A question of perspective? Measuring views on equal rights and opportunities among minority groups in European large-scale surveys

Attitudes toward diversity and acceptance of minorities have increasingly become a focus of public attention due to the transition of the European region toward a more diverse society. In recent years, many studies have gathered and presented data on perceptions of tolerance or attitudes toward equal rights for social groups across European countries. Whenever respondents are asked about their views on diversity, tolerance and acceptance with regard to specific social group, it is always important to take into account whether they belong to this particular group or not. However, when studying attitudes towards smaller minority groups, comparing attitudes between majority and minority often becomes problematic due to relatively small sample sizes. This paper will present European data from the IEA Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2009) and discuss possibilities for improving the statistical power of this kind of comparisons through oversampling of minority groups in student surveys.