University of Oxford

Immigrant students: how to support motivation and achievement

AARE blog, immigrant students, , , , , , , , , ,

Around the world nations have experienced significant growth in their immigrant populations, including an increase in immigrant students. The way schools respond to this has a significant impact on how well immigrant students adapt to and succeed in school. 

Although there are many success stories, there are also immigrant students who struggle at school. They are then at risk of missing out on vital educational and job opportunities after school. This impacts individual students as personal potential is unrealised. It also impacts at the national level because immigrants have and always will be a key part of nations’ social and economic development. 

We need to understand how to support immigrant students in overcoming academic challenges and supporting their educational wellbeing.

Our study

In a recent research study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, we harnessed the Academic and Cultural Demands-Resources (ACD-R) framework to investigate the factors that are important for nurturing immigrant students’ academic motivation and achievement. We used the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from Australia and New Zealand—two countries with a history of receiving migrants to live and raise their families. PISA is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of 15-year-old school students’ learning and performance in mathematics, science, and reading. 

Two main parts of PISA are a student survey and a school leader survey. In a previous study, we focused on the student survey and how teachers can support individual immigrant students. This present study focused on the school leader survey and how whole-school action can support immigrant students.

The ACD-R Framework 

Under the ACD-R framework, demands are features of the learning process or learning environment that can get in the way of students’ educational progress – while resources help and support students’ educational development. These demands and resources may be academic factors or ethno-cultural factors that impede or assist students’ educational pathways.

Participants in Our Research

The research involved 545 schools across Australia and New Zealand) and nearly 5000 immigrant students.

The school leaders were asked to report on key features of their school, including the various demands and resources present in the school. We then linked their responses to the motivation and achievement scores of the immigrant students in their school (summarized from the PISA student survey). This enabled us to examine the whole-school factors that are associated with the academic development of immigrant students in the school.

The Measures in Our Study

The main measures in our research were drawn from survey items administered to school leaders asking about the academic and cultural demands and resources in their school. Academic demands were assessed via two measures. The first tapped into the extent to which school instruction was hindered by staffing and resourcing issues, what we call a resource shortage. The second asked about the extent to which students’ learning was hindered by the nature of teaching (e.g., teachers not meeting individual students’ needs), referred to as hindered learning. Academic resources were assessed with a measure which asked about the extent to which students were provided with resources to support their learning, referred to as student assistance (e.g., rooms where students can do their homework).

Cultural demands are represented by immigrant socio-economic disadvantage. This refers to  the proportion of immigrant students in a school experiencing socio-economic disadvantage. Cultural resources comprised cultural learning, shared cultural values and immigrant student language support. 

Motivation was assessed through measures of self-efficacy (students’ belief in their capacity to attain desired academic outcomes) and valuing (their belief in the usefulness and importance of what they learn). 

Achievement was based on students’ achievement on the PISA mathematics, science, and reading tests. 

In all our analyses we accounted (controlled) for school location, school type (non-independent, independent), staff/student ratio, average class size, and percentage of immigrant students in the school—so we knew that any significant demand and resource findings were above and beyond any influence due to school location, etc.  

Our results

The study identified four demands and resources that were significantly associated with immigrant students’ motivation and achievement: 

  • Student assistance and cultural learning (academic and cultural resources) that had positive effects.
  • Resource shortage and immigrant student socio-economic disadvantage (academic and cultural demands) that had negative effects

In addition to these significant demands and resources, we also found immigrant students’ motivation was significantly linked to their academic achievement. Immigrant students who believed in themselves (self-efficacy) and saw the relevance, importance, and usefulness of school (valuing) were likely to achieve highly.

Strategies for Schools

These findings point to six areas of whole-school action, each attending to a significant demand, resource, or motivation factor in the study.

