Analysing grade retention beliefs within teachers' psycho-pedagogic beliefs system

Teachers have a complex and multidimensional system of socially constructed beliefs that influence their professional practice. Based on self-reported beliefs of 449 Portuguese primary teachers we explored the connectivity between grade retention beliefs and other psycho-pedagogical beliefs using a structural equation model. We also studied the psychological centrality of grade retention beliefs using a latent profile analysis. The results indicated that teachers' grade retention beliefs are maintained within their beliefs system with a high degree of connectivity and centrality, especially when shared by their community. These findings may have implications to the educational policies that aim to reduce retention rates. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).