The Sociology of Educational Inequality

The Sociology of Educational Inequality
Author: William Tyler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2011-12-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0415505976

What is the most significant factor for explaining why some individuals are more successful than others - genetic inheritance, privileged background or luck? Although conventional approaches stress the prime importance of one of these, Tyler argues that such theories fail to deal adequately with the complexity of educational inequality and suggests that Boudon's model of opportunity and mobility would provide us with a more productive explanation. By applying this model to post-war British education he shows how we might effectively think our approaches to the 'cycle of deprivation', comprehensive reform and educational spending.

Persistent Inequality

Persistent Inequality
Author: Yossi Shavit
Publisher:
Total Pages: 396
Release: 1993
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780813311210

This book encompasses a systematic, comparative study of change in educational stratification in thirteen industrialized countries, exploring which societal conditions help reduce existing inequalities in educational opportunity. The contributors show that in most industrialized countries inequalities in educational opportunity among students from different social strata have been remarkably stable since the early twentieth century. Only in Sweden and the Netherlands has there been a reduction in educational inequalities. The improvements are attributed to aggressive social welfare policies that have equalized living conditions and overall life opportunities in the two countries. Interestingly, the social policies of former socialist states did not produce similar advances - a finding consistent with assertions that under socialism the bureaucratic elites were as effective in protecting the interests of their own children as were elites in many capitalist societies. In contrast to the persistence of socio-economic inequalities in educational opportunity, the gender gap in education has narrowed in all thirteen countries. In fact, in some countries women now attain higher mean levels of education than men. The book concludes with an integrative methodological chapter that introduces new methods of dealing with observed and unobserved sources of heterogeneity in models of educational attainment. The highly structured analyses of educational systems in the thirteen countries allow illuminating comparisons without sacrificing the specialized knowledge required to understand the particularities of each system.

A Relational Approach to Educational Inequality

A Relational Approach to Educational Inequality
Author: R. Nazli Somel
Publisher: Springer VS
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-05-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9783658266141

In her research R. Nazlı Somel focuses on the topic of educational inequality, both from a theoretical perspective and through an empirical analysis. After a review of prominent approaches to educational inequality and their criticism, she offers a novel strategy to study the issue based on Relational Sociology and using the relational approaches of Charles Tilly and Pierre Bourdieu. Three relational characteristics of educational inequality are identified that are its relativity, cumulativeness, and being an organized practice. The author then applies this relational perspective to an in-depth study on an Istanbul primary school, analyses students, teachers and school organization in relation to each other and to Turkish education system and society.

Education, Inequality and Social Class

Education, Inequality and Social Class
Author: Ron Thompson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2019-02-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1351393766

Education, Inequality and Social Class provides a comprehensive discussion of the empirical evidence for persistent inequality in educational attainment. It explores the most important theoretical perspectives that have been developed to understand class-based inequality and frame further research. With clear explanations of essential concepts, this book draws on empirical data from the UK and other countries to illustrate the nature and scale of inequalities according to social background, discussing the interactions of class-based inequalities with those according to race and gender. The book relates aspects of inequality to the features of educational systems, showing how policy choices impact on the life chances of children from different class backgrounds. The relationship between education and social mobility is also explored, using the concepts of social closure, positionality and social congestion. The book also provides detailed discussions of the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein, two important theorists whose contributions have generated thriving research traditions much used in contemporary educational research. Education, Inequality and Social Class will be essential reading for postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students engaged in the study of education, childhood studies and sociology. It will also be of great interest to academics, researchers and teachers in training.

Changes in Inequality of Educational Opportunity

Changes in Inequality of Educational Opportunity
Author: Pia Nicoletta Blossfeld
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2018-05-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 365822522X

Pia Nicoletta Blossfeld provides a long-term longitudinal analysis of the stepwise changes in transitions over the educational careers in East and West Germany using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). She examines how far reforms aimed to increase the permeability in the German educational system have changed the movements of children, adolescents and young adults in Germany since the last four decades. Her book contributes to the literature of educational sociology by studying the associations between various resources of family background and respondent’s educational histories until final educational attainment. A novelty of her book is the analysis of the role of intercohort changes in social background composition on final educational attainment.