  1. Resource shortage (academic demand). Our study signalled various aspects of school-level resource shortages that need attention when supporting immigrant students, including inadequate teaching- and learning-related infrastructure (e.g., teacher shortages) and  a lack of educational materials, resources, and learning spaces. 
  1. Student assistance (academic resource). At the same time, we found academic resources in the form of student assistance played a supportive role for immigrant students. Our study indicated such resources include provision of staff to help with homework and study, practical help and relational support from teachers that help immigrant students develop their academic skills and provide a sense of belonging at school. 
  1. Immigrant socio-economic disadvantage (cultural demand). Schools may look to target the barriers that disadvantaged immigrant families can experience if they are  socio-economically disadvantaged. In our research, we identified “agency” as one factor and suggested schools can work with immigrant parents and ethnic communities to design and implement linguistically and culturally responsive interventions (e.g., authentic school involvement of immigrant students’ cultural community) to empower families in the process of supporting immigrant students, especially those that have newly arrived to the country. 
  1. Cultural learning (cultural resource). Promoting this involves schools fostering learning about diverse cultures and the histories of these cultures. This can be strengthened through curriculum that provides a nuanced and authentic representation of diverse ethnic and cultural groups both locally and globally.
  1. Self-efficacy (motivation). Boosting students’ self-efficacy can involve teachers breaking schoolwork down into manageable chunks for students to experience smaller successes as they learn (this builds confidence through tasks), encouraging students to recognize their academic strengths (that also builds academic confidence), and teach students how to challenge negative beliefs that may be undermining their self-confidence. 
  1. Valuing (motivation). There are three types of valuing that can be nurtured. The first is attainment value, which involves explaining to students how what they learn at school is important. The second is intrinsic value, which involves setting schoolwork that arouses curiosity or is enjoyable. The third is utility value, which involves making it clear to students how what they learn is relevant to their lives or to the world more broadly.

Our research shows how to implement whole-school action to support immigrant student cohorts. The findings  demonstrate that attending to cultural demands and resources, alongside academic factors, has significant potential for optimising immigrant students’ educational development through school and beyond. 

Andrew Martin is Scientia Professor of Educational Psychology and chair of the Educational Psychology Research Group, School of Education at UNSW. He specialises in student motivation, engagement, learning, achievement, and quantitative research methods. Gregory Arief D. Liem is associate professor in the Psychology and Child & Human Development Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research focuses on student motivation and engagement. Rebecca Collie is Scientia Associate Professor in Educational and Developmental Psychology at UNSW. Her research interests focus on motivation and well-being among students and teachers, psychosocial experiences at school, and quantitative research methods. Lars Erik-Malmberg is professor in education at the University of Oxford. His research interests are in quantitative research methods and students’ academic development. Tim Mainhard is professor of educational sciences at the University of Leiden. His research interests are in teacher-student interactions, student motivation, learning, and wellbeing.

Turning points playlist

Your hottest 100: I’m so excited. And so much more

higher education, , , , , , , ,

Mark Selkrig, Nicky Dulfer, Ron ‘Kim’ Keamy, Troy Heffernan and Kristiina Brunila announce the “Academic Turning Points” Playlist Collection: Academics’ Journeys Expressed Through Music 

Many readers of this blog would know that higher education continues to be an ever-shifting landscape where constant change prevails. Academics worldwide who work inside higher education are navigating a myriad of profound changes and complexities. At the same time, they are grappling with increasing accountability measures and compliance requirements. The professional and personal pressures academics face can be immense. The impact is evident, with academics being overworked, exhausted, and on the verge of burnout. Alarmingly, many of these behaviours have become normalized. 

To better understand how academics are adapting to these evolving environments, our research team launched an innovative global study: “Turning Points: Changes Academics Make to Shape Their Working Lives.” The key research question driving this project was: How do academics articulate and represent the turning points that caused them to change course professionally, as well as the enduring impacts of those shifts?  Using multi-modal, arts-based methods, we invited participants to not only share written experiences about a pivotal moment where they elected to ‘do something different in their work practices’, but also describe an image and select a piece of music representing their evolved professional approaches. 

Your turning point playlist

Based on responses from over 120 participants in this study, some of whom may be readers of this blog, our findings reveal powerful windows into the nuanced realities of academic life. Drawing from the academics’ insightful musical selections, we’ve curated the “Academic Turning Points” Playlist Collection – a series of thoughtfully crafted playlists that audibly capture professional journeys across the globe. 

