How Do Schools Affect Ethnic Saliency Levels of Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

This article measures the role of schools in the ethnic socialization and identity formation processes of high school seniors in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) via ordinary least squares regression analysis and attempts to contribute to a better understanding of educational transitions in the postsocialist space and youth identity formation in a postconflict society. BiH has three ethnonational curricula (Bosniak, Croat, and Serb), each with an ethnocentric focus. Although nationality and school curricula are highly correlated in BiH, in the case of the Serbs, it was found that students who do not study the "appropriate" Serbian curriculum experienced a statistically significant effect on lowering ethnic saliency levels (P < .001 and P < .05). Data were gathered via field surveys of high school seniors at 78 high schools in 53 cities and towns located across the country, the selection of which was based on a nonprobability sampling approach.