Better Be Multicultural or Colorblind? How Teachers' Approach to Diversity During COVID ‐19 School Closures Predicts Adolescents' Class Engagement, School Belonging and Health Beyond General Teacher Support

Ethnic gaps in school achievement, belonging and health exacerbated during the COVID‐19 school closures. Building on increasing evidence that school diversity approaches impact these gaps, this paper investigates the effects of pupils' perceived teacher diversity approaches during COVID‐19 school closures, hypothesising that multicultural approaches that recognise and value cultural diversity have positive effects while colorblind approaches that ignore socio‐cultural differences have no or negative effects, especially for minoritized pupils. Extending previous work, we focused on three types of outcomes—day‐to‐day factors of class engagement and coursework; psychological factors of school belonging and futility and physical and mental health—and controlled for general teacher support. Survey data from 914 Belgian secondary school pupils showed that, for both ethnic majority and minoritized pupils alike, a perceived multicultural approach by teachers positively related to class engagement, school belonging and mental and physical health and negatively to school futility, while a perceived colorblind approach negatively related to class engagement, coursework done and school belonging. These effects held after controlling for gender, grade and general teacher support, thereby highlighting the important and unique role of teachers' (perceived) diversity approaches in creating learning environments in which pupils with (and without) multicultural identities can optimally function.