We are launching the first instalment: “Academic Turning Points 1: Reframing Perspectives on Work-Life Balance.” This resonant playlist explores the profound need for balance, perspective and self-compassion amid academia’s relentless demands. Tracks like “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin and “Sunrise” by Norah Jones reflect participants’ experiences re-evaluating unsustainable work practices and realigning priorities, with lyrics urging listeners to slow down, be kinder to themselves, and gain clarity on what’s important.  As one participant shared, a particular track helped them “realise that the way I was working was not sustainable, and I needed to make some changes to find more balance”.

From identity shift to finding purpose

We invite you to immerse yourself in this playlist and reflect on your own experiences. You may even want to consider the song you would choose to represent your own journey towards better work-life balance and sustainable practices. This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll unveil additional playlists, each offering a unique perspective through the powerful lens of music. From grappling with identity shifts to finding purpose, these collections will resonate with anyone impacted by academia’s demands. By centring multi-modal expression, our research aims to foster deeper understanding of academic life’s nuances. In this era of constant change, listening to academics’ voices is crucial. 

The “Academic Turning Points” playlist collection invites you to embark on an auditory exploration of professional journeys, struggles, triumphs and pivotal moments. To access the first playlist on in the collection on Spotify click on the QR code or follow the hyperlinked text to experience “Academic Turning Points 1: Reframing Perspectives on Work-Life Balance” .

A qr code on a white background Description automatically generated

Remember to stay tuned for more releases in this powerful series. For academics worldwide, may these playlists remind you that you’re not alone, and that the path to balance and fulfillment is one we navigate together, one note at a time.

The evocative AI-generated playlist image (shown in the top image for this blog and also right) is based on descriptions of images that represented their academic turning point are also striking visual representations of the complex emotional terrain academics navigate daily. 

A collage of images of two people Description automatically generated

If you would like to  know a little bit more about the project, or access a catalogue of whole collection of playlists as they are released, be sure to look at our Turning Points project website

Meet the Turning Points Team

Mark Selkrig is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. His research and scholarly work focus on the changing nature of educators’ work, their identities and lived experiences of these events. He has been the recipient of awards for publications in this field and acknowledged for his leadership, outstanding work and advocacy for arts development and education. Mark is on Linkedin.

Nicky Dulfer is a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Nicky’s research agenda is driven by a social justice imperative and seeks to make a significant change to the ways in which marginalised students experience education. Her research explores educational curriculums and institutions and the ways they both shape, and are shaped by, those who work and study in them.

Ron “Kim” Keamy is an associate professor and a teacher education researcher in the Assessment & Evaluation Research Centre, Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Kim’s research and scholarly work traverses educational and academic leadership, initial teacher education and teachers’ professional learning.

Troy Heffernan is a Fulbright Scholar and currently a visiting fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. As a sociologist of higher education administration and equity, his work examines issues such as those related to precarious employment, the implication of academic networks, and the factors involved in hiring and promotional decisions. He also examines ways to enhance student equity and experience. 

Kristiina Brunila works as professor in the University of Helsinki where she directs the research centre of AGORA for the study of social justice and equality in education. With her AGORA research community she has studied educational transformations in global and glocal contexts including reforms in universities as well as questions related to inequalities and education.

How to predict if an immigrant student will succeed – and what you can do to help

immigrant students, , , , , ,

Many nations around the world have seen a steep rise in the size of their immigrant
populations, including their immigrant student populations. How educators respond to this
plays a big part in how immigrant students adjust to and thrive at school. There are many
success stories, but there continues to be immigrant students who underachieve, leave school early, and lose critical post-school education opportunities.

Immigrants have and will continue to play a major role in our nation’s social and economic
potential and so there is an ongoing need for research that identifies how to better help
immigrant students navigate the academic challenges facing them and support their academic
outcomes.

Our study

A recent study published in the international journal, Learning and Instruction, sought to do this. It applied the “academic and cultural demands-resources” (ACD-R) framework to investigate the academic, personal, and ethno-cultural factors that impact immigrant students’ academic success at school. The study harnessed the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (2018) data of immigrant students in Australia and New Zealand, two nations that have traditionally been “settlement countries”, receiving migrants to live, work, and raise their families. PISA is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of 15-year-old school students’ motivation, engagement, and academic performance in mathematics, science, and reading.

