International research indicates that grade retention does not improve long-term student achievement or social-affective functioning (Goos et al., 2013; Valbuena et al., 2020). Consistently with these results, since 2012, the Portuguese legislation recommends the use of grade retention only in exceptional circumstances. Despite those recommendations, grade retention is a relatively common practice in Portugal (27% of fifteen-year-old students repeated at least once during primary or middle education – European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2020).

Researchers identified beliefs as precursors to behaviour (Buehl & Beck, 2015). For this reason, some studies suggested that the high retention rates observed in countries such as Portugal, Belgium, France, Spain, Brazil, Switzerland, and Luxemburg might result from strong societal beliefs of its positive effects (Goos et al., 2013). In some of these countries, several studies have tried to identify groups of teachers distinguishable by the nature of their belief about grade retention (Boraita & Marcoux, 2016, in Belgium, France, and Switzerland; Crahay et al., 2013, in Belgium; Crahay et al., 2014 in Switzerland; Ribeiro et al., 2018 in Brazil). All of them used a questionnaire developed by Boraita, Crahay, Issaieva, and Marcoux team (Marcoux et al., 2016), which assess teachers’ beliefs about grade retention effectiveness (socioemotional dangers, academic and motivational benefits, and early retention effects), and teachers’ knowledge of research about grade retention. Using cluster analysis, a different number of groups emerged from these studies. Still, some similarities can be identified: all studies identified a group of teachers with very negative beliefs about the practice and high levels of knowledge about research on grade retention; a group of teachers with very positive beliefs and low or moderate knowledge about research; and one or two groups with mixed feelings about grade retention, neither against nor in favour, and moderate levels of knowledge.

Despite the similarities between clusters, in a study comparing pre-service teachers from Belgium, France, and Switzerland, Boraita and Marcoux (2016) observed that Belgian pre-service teachers were overrepresented in the groups in favour of repetition, whereas Swiss and French pre-service teachers were overrepresented in the group against retention. The authors suggested that the Belgian sample was more likely to retain students because school results were the only factor considered when deciding whether students should repeat a year. On the other hand, teachers in Switzerland and France considered that the decision to repeat a year requires making an overall profile of the student. The authors concluded that it seems to be different educational cultures about grade retention according to the study’s countries.

Although these results have contributed to the comprehension of teachers’ belief, only Ribeiro et al. (2018) used latent profile analyses (LPA), that according to Wang and Wang (2020), offer a superior model-based cluster solution than the traditional cluster analysis used by Crahay et al. (2013, 2014) and Boraita and Marcoux (2016). Furthermore, none of these studies analysed the relationship between teachers’ retention beliefs and their practices. Only the variable-centred study of Bonvin (2003) analysed this relationship, establishing that teachers’ beliefs predicted teachers’ grade retention practices.

Therefore, this study aimed to explore Portuguese primary school teachers’ beliefs about grade retention using LPA, by identifying different belief profiles. We used the Portuguese translation of Crahay’s team questionnaire of Ribeiro et al. (2018), which allowed us to compare our results with previous studies from different educational cultures. Besides, we also examined relationships between the profiles and teachers’ practices of grade retention. Two research questions guide this study:

• What are the beliefs of Portuguese primary teachers towards grade retention?
• Is there a relationship between teachers’ beliefs about grade retention and their practice of grade retention?

Four hundred forty-five primary school teachers from all Portugal regions (approximately 0.4% from each region) participated in the study (81% females). They were between 25 and 68 years old (M=49.77, SD=7.52), and teacher experience ranged between 2 and 43 years (M=25.31, SD=8.22). Most participants (273, 61.6%) were lead classroom teachers, teaching the core subject areas (mathematics, Portuguese, and social studies) in one classroom. Grade retention decision is primarily based on these teachers’ assessment (Eurydice, 2020). One hundred forty-nine (33.5%) taught specific subjects in several grades (e.g., arts, music, informatics, English, and physical education). Twenty-two (4.9%) were special education teachers. Teachers responded to an online questionnaire based on the Portuguese translation of Crahay’s survey used by Ribeiro et al. (2018). It included 15 Likert scaled statements about grade retention (from 1=strongly disagree to 6=strongly agree). The questionnaire measures teachers’ conceptions about the effects of grade retention in three main dimensions: academic and motivational effects; socioemotional effect (e.g., self-esteem and self-concept); and the specific effects of early retention (in the first years of schooling). Higher scores indicate positive opinions about this practice. The factorial structure with three dimensions was adequate for the data (X2/df=2.88, CFI=.981, TLI=.975; RMSEA=.065), and composite reliability was also adequate (CR>.85). Teachers were also asked about their current level of research knowledge about grade retention and its effects (from 1=very low to 5=very high), and how many students they have retained in the previous school year. Teachers were also asked whether colleagues share their opinion about grade retention’s effectiveness to promote academic success. We used Ferguson et al. (2020) procedures for conducting LPA in the Mplus software. We included in the model the factor scores of the three dimensions of teachers’ belief about grade retention and the scores of their knowledge of research about retention. We evaluate models with one through six profiles. We retained the model with four profiles that best fit the data based on the following criteria: low loglikelihood, AIC, BIC, and SABIC values; entropy value; nonsignificant LMR test; the smallest class contained more than 5% of the sample; and theoretical support. Each participant’s profile based on their most likely class membership was recorded into an SPSS database. Then, we used chi-squared analysis to assess whether there were differences in retention practices among lead classroom teachers from different profiles (n=273; teachers’ distribution in the profiles was similar for both lead classroom and specific subjects’ teachers).

The profiles identified were very similar to the ones described in the literature. Profile 1 integrated 34 teachers (7.6%) with very negative perceptions about grade retention effects. The 158 teachers (35.5%) in Profile 2 also had negative beliefs but closer to the average. Teachers in Profile 3 (179, 40.2%) presented positive beliefs about retention but closer to the average. Finally, Profile 4 integrated 74 teachers (16.6%) with very positive beliefs about retention effectiveness. Teachers from Profile 1 presented higher levels of knowledge of the research about retention effects. Teachers from other profiles indicated moderate levels of knowledge. Teachers in Profiles 1 and 2 tended to disagree more (66.7 and 55.7%) with the statement “my colleagues and I have the same opinion about the effectiveness of grade retention” than teachers from Profiles 3 and 4 (35.2 and 27.0%). Results could indicate a great share of positive beliefs about grade retention in Portuguese schools, which is consistent with the distribution observed in the profiles. Results also indicated that there was no association between teacher belief profile and their practices. However, when considering teachers’ shared beliefs with colleagues as moderator, the association between beliefs and practices becomes significant. Teachers in Profiles 1 and 2 retain fewer students (0.0 and 5.7%) than teachers in profiles 3 and 4 (23.5 and 29%) when they feel their colleagues share their beliefs. Results suggest that teachers’ beliefs about retention (particularly negative beliefs) are only reflected in practices when teachers feel that their colleagues support their beliefs. Our results stress the need to consider contextual factors when examining teachers’ beliefs, which have been neglected in previous studies. Addressing beliefs and practices alone would not be as effective as considering broad changes in school culture. For changes to be effective, national policies must take the broader context into account.

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