government in Germany took effect. Consequently, at that time ethnic minorities in
Germany may have still felt excluded by the receiving society.
A final remarkable difference concerns the education system. Sweden’s full
comprehensive system, characterized by mixed ability classes from primary all the way
up to and including upper secondary education, contrasts markedly with Germany’s early
selection system which assigns children to different tracks (high status academic and low
status pre-vocational) on the basis of ability from as early as the age of ten. England falls
somewhere in between these extremes with a formally comprehensive system that has
nonetheless retained some selective schools and that permits grouping by ability practices
inside schools (Green et al, 2006). These large system differences between the three
countries have important consequences for degrees of ethnic segregation. As ethnic
minority children often fall behind the ethnic majority in achievement levels, they tend to
be assigned to the low-ability schools or tracks in Germany and England. As a result they
are overrepresented in these tracks and will have fewer opportunities to come into contact
with children of the ethnic majority than their equivalents in countries with
comprehensive systems such as Sweden (Crul and Vermeulen, 2003).
Data, indicators and method
I utilized the IEA Civic Education Study (Cived) to explore the relation between
classroom diversity and civic attitudes. This study consisted of a large scale survey
conducted in April 1999 among a sample of 90,000 14-year-olds in 28 countries
worldwide. One of the advantages of this dataset is that ethnic minority respondents are
represented to a sufficient degree. Given the nested character of the national samples,
with one class being selected in each of the 120-200 sampled schools in each
participating country, the Cived study further allows researchers to explore both
contextual effects (such as diversity) and individual-level factors. I selected the national
samples of England, Sweden and Germany, composed, respectively, of 3043, 3073 and
3700 students selected in 128, 138 and 169 schools (i.e. classrooms).