What is the ACD-R Framework?

Before looking at the study and its findings, a brief introduction to the ACD-R framework is in order. The ACD-R framework draws on “job demands-resources” (JD-R) theory and the “academic-demands resources” (AD-R) framework. As an introduction to the ACD-R framework we’ll describe the AD-R framework and refer the reader to other literature explaining the JD-R theory. 

Academic demands are aspects of learning or the learning context that can impede students’ academic development (for example, poor quality instruction, a heavy study load). Academic resources are features of learning or learning contexts that help students attain academic goals and growth (for example, instructional support, positive teacher-student relationship). In the AD-R framework there are also personal demands that are personal attributes acting as barriers to students’ academic development (for example, fear of failure, fixed mindset). There are also personal resources that are personal attributes positively impacting academic outcomes (for example, adaptability, academic buoyancy). 

The ACD-R framework is an extension of the AD-R framework in that it adds ethno-cultural demands and resources to the AD-R framework’s academic and personal demands and resources. Cultural demands are ethno-cultural contextual and/or personal challenges experienced by students from culturally and/or ethnically diverse backgrounds (for example, racism at school) and are associated with negative academic outcomes. Cultural resources are ethno-cultural contextual and/or personal strengths or assets (for example, cultural pride or confidence) that are associated with positive academic outcomes for students from culturally/ethnically diverse backgrounds. 

In the AD-R and ACD-R frameworks, demands and resources can also have buffering and boosting effects. Taking buffering effects as a case in point, there may be some cultural resources that reduce (buffer) the negative impacts of demands. For example, cultural pride (a cultural resource) may reduce the stressful effects of poor-quality teaching (an academic demand). 

Figure 1 shows the ACD-R framework.

Importantly, the AD-R and ACD-R frameworks aim to challenge potential deficit framing of students by locating their personal resources as central to their academic development. They also aim to reallocate the task of academic development from the disproportionate or sole responsibility of students (which risks “blaming the victim”) by emphasising the major role of contextual demands and resources in students’ academic outcomes.

Figure 1. The Academic and Cultural Demands-Resources (ACD-R) Framework

The study participants

Our study comprised 4,886 immigrant students from Australia (3,329) and New Zealand (1,557) who participated in the PISA (2018) survey. The average age of students was 15-16 years. Just over half were first-generation immigrants who had arrived in the country between the ages of 8 and 9 years; the other immigrant students were second generation (born in Australia/New Zealand and whose parents were both born overseas).

Assessing the Demands and Resources Framework

The central measures in the study were online PISA survey items about academic demands and resources, personal demands and resources, cultural demands and resources—as well as academic motivation, academic outcomes, and background attributes.

Academic demands were assessed via ‘learning-disrupted teaching’ (students’ experience of chaotic or disruptive learning and teaching conditions; sample item, “Students don’t listen to what the teacher says”). Academic resources were measured by ‘autonomy-supportive teaching’, ‘instrumental-supportive teaching’, and ‘warmth-supportive teaching’ (students’ experience of teaching that provided autonomy support, instrumental support, and relatedness support or warmth, for example, “The teacher listened to my view on how to do things”).

Personal demands were assessed via ‘fear of failure’ and ‘fixed mindset’ (students’ concerns about failure and their view that competence is relatively fixed, for example, “Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much”). Personal resources were assessed through ‘perspective-taking’ and ‘adaptability’ (students’ ability to see others’ point of view and capacity to adjust in the face of change and uncertainty, for example, “I can change my behavior to meet the needs of new situations”). 

Cultural demands were assessed via ‘discrimination’ (negative orientations to and treatment of people from different ethno-cultural groups in the school, for example, “Teachers … say negative things about people of some cultural groups”). Cultural resources included ‘cultural communication skills’, ‘cultural interest’, and ‘cultural confidence’ (students’ capacity to communicate with other ethno-cultural groups, interest in other ethno-cultural groups, and sense of pride and confidence in their own ethno-cultural group, for example, “I am interested in how people from various cultures see the world”). 