International Studies in Educational Inequality, Theory and Policy

International Studies in Educational Inequality, Theory and Policy
Author: Richard Teese
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 981
Release: 2007-06-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1402059167

Inequality is a marked and persistent feature of education systems, both in the developed and the developing worlds. Major gaps in opportunity and in outcomes have become more critical than in the past, thanks to the knowledge economy and globalization. The pursuit of equity as a goal of public policy is examined in this book through a series of national case-studies. The book covers many different global contexts from the wealthiest to some of the poorest nations on earth. It therefore offers a broad range of different theoretical and methodological approaches, and brings together extensive international experience in equity policy.

Resisting Educational Inequality

Resisting Educational Inequality
Author: Susanne Gannon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1351612549

Resisting Educational Inequality examines poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability in educational contexts at a time of rising inequality and when policy research suggests that such issues are being ignored or distorted within neoliberal logics. In this volume, leading scholars from Australia and across the UK examine these issues through three main focus areas: Mapping the damage: what are our explanations for the persistent nature of educational inequality? Resources for hope: what do we know about how educational engagement and success can be improved in schools serving vulnerable communities? Sustaining hope: how might we reframe research, policy and practice in the future? Using a range of theories and methodologies, including empirical and theory-building work as well as policy critique, this book opens innovative areas of thinking about the social issues surrounding educational practice and policy. By exploring different explanations and approaches to school change and considering how research, policy and practice might be reframed, this book moves systematically and insightfully through damage towards hope. In combining pedagogy, policy and experience, Resisting Educational Inequality will be a valuable resource for all researchers and students, policymakers and education practitioners.

Policy and Inequality in Education

Policy and Inequality in Education
Author: Stephen Parker
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2017-04-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9811040397

This book is an edited collection introducing the Education Policy and Social Inequality series, and presents chapters from authors on the editorial board. It investigates relations between educational policy and social inequality, not simply in terms of policy solutions for inequalities but also how education policy frames, creates and at times exacerbates social inequalities. It adopts a critical stance, encompassing innovative and interdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual studies – drawing on e.g. sociology, cultural studies, social and cultural geography, and history – as well as original empirical work that examines a range of educational contexts, including early years education, vocational and further education, informal education, K-12 schooling and higher education. The book argues that critique and policy studies can have a transformative function, positing new dimensions for understanding the role of education policy in connection with recurrent social problems and seeking the amelioration of social inequality in ways that challenge the possibility of equity in the liberal democratic state, as well as in other forms of governance and government.

Models of Secondary Education and Social Inequality

Models of Secondary Education and Social Inequality
Author: Hans-Peter Blossfeld
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2016-11-25
Genre: Educational equalization
ISBN: 1785367269

From an international comparative perspective, this third book in the prestigious eduLIFE Lifelong Learning series provides a thorough investigation into how social inequalities arise during individuals’ secondary schooling careers. Paying particular attention to the role of social origin and prior performance, it focuses on tracking and differentiation in secondary schooling examining the short- and long-term effects on inequality of opportunities. It looks at ways in which differentiation in secondary education might produce and reproduce social inequalities in educational opportunities and educational attainment. The international perspective allows illuminating comparison in light of the different models, rules and procedures that regulate admission selection and learning in different countries.

Quality and Inequality of Education

Quality and Inequality of Education
Author: Jaap Dronkers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2010-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9048139937

This cogent analysis of data on education and society from a variety of sources sets out to provide answers to scientific and policy questions on the quality of education and the way it relates to various forms of inequality in modern societies, particularly in Europe. The authors examine not only the well known cross-national PISA datasets, but also the European Social Survey and TIMSS, going further than many researchers by folding into their analyses economic, legal and historical factors. Most research up to now using the PISA data is restricted to educational research. Interesting as that educational question is, the chapters here use the PISA, and other data, to explore more profoundly the relationship between education and the various forms of inequality in European and other modern societies. The work comes from two different perspectives: one that looks at how the different characteristics of societies, their economies, and their educational systems influence the average educational achievements of specific groups of pupils, such as immigrants, in those societies; and a second, which explores how, and in what degree, the characteristics of schools, educational systems and labour-markets either hardens or softens differences in the educational outcomes of various groups of pupils. With a special feature of the book being its emphasis on comparing Asian and European countries, and with the content free of the political constraints that can often attend studies of these datasets, this book will be an vital resource for educationalists and policy-makers alike.