Cultural Background or Cultural Beliefs? What Role do Immigration Background and Multicultural Beliefs Play for Teaching Children with Immigrant Backgrounds?

Various initiatives have recently been launched to attract more teachers with immigrant backgrounds, under the assumption that they are better equipped to teach in multicultural contexts. However, whether teachers differ in their professional competence to cater for students with immigrant backgrounds has not yet been empirically established, and it remains unclear whether any such differences would be attributable to the teachers' own immigration background. Based on the COACTIV model of teachers' professional competence, and drawing on a sample of 433 trainee teachers with and without immigrant backgrounds, this study (a) investigated trainee teachers' enthusiasm, self-efficacy, and prejudices with respect to teaching students with immigrant backgrounds and (b) tested whether the relationship between immigration background and these variables was mediated by multicultural beliefs. Results from structural equation modeling confirmed that multicultural beliefs had an indirect effect: participants with immigrant backgrounds reported higher multicultural beliefs which were in turn associated with higher self-efficacy and enthusiasm and lower levels of prejudice.