Motivation was assessed via ‘self-efficacy’ and ‘valuing’ (students’ belief in their capacity to attain desired academic outcomes and their belief in the utility and importance of what they learn, for example, “Trying hard at school will help me get a good job”). 

Outcomes comprised two measures of engagement—‘persistence’ and ‘non-attendance’ (perseverance towards task completion and skipping school, for example, “Once I start a task, I persist until it is finished”). Outcomes also included ‘achievement’ (performance on the PISA mathematics, science, reading tests). 

In all our analyses we accounted (controlled) for student background characteristics (such as gender, home socio-economic status) and school characteristics (such as school staff/student ratio, school location).

Our findings

For this sample of immigrant students, our topline findings were that demands predicted lower motivation, resources predicted higher motivation, and motivation predicted positive academic outcomes. 

That said, of particular interest were the specific demands and resources that were salient in the study—and we turn to these findings now.

The first of these was that the cultural demands and resources played a more prominent role in predicting motivation and outcomes than the academic demands and resources. With regard to cultural demands, discrimination was associated with lower valuing, higher non-attendance, and lower achievement. With regard to cultural resources, cultural communication skills and cultural confidence were positively associated with both self-efficacy and valuing, while cultural interest was linked to higher self-efficacy.

For personal demands and resources, adaptability was the factor that stood out. It was associated with higher self-efficacy (in fact, the largest effect size in the study) and valuing. Indeed, adaptability was also the only resource that featured in the ACD-R buffering/boosting process: results indicated that when immigrant students experienced discrimination at school, adaptability was important for boosting their academic valuing in the face of this.

Ideas for action

The ACD-R framework lends well to targeted practical action. Here we focus on the salient cultural and personal demands and resources in the study: discrimination, cultural communication skills, cultural interest, cultural confidence, and adaptability.

To address cultural demands (discrimination), it is important that:

  • Teachers act as positive role models in their interactions with immigrant students, showing respectful and inclusive behaviour that sets an example for other students to emulate, and nurtures an inclusive and harmonious classroom environment 
  • Schools establish clear definitions and guidelines regarding intercultural relations and discriminatory attitudes and behaviours, including helping teachers and students know what racism is, defining racism, having clear processes for reporting racism in the school, and being clear about anti-discrimination legislation that schools and staff are bound by
  • Pre-service teacher training and ongoing professional development includes modules and in-servicing on cultural sensitivity, intercultural communication, and strategies for creating an inclusive classroom environment. 

To promote cultural resources (cultural communication skills, cultural interest, cultural confidence), educators can:

  • Teach oral communication skills, non-verbal and visual communication, active listening, and contextual communication to help immigrant students better express themselves and be better understood
  • Inspire two-way interest among immigrant and non-immigrant students by enhancing intrinsic value, such as by identifying the importance of learning more about someone or something from another culture
  • Affirm students’ cultural identity, meaningfully involve immigrant students’ cultural community at school, and ensure appropriate representation of staff from culturally and/or ethnically diverse backgrounds. 

For adaptability, students can be taught how to: 

  • Adjust cognition by thinking about a new situation in a different way (for example, considering the opportunities a new situation might offer)
  • Modify behaviour by seeking out new or more resources or information (for example., asking a teacher to help with a new situation).

To conclude

Our study of immigrant high school students has demonstrated that including cultural demands and resources alongside academic and personal factors accounts for important aspects of their motivation, engagement, and achievement—and has potential to add to practical directions for optimising immigrant students’ academic outcomes through school and beyond. 

From left to right: Andrew Martin is Scientia Professor, Professor of Educational Psychology, and Co-Chair of the Educational Psychology Research Group in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

He specialises in student motivation, engagement, achievement, and quantitative research methods. Rebecca Collie is Scientia Associate Professor in Educational and Developmental Psychology at the University of NSW. Her research interests focus on motivation and well-being among students and teachers, psychosocial experiences at school, and quantitative research methods. Lars Erik-Malmberg is Professor in Education at the University of Oxford. His research interests are in quantitative research methods and students’ academic development.