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Article In: Rethinking Multilingualism in Education: Inclusion, policy and practice for newcomers in Europe
Edited by Steven Delarue and Wendelien Vantieghem
[Nota Bene 3:1] 2026

Newcomer?

A Dutch-Caribbean perspective on international transition classes in the Netherlands

 | Utrecht University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Families, pupils, and students from the Dutch-Caribbean islands sometimes choose to migrate to the European part of the Dutch kingdom for work or educational purposes. Within the EDINA framework, pupils that migrate to the Netherlands who do not (fully) master the school language may benefit from a classroom environment where their rich linguistic and cultural repertoire is acknowledged and utilised as a tool to help them adjust to the Dutch school system. While Dutch-Caribbean pupils are not exactly ‘newcomers’ they are also not ‘fully’ Dutch; that is to say, the differences between sociolinguistic contexts in the two parts of the Dutch kingdom may lead to Dutch-Caribbean pupils needing extra support during their first year(s) in Dutch secondary school. Similar to newcomer pupils, the international transition classes (ISK) may offer exactly that. This study examines the scholastic performance by Dutch-Caribbean pupils in their first year of secondary school by looking at their grades for Dutch, English, and mathematics in relation to the age at which the pupils started ISK and their country of origin. The results show that neither age at the start of ISK nor the country of origin significantly affected pupil’s grades.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background information and theoretical underpinnings
  • 3.Aims and data
    • 3.1Scholastic performance
    • 3.2Expectations
    • 3.3Participants
    • 3.4Materials
    • 3.5Analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Likelihood Ratio Test
    • 4.2Performance on all three subjects
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Results of this study
    • 5.2Limitations of this study
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
References (39)
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