romských a neromských dětí. Brno: Ombudsman – veřejný ochránce práv (Sp. zn.: 86/20117/DIS/VB).

Osterman K. F. (2000). Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Rev. Educ. Res. 70, 323–367. doi: 10.3102/00346543070003323 DOI

Paluck E. L., Green S. A., Green D. P. (2019). The contact hypothesis re-evaluated. Behav. Public Policy 3, 129–158. doi: 10.1017/bpp.2018.25 DOI

Pearce M., Forlin C. (2005). Challenges and potential solutions for enabling inclusion in secondary schools. Australas. J. Spec. Educ. 29, 93–105. doi: 10.1017/S1030011200025288 DOI

Pettigrew T. F. (1997). Generalized intergroup contact effects on prejudice. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 23, 173–185. doi: 10.1177/0146167297232006 DOI

Power S., Edwards T., Whitty G., Wigfall V. (2003). Education and the middle class. Buckingham/Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.

Pratto F. (1999). “The puzzle of continuing group inequality: piecing together psychological, social, and cultural forces in social dominance theory” in Advances in experimental social psychology. ed. Zanna M. P. (San Diego, CA: Academic Press; ), 191–263.

Pratto F., Sidanius J., Levin S. (2006). Social dominance theory and the dynamics of intergroup relations: taking stock and looking forward. Eur. R Soc. Psychol. 17, 271–320. doi: 10.1080/10463280601055772 DOI

Pratto F., Sidanius J., Stallworth L. M., Malle B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: a personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 67, 741–763. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.741 DOI

Reay D., Crozier G., James D. (2011). White middle-class identities and urban schooling. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rivkin S. G. (2000). School desegregation, academic attainment, and earnings. J. Hum. Resour. 35, 333–346. doi: 10.2307/146328 DOI

Roets A., Van Hiel A., Dhont K. (2012). Is sexism a gender issue? A motivated social cognition perspective on men’s and women’s sexist attitudes toward own and other gender. Eur. J. Personal. 26, 350–359. doi: 10.1002/per.843 DOI

Saporito S. (2003). Private choices, public consequences: magnet school choice and segregation by race and poverty. Soc. Probl. 50, 181–203. doi: 10.1525/sp.2003.50.2.181 DOI

Shen M. (2018). The effects of school desegregation on infant health. Econ. Hum. Biol. 30, 104–118. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.06.002, PMID: PubMed DOI

Sibley C. G., Wilson M. S., Duckitt J. (2007). Antecedents of men’s hostile and benevolent sexism: the dual roles of social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism. Pers. Soc. Psychol. B. 33, 160–172. doi: 10.1177/0146167206294745, PMID: PubMed DOI

Sidanius J., Pratto F. (1999). Social dominance: an intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Sikkink D., Emerson M. O. (2008). School choice and racial segregation in US schools: the role of parents’ education. Ethn. Racial Stud. 31, 267–293. doi: 10.1080/01419870701337650 DOI

Straková J., Greger D., Soukup P. (2017). Factors affecting the transition of fifth graders to the academic track in the Czech Republic.. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 26, 288–309.

Weiner D., Byron A., Lutz F., Ludwig J. (2009). The effects of school desegregation on crime. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research.

White P. (2007). Education and career choice: a new model of decision making. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Whitley B. E., Jr. (1999). Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 77, 126–134. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.77.1.126 DOI

Wittig M., Grant-Thompson S. (1998). The utility of Allport’s conditions of intergroup contact for predicting perceptions of improved racial attitudes and beliefs. J. Soc. Issues 54, 795–812. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1998.tb01249.x DOI

Zhou S., Page-Gould E., Aron A., Moyer A., Hewstone M. (2019). The extended contact hypothesis: a meta-analysis on 20 years of research. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 23, 132–160. doi: 10.1177/1088868318762647, PMID: PubMed DOI