In the course of their acculturation process, minority students need to negotiate the adaption to the host society’s culture and the maintenance of the culture of their country of origin. This identity construction is complex and may encompass contradicting and competing goals. The adjustment to school is seen as a relevant acculturation marker. An increasingly prominent multidimensional construct is students’ school engagement because it can provide an insight into the way students feel and interact with the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral domains of school. Successful adjustment to school culture, and acculturation in general, can be closely related to school engagement. There is yet no common knowledge about the role bicultural national and/or ethnic identity plays for the three dimensions of school engagement. The present study focusses on minority students in Germany who report a strong bicultural identity (in comparison with single stronger ethnic or national identities, as well as weaker bicultural identification) to explain students’ emotional, cognitive, and behavioral school engagement when controlling for gender, SES, and cultural capital. Data is derived from paper–pencil questionnaires administered in secondary schools in Germany. Regression analyses show that students with a stronger bicultural identity have a significantly higher emotional, cognitive, and behavioral school engagement than their peers with a weaker bicultural identity, when controlling for gender, SES, and cultural capital. The results hint at the relevance of fostering students’ ethnic, but also their national, cultural identity to support their school engagement. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

Introduction: Since teachers play a pivotal role in students' well-being and school engagement, expecting to be rejected by a teacher based on a persons' background could have negative effects on affective and cognitive academic outcomes. This paper explores the hitherto understudied construct of students' background-based rejection expectation by teachers and school engagement. Method: In a study with 7th grade students in Germany, we addressed the question of whether students' expectation of rejection by teachers is connected to their school engagement, grades, self-esteem, and academic self-concept. We explored which groups of students expect to be rejected, and we checked whether strong emotional teacher support can moderate the effect of rejection expectation on school engagement. Results: A strong expectation of rejection is associated with lower emotional and behavioral school engagement, lower grades, self-esteem, and academic self-concept. Ethnic minority students and students with lower cultural capital expect rejection more than their peers. There is indication that a strong emotional teacher support could moderate the relationship between rejection expectation and minority students' emotional and cognitive school engagement. Discussion: Expectation of rejection can be associated with several negative academic outcomes. More research is needed to better understand when and how students expect rejection. It is relevant to understand how schools can be culturally responsive and inclusive.