Education and social order

1
Education and social order

• September 2, 2004

2
Public education

• Universal education is very recent. Education
  was the province of the elite and the clergy.
  Private good, not public good. Why did
  compulsory public education develop?
• Demand of the working class and of employers (new
  industrial work discipline)
• Education helped prepare people for factory
  production
• Education offered literacy

3
Education and social inequality

• Education is one of the principal methods for
  ameliorating the effects of inequality
• some level of education is compulsory
• rising level of mass education expands the
  proportion of those who have a claim to decision
  making, citizenship responsibilities
• most countries have a system based on merit for
  continuing education
• educational attainment is closely tied to
  occupational status

4
Education and social inequality

• Education also helps create new classes of
  knowledge and personnel which are then adopted
  into society. (Bioengineering, neurobiology
  these are constructions of modern higher
  education)
• Expansion of the education system increases the
  number of specialized and elite positions in
  society.

5
Societal level data

• The general education level of a society means a
  lot
• Average years of schooling
• Italy 7.2
• US 12.0
• France 7.9
• Years of compulsory education
• US 12
• Italy 9

6
Evidence of change?

• Students enrolled in upper secondary school
  represent 80 of the 15-19 age group. Higher
  proportion of female than male students (81 vs
  79), especially in north and central. Students
  completing upper secondary school with a diploma
  were 63 of 19 year olds (68 f v 59 m)

7
Comparative statistics

• Total population having completed at least upper
  secondary education
• Italy 45
• EU 63
• Spain 38
• Comparative statistics for 18 year olds enrolled
  in any kind of education (incl vocational)
• Italy 69
• EU 75
• France 80

8
Effects of education

• Does level of education matter for labor force
  participation? For occupational attainment?

9
Italy as a special case

• For students of social stratification, Italy is
  an interesting case
• Simultaneously a major industrial country but
  quite traditional with respect to its educational
  system. One of the most unequal in Europe, with
  a fraction of the population as highly educated
  as anywhere in the world, and another fraction
  obtaining less education than in virtually any W
  European country.

10
A study

• In a study by Ganzeboom and Treiman (1993), it
  was shown that the effect of social origins
  (measured by fathers occupational status) on
  educational attainment has significantly
  increased for women, but has remained constant
  for men. Very high in Italy, with no evidence
  that it is abating.

11
A study (cont)

• Ganzeboom and Treiman, cont
• With respect to occupational attainment, the
  trend for Italy is in line with other countries
  education has become more important (by a factor
  of 3 for men and 4 for women over the last 75
  years), and parental status has become less
  important.

12
Effect on income

• Strong return on investment overall one year
  increase in education is 7.1. Return on
  investment is even higher for university study
  (8.3).

13
Portrait of the Italian education system

• Previous to 1945, Italian education was
  characterized by having an elite student body
  taught by an elite corps of teachers
• This led to the perpetuation of a narrow ruling
  stratum

14
1945 Defeat

• Destroyed the physical infrastructure of the
  educational system, as well as
• The software
• Curricula
• Syllabi
• Teaching methods
• Etc.

15
The state of education, 1951

• 10 of the population is illiterate
• Demands for the democratization of the education
  system
• Wholesale changes possible due to the extreme
  centralization of the education system

16
Education and direct rule

• Ministry of Education controls
• Curricula
• Syllabi
• Hiring and salaries of teachers
• Financing of buildings

17
Educational reforms

• 1962 secondary schooling made compulsory until
  age 14
• 8 years of schooling made compulsory
• However, curriculum remains traditional (e.g.
  Latin required) until late 1960s
• Due to resistance of middle-school teachers
• Massive increase in scope of basic education ?
  demands for greater access to higher education

18
Reforms in universities

• 1961 students from technical institutes
  permitted access to science faculties
• 1965 national entrance exam abolished ? open
  admissions
• 268,000 students in 1960
• 450,000 students in 1968
• Double the number of women in this 8 year period,
  but by 68 women are less than 1/3 of university
  students

19
Early phase of university reform ? overcrowding

• Even though the number of students increased
  rapidly, initially the number of universities
  remains constant

20
Persistence of feudal structure

• Many professors hardly present
• Professors obligation 52 hours of teaching/yr
• Once this accomplished, free to attend to their
  main occupations doctors, lawyers, etc.
• No seminars, tutorials or faculty-student contact
• Result high rate of failure of oral exams
• 81 of sec schl grads attend univ, but only 44
  graduate in 1966
• System favors students from the upper social
  strata

21
Student revolt of 1967-68

• Begins in strongly Catholic universities
• Due to influence of liberation theology in Latin
  America
• Student revolt in Italy vs. USA

22
Consequences of university reform

• Deterioration of quality
• Political pressure to relax stringency of oral
  exam system
• Grade inflation
• Tenure granted to thousands of academics
  regardless of their qualifications

23
Consequences, contd

• Creation of new universities
• But students prefer old, distinguished ones ?
  more overcrowding
• By mid 80s Rome has 160k students in a campus
  built for 33k
• Med students cant get in the anatomy labs
• Students have to line up early to get into the
  library
• Most students stay at home -- dont attend classes

24
Politicization of Italian universities

• Politics at every level of the university
• Students Many (up to 2/3) become professional
  students who are supported by political parties,
  and make their living by being political
  agitators
• Organize successfully to block educational
  reforms
• such as higher tuition,
• standards

25
Faculty politicization

• Faculty are often lined up with political parties
• Hanker after the rewards including public
  offices that parties distribute to the faithful
• The baroni autocratic senior professors who
  control the universities
• Can choose the date to begin the academic year
• Can delegate their work to their assistants
• Until recently, could also take up another post
• Often live far from their university posts
• Do not have to submit to student evaluations

26
Italy

• A great place to be a professor
• Where can I sign up?
• A terrible place to be a student