Abstract
This chapter provides a review of the most important processes that influence inequality in and around education, describing current research in this area to the best of my ability. Cross-national comparisons play an important role in those parts of this chapter, which discusses system effects. This review is based on my own interpretation of the “state of the art” in empirical research on education and inequality. The aim of this chapter is to give perspective to the importance of meso- and macro-features of educational systems in the creation of unequal educational outcomes.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter expands on a lecture given on 11 November 2006 at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin for the “Scholars for European Social Democracy” conference on education, which was based on my own views concerning the “state of the art” in empirical research on education and inequality.
- 2.
All fashionable variants of intelligence and creativity have serious drawbacks; some cannot be measured reliably, others bear a striking resemblance to cognitive intelligence, and yet others are affected by one of the factors of the personality model.
- 3.
Homogamy (see section “Relationship Between Inequality in Education and in Other Social Sectors”) in the educational level of partners contributes further to the transmission of this biologically based potential ability.
- 4.
The exact genes have yet to be identified, although it is clear that many different genes are involved in differences in intelligence.
- 5.
This was accomplished by removing major financial barriers and applying more universal performance criteria to selection decisions in education.
- 6.
This phenomenon accompanied the disappearance of lowly educated trade union leaders who climbed up through the trade unions.
- 7.
Intelligence and personality are of even greater importance to the success of women and migrants on the labour market because social limitations (e.g. the relative positions of men and women, discrimination, non-recognised diplomas or other migration-related transaction costs and cultural differences) limit their opportunities for exploiting their educational level on the labour market.
- 8.
Standardised measurements of ability are not reliable before the age of five.
- 9.
Such contrasts include the contrast between a more secular, hedonistic lifestyle and a more religious lifestyle. With regard to inequality of educational opportunities, a more religious lifestyle is more of an advantage than it is a disadvantage, as such lifestyles are often accompanied by discipline and cultural capital that can be translated into educational success.
- 10.
These transitions include the transition from primary school to the first phase of secondary education, the transition from the initial phase of secondary education to one of the various types of secondary school.
- 11.
Selective transition refers to a transition that substantial numbers of pupils are unable to make successfully.
- 12.
These two examples illustrate practice that is currently common in Paris, which is intended to allow children from the higher strata to better access schools despite the formal equality of admissions policies.
- 13.
Gabrielle Fack and Julien Grenet Do Better Schools Raise Housing Prices? Evidence from Paris School Zoning. Paper presented at the Summer school of the Marie Curie Research Training Network “The Economics of Education and Education Policy in Europe”. Padova, Italy, 16–18 June 2006. http://www.jourdan.ens.fr/~fack/documents/Fack%20%26%20Grenet%20[april%202007].pdf
- 14.
Even though parents from the lower strata may have sufficient information (at least as much as parents from the higher strata have) about a good school on the other side of town, they may lack the resources (e.g. money for public transport, car, flexible working hours, personnel) to ensure the safe transportation of their children to and from school everyday.
- 15.
One of the reasons why segregation based on ethnic or religious origin can reduce inequality of educational opportunity is analogous to the reason why girls are able perform better in mathematics and physical sciences in all-girl schools.
- 16.
A comparable argument can be made for adopting an individual approach in heterogeneous teaching, which offers the least capable students the option of an even lower level of instruction than is offered by the classical approach.
- 17.
This differentiation process, based on the teachers’ estimation of the potentials of the students, happens also within strata. The various dimensions of social background is used by teachers to make this individual estimation of students’ potential and, thus, of the level of offered curriculum.
- 18.
A modern variant of this saying refers to the relative size of fish in small or large ponds.
- 19.
Although this may seem to argue for early selection, this is only the case if segregation is accepted as a fixed “natural phenomenon”. Moreover, early selection is associated with other inequalities, particularly the increased effect of the social background.
- 20.
Although variations in the student population are obviously not the only source of variation in the quality of teachers at a school, they are an important factor. Other factors include a poor reputation as an employer, sustained disputes over a school’s direction.
- 21.
I refer here to the work of Scheerens and Bosker (1997: 305).
- 22.
