Keynote Addresses

The full video recording of Dr. Lorenz's keynote lecture is available for streaming here.

The keynote presentation slides can be accessed here.

Assimilation and integration theories emphasize the role of ethnic minority members’ social integration in their structural integration. Social integration refers to the attributes and behaviors of peers as well as the frequency and intensity of social interactions between in- and outgroup members. Educational attainments are one key aspect of structural integration. In this lecture, I will review research on the interplay between the social embeddedness of ethnic minority students within social networks and the (in)equality in educational outcomes between native majority and ethnic minority students. To understand this interplay, I will, on the one hand, provide an overview of research examining processes that drive the formation of peer social networks among native majority, immigrant, refugee, and ethnic minority adolescents. This will include a discussion of ethnic segregation within schools. On the other hand, I will portray evidence on the social influence of peers on educational outcomes among both native majority and ethnic minority students. The analytical focus will be on the informal social networks that students build within schools based on friendships, help, and rejections. Recent social network studies highlight that such networks must be considered as key contexts of peer socialization processes, particularly during adolescence.

Georg Lorenz is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His research interests are ethnic, racial, social, and gender inequalities in education, discrimination, social integration, peer effects, and social network analysis. Georg Lorenz received his Ph.D. from the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg. In his thesis titled “Self-fulfilling prophecies in schools. Teacher expectations and the scholastic performance of immigrant children”, he investigated teacher expectation effects and subtle forms of discrimination initiated by stereotypes among teachers. Currently, Georg Lorenz is working on the interdisciplinary research project “Who Succeeds and Who Fails? A Multilevel Social Network Analysis Approach to Immigrants' Psychological and Sociocultural Adaption in Europe (ISONET)”. In this project, advanced techniques of social network analysis are utilized to investigate peer processes among ethnic minority youth. For instance, the research team is (re-)examining oppositional cultures among Turkish minority adolescents in Germany. Another recent focus of the project lies on the social acceptance and rejections of refugee adolescents. The work of Georg Lorenz has been published in academic journals such as the British Journal of Sociology of Education, Learning and Instruction, Social Psychology of Education, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

The full video recording of Prof. Makarova's keynote lecture is available for streaming here.

The keynote presentation slides can be accessed here.

Acculturation describes individual or ethno-cultural group changes in behavior and attitudes under the condition of intercultural contact. Acculturation research emphasizes changes that individuals or ethno-cultural groups undergo during their acculturation and the effects of their adjustment to the new socio-cultural environment. Overall, acculturation is a multifaceted construct that distinguishes between acculturation outcomes, acculturation orientations and conditions of acculturation. The eco-developmental framework of human development supports the notion that the relationship between acculturation and adjustment is shaped by the surrounding context. A specific focus of acculturation research has been the school context as it is one of the most influential in the process of ethnic minorities’ psychological and socio-cultural adjustment. This paper focuses on social relationships in school as a condition and an outcome of the acculturation process. Firstly, it demonstrates the impact of acculturation on the quality of social relationships. Secondly, it illustrates how social relationships with peers and teacher can support or inhibit the adjustment of ethnic minority youth in the school context. Finally, it draws conclusions on promoting positive social relationships in multicultural schools.

Elena Makarova studied educational sciences at the National Pedagogical University of Kiev, Ukraine. She received her PhD and her Venia Docendi at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Makarova worked as the SNSF research fellow at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Currently she has a position as a Professor of Educational Sciences and Director of the Institute for Educational Sciences at the University of Basel. Her main research interests are acculturation and adjustment of minority youth, school dropout, value transmission in the family and school context, and gender and career choice.

The full video recording of Prof. Strohmeier's keynote lecture is available for streaming here.

The keynote presentation slides can be accessed here.

Children and adolescents with international migration experiences constitute an increasing proportion of the population in many countries all over the world. Consequently, growing up in multicultural societies and dealing with diversity positively are considered new developmental tasks for young people. Although a huge body of research shows that bullying is a serious issue in school, systematic investigations in multicultural contexts are still limited. It is of high importance to better understand the complex mechanisms behind and dynamics of bullying in multicultural settings. This presentation introduces the main concepts of migration and acculturation, analyses mechanisms of bullying in relation to migration on the individual, peer group and societal levels and outlines how how prevention and intervention efforts might be able to tackle bullying related to migration. The presentation closes with thoughts how to translate the topics of migration, acculturation and diversity into anti-bullying programmes.

Co-authors/Project partners: Hildegunn Fandrem, Simona Caravita, Elisabeth Stefanek

Dagmar Strohmeier is Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Linz in Austria and Professor II at the Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioural Research in Education at the University of Stavanger in Norway. She received a PhD (2006) the venia legendi in Psychology (2014) from the University of Vienna in Austria. She studies peer relations in children and youth with a cross-cultural and cross-national perspective and a special focus on immigrant youth. She has developed, implemented and evaluated a program to foster social and intercultural competences in schools (ViSC program) that has been implemented in Austria, Cyprus, Romania, Turkey and Kosovo. She was the principle investigator of the EU funded project “Europe 2038” and examined young people’s engagement with the European Union in seven countries (www.europe2038.eu). Her research was awarded by the University of Applied Sciences in 2011 (Researcher of the Year) and the Bank Austria Main Award for the Support of Innovative Research in 2009. Her teaching was awarded by the the Köck Stiftung in 2010. She is president elect of the European Association for Developmental Psychology (www.eadp.info).

The full video recording of Prof. Hinduja's keynote lecture is available for streaming here.

The keynote presentation slides can be accessed here.

This keynote is designed for scholars and youth professionals who desire a deeper understanding of (and action plan to deal with) cyberbullying among youth today. We first briefly share updated research findings from the United States, as well as important correlates and consequences. With regard to prevention, we emphasize the importance of developing youth with moral compasses, compassionate hearts, and resilient mindsets to bravely face social adversity and overcome it – and make applications to how we can better serve outsider/marginalized youth. We also encourage youth professionals to marshal the powers of peer influence and school culture to curtail interpersonal harm. The overall goal is to help attendees identify and address key intrinsic and extrinsic components of youth development to determine how we can better support all youth to produce students who are safe, smart, honest, and responsible both offline and online.

Dr. Sameer Hinduja is a Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University, Co-Director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. He is recognized internationally for his groundbreaking work on the subjects of cyberbullying and safe social media use, concerns that have paralleled the exponential growth in online communication by young people. He has written seven books, and his interdisciplinary research is widely published and cited in a number of peer-reviewed academic journals. As a noted speaker and expert on teens and social media use, Dr. Hinduja also trains students, educators, parents, mental health professionals, and other youth workers how to promote the positive use of technology. In addition, he is frequently asked to provide expert commentary by news organizations, and his work has been featured in venues that include CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, NPR's All Things Considered, the BBC, and The New York Times. He has received Auburn University's Global Anti-Bullying Hero Award, won Florida Atlantic University's Researcher of the Year award, presented on cyberbullying at a Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill, testified in front of the Attorney General and the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, and served as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar at Dublin City University. Dr. Hinduja is also the Co-Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Bullying Prevention, a peer-reviewed journal from Springer.