Background Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) has been associated with increased student engagement and achievement. Its practice in classrooms, however, has been shown to be less than optimal. Nonetheless, certain teacher qualities have been suggested to facilitate its practice. Aims The current study sought quantitative evidence in support of two of these teacher qualities, namely teachers’ multicultural attitudes, and their perspective taking abilities. By identifying the strength of the suggested relationships, we aimed to examine the generalizability of previous findings in the literature and inform teachers’ professional development and interventions. Sample A total of 143 primary school teachers from different parts of the Netherlands responded to our online survey. Methods We conducted a multivariate multiple regression analysis to investigate the relationship between these qualities and teachers’ engagement in two separate but related components of CRT (i.e., socially sensitive and culturally sensitive teaching). Results Results of our analysis yielded significant relationships between the two teacher qualities and the frequency with which teachers engage in socially and culturally sensitive teaching. Perspective taking was a stronger predictor for both aspects of CRT. Conclusion These findings signal the significance of incorporating especially perspective taking experiences and exercises into teacher education and professional development programmes, which could benefit all students regardless of their backgrounds. Our results are promising as these qualities are malleable and thus can be improved.

Students' relationships with peers and teachers strongly influence their motivation to engage in learning activities. Ethnic minority students, however, are often victimized in schools, and their educational achievement lags behind that of their majority group counterparts. The aim of the present study was to explore teachers' multicultural approach within their classrooms as a possible factor of influence over students' peer relationships and motivation. We utilized the novel methodology of estimating psychological networks in order to map out the interactions between these constructs within multicultural classrooms. Results indicate that a multicultural approach is directly connected to student motivation for both ethnic majority and minority students. Social integration within peer groups, however, seems to be a possible mediator of this relationship for the ethnic minority students. Due to the hypothesis generating nature of the psychological network approach, a more thorough investigation of this generated mediation hypothesis is called for.Students who have better relationships with peers and teachers (Klem & Connell, 2004), and feel greater sense of relatedness, belongingness, inclusion, and support are more likely to be motivated to engage in learning (Deci & Ryan, 1985;Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Wentzel, 2009). Research shows that stereotypical expectations and cultural differences may, however, hamper the quality of relationships, leaving some students more vulnerable to rejection and exclusion. More specifically, students with a minority background are more likely to face ethnic victimization in the form of name-calling, teasing, and social-exclusion from peer groups (Verkuyten, Kinket, & van der Wielen, 1997;Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002), which may largely explain their low levels of adjustment to the educational system, (Dimitrova, Chasiotis, & Van De Vijver, 2016) as not feeling socially well integrated within a peer group undermines motivation (Cerezo & Ato, 2010) and educational achievement (Walton & Cohen, 2007). Studies have shown that victimized students, compared to their more accepted classmates, are less engaged with school and academic goals (Totura, Karver, & Gesten, 2014) and receive lower grades (Buhs & Ladd, 2001;Lopez & Dubois, 2005). Indeed, in many European countries, ethnic minority students' educational achievement lags behind that of their majority counterparts (Schleicher, 2006). The current study uses the novel methodology of psychological networks to explore a multicultural approach to diversity as a possible factor of influence over students' motivation -a strong predictor of educational achievement (Lee, 2014).

h i g h l i g h t sUsing multilevel models, we examined the relationship between teachers' prejudice reduction practices and students' engagement. Prejudice reduction practices focused on engaging in dialogue about diversity and confronting intergroup bias. Teachers' explicit multicultural attitudes and implicit attitudes towards ethnic minorities were possible moderators. Prejudice reduction predicted increases in student engagement for teachers with above-average positive explicit attitudes. Our models did not support such an interaction effect for implicit ethnic attitudes.

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Students who have better relationships with their peers and teachers are more likely to be motivated to engage in learning activities. The aim of the present study was to introduce the application of a novel methodological approach in order to explore plausible mechanisms with which teachers’ perceived approach to multiculturalism influences student motivation in relation to students’ peer relationships. We constructed psychological network models, using existing data, to map out multicultural classroom interactions. We conclude that teachers’ approach to multiculturalism might constitute a distal (main) factor of influence on both ethnic majority and minority students’ motivation. In addition, social integration might constitute a more proximate (more immediate) factor of influence for ethnic minority group children, signaling a possible process of mediation. The hypothesis generating nature of our study speaks to the need for further investigating the influence of teachers’ approach to multiculturalism on student motivation in relation to social integration.