Social class inequalities in educational attainment

1

Sociology of Industrial Societies

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
2

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment
• Four key questions
• Have class inequalities in educational attainment
  declined with the development of industrial
  societies?
• Have class inequalities in educational attainment
  declined in response to the expansion of
  educational opportunity?
• Do declining class inequalities at a given level
  of education re-emerge as growing inequalities at
  the next level?
• Do declining class inequalities at a given level
  of education get reformulated as growing
  inequalities of education type?

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
3
Have class inequalities in educational
attainment declined with the development of
industrial societies?

• Considerable expansion of education in industrial
  societies over time
• Technological advances require an increasingly
  highly educated workforce
• Growing wealth makes it possible to invest in
  national education systems
• As education has expanded, absolute rates of
  attainment have grown for all social classes
  alike

Data from Paterson (2001)

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
4
Have class inequalities in educational
attainment declined with the development of
industrial societies?

• But, as with social mobility, absolute rates are
  not the whole story
• Need also to look at relative chances of
  obtaining different educational levels, using the
  odds ratio method
• For the UK, we see
• Declining odds ratios at all levels
• Although a flattening out for secondary education
  for the last four cohorts

Data from Paterson (2001)

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
5
Have class inequalities in educational
attainment declined with the development of
industrial societies?

• But relative chances of obtaining different
  educational levels not the whole story either
• Need to look also at changing relative chances of
  making educational transitions from one level of
  education to the next
• Here we see rather more stable odds ratios over
  time
• Similar patterns observed for other countries
  over the early to mid- twentieth century

Data from Paterson (2001)

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
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Have class inequalities in educational
attainment declined with the development of
industrial societies?

• However, class inequalities in educational
  transition chances have declined in other
  societies
• Particularly in Sweden and Netherlands throughout
  most of the twentieth century
• Similar pattern in recent decades for other
  countries incl. GY, FR, IT and NOR
• Expansion itself a driver of declining transition
  inequalities?

Source Erikson and Jonsson (1996) Can Education
be Equalized?

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
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Declining class inequalities in response to
educational expansion?

• Maximally Maintained Inequality thesis
• Educational expansion per se does not reduce
  relative class inequalities, because enrolment
  rates tend to grow fastest for more advantaged
  groups
• Expansion causes relative class inequalities to
  decline only when enrolment rates for advantaged
  groups approach saturation point
• Theory consistent with the evidence for a number
  (but not all) industrialized countries
• (Sweden the Netherlands obvious exceptions)

Source Raftery and Hout (1993), Table 3

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
8
Declining class inequalities in response to
educational expansion?

• Further support for MMI thesis in negative
  correlation between
• rates of post-secondary enrolment
• size of class inequalities in relative rates of
  educational attainment
• Curiously, correlation applies to market
  economies but not also socialist countries

Source Hout (2004)

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
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Declining class inequalities at a given level of
education growing inequalities at the next
level?

• Maximally Maintained Inequality thesis again
• Suggestion that as class inequalities at
  secondary level decline, inequalities in higher
  education enrolment increase
• Theory works well for Ireland
• Hasnt been systematically tested against data
  for other nations however...
• But consistent with current concerns with
  credential inflation

Source Raftery and Hout (1993), Table 3

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
10
Declining class inequalities at a given level of
education growing inequalities of education
type?

• Effectively Maintained Inequality thesis
• Where quantitative advantage is possible, the
  socio-economically advantaged will secure
  quantitatively more education
• But where quantitative advantage is not possible,
  the socio-economically advantaged will secure
  qualitatively better education
• Possibility that advantaged groups may seek both
  quant and qual advantage more education
  undertaken in more prestigious programmes/schools

Source Lucas (2001), Table 4

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07
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• Summary and conclusions
• As educational enrolment rates have increased in
  industrial societies
• absolute rates of educational attainment have
  increased for all social classes alike
• and relative inequalities in the chances of
  making educational transitions have declined
  substantial in some countries
• although in other countries relative inequalities
  have proved remarkably persistent
• Unclear that any reduction in relative class
  inequalities is due to expansion per se often,
  but not always, equalization only begins to occur
  as advantaged groups reach saturation point
• Also possible that declining relative class
  inequalities in rates of enrolment at a given
  educational level re-emerge elsewhere
• at higher educational levels
• as inequalities of educational type
• Given the self-reproducing nature of classes,
  class inequalities in education unlikely to
  disappear altogether

• Social class inequalities in educational
  attainment

Week 5 MT07