Where does culture belong at school? Exploring the role of individualism and power distance in school belonging across cultures

Abstract

The relationship between culture and school belonging has rarely been examined relative to student and school-level factors. This study explored whether culture, measured through individualism and power distance, plays a role in school belonging across countries. The study, designed to separate the effects of within-school teacher support from country-level effects, was conducted on a cross-cultural sample of 413,575 students drawn from 53 countries. Initial analysis of the 2018 PISA survey data and Hofstede's cultural dimensions suggested that individualism and teacher support were negatively associated, whereas power distance was positively associated with teacher support. However, althoug..