Examples include the student–staff ratio, which is between 15:1 and 35:1 in primary and secondary education. Between these values, the student–staff ratio has no systematic effect on the effectiveness of the teaching–learning process; above and below these extremes, it does.
- 23.
This is not true in the United States, however, as the use of local taxes to fund primary and secondary education creates large, systematic differences in the material conditions of schools.
- 24.
From this perspective, the disappearance of both socialistically inspired teachers and Catholic teaching brothers is regrettable, as their political or religious views helped them to persist in their Sisyphean task.
- 25.
Too much emphasis on religion, however, can lead to the selection of less qualified teachers (who, nonetheless, adhere to the right religion) and the subsequent reduction of actual teaching time or a tendency to spending teaching time on the wrong subjects, thereby resulting in insufficient actual teaching and learning time.
- 26.
Even if students do discover the consequences of the inferior school quality once they are in the labour market, it is usually too late and no longer possible to catch up. Furthermore, because selection is less universalistic (i.e. the same criteria apply to everyone) on the labour market than it is in education, students who are perceived as weak on the labour market fall even further behind than they did in education.
- 27.
This is in contrast to the higher TIMMS and PISA scores of students in the South German states of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, where a central final examination of secondary education exists.
- 28.
A macro-level aspect that is associated with the allocation function of education involves the number of students of each type and level that are required in society. This issue is of little importance in OECD countries, where regulation is left to the labour market and the individual risk of students. With regard to inequality of educational opportunity, it is important to note that students from the lower strata make different cost–benefit analyses of these risks in their education choices. It is, therefore, rational for them to choose safer education types and paths.
- 29.
It is possible, however, for other characteristics of the educational system (e.g. centralised final examinations) to neutralise the negative consequences of early selection that contribute to inequality of educational opportunity.
- 30.
I refer here to work about streaming and tracking in the United States by S. R. Lucas (1999).
- 31.
In fact, they are assuming either that the invisible hand of Adam Smith works well in the long term or that instrumental variables provide valid measurements. Although such strong assumptions do generate significant macro-level effects for education, they can also be explained in terms of the assumptions used.
- 32.
The significance and extent of current economic and technological changes are often exaggerated in quasi-sociological policy analyses, whilst those of the past are underestimated.
- 33.
An educational programme need not be called a vocational training course in order to provide access to a specific vocational market (as with law programmes and the legal profession).
- 34.
Corporate market sectors are mainly found in the larger companies, where selected employees who are essential to the company receive permanent employment contract with primary and secondary employment conditions that exceed those that are available on the general market. At the same time, the transfer costs are increased for these employees, through legal restrictions and through company-specific qualifications, which are of less value outside the company. It is, therefore, possible for three market sectors to exist alongside one another within a large company. Classic examples of companies with a corporate market sectors in the Netherlands include Shell and Unilever. Corporate market sectors also exist in the government (e.g. the diplomatic service). Many smaller companies and institutions may also have corporate market sectors in order to be able to cope with strong fluctuations in production.
- 35.
It is possible that the tendency of women to “marrying up” has a biological component, which originated during human evolution.
- 36.
I refer here to the likelihood of educational homogamy; the exception to the rule is interesting, but does not refute the existence of educational homogamy.
- 37.
The end of the relationship between a child’s parents has effects that extend beyond the short or medium term. Parental divorce doubles the chance that their children will also divorce, even controlling for differences in the age at which the children of divorced parents begin their first relationships and have their first children (two other factors that increase the likelihood of divorce).
- 38.
That potential of religion to hinder economic success in capitalist societies is not necessarily specific to Islam. Until the twentieth century, Catholicism was also less compatible with capitalism than were protestant denominations.
- 39.
Examples include Italy, Portugal or Spain.
- 40.
Examples include Germany, France and (in part) the Netherlands.
References
Lucas, S. R. (1999). Tracking inequality: Stratification and mobility in American high schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
Scheerens, J., & Bosker, R. (1997). The foundations of educational effectiveness. Kidlington/New York/Toyko: Pergamon.
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Dronkers, J. (2010). Features of Educational Systems as Factors in the Creation of Unequal Educational Outcomes. In: Dronkers, J. (eds) Quality and Inequality of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3993-4_12
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