Social Class,Gender and Ethnic Differences in Subjects Taken at Age 14.

In this paper, we identify patterns of subject and qualification choices made at age 14. Much of the previous research on ‘subject choice’ has focussed on the later stages of educational trajectories, particularly Higher Education. However, the choices made at early branching points can limit pupils’ subsequent options, potentially contributing to educational inequalities. This paper identifies the patterns of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) subjects chosen by a cohort of young people born in 1989/1990. We make use of the Next Steps data (formerly the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)) which is linked to the National Pupil Database. We develop an approach to measuring the academic selectivity of subjects and qualifications. We examine the roles of social class, parental education, income, gender and ethnicity in determining participation in these curriculum groupings. Using measures of prior attainment from age thirteen, we address the question of whether curriculum differentials simply reflect differences in prior attainment or whether they actually operate above and beyond existing inequalities. We find clear socio-economic, gender, ethnic and school-level differences in subjects studied which cannot be accounted for by prior attainment.     

Pupil mobility and educational achievement in schools: an empirical analysis

One of the problems facing education policy-makers is how to raise achievement in schools. Improving schools and raising achievement requires, at the very least, an understanding of the factors influencing performance in schools. Previous research has looked at a number of factors, including quality of teaching and learning, patterns of resource use, gender, ethnicity, social class and socio-economic background in schools, but there has been little empirical research into the effect of pupil mobility on school performance. Pupil mobility in schools also has implications for many important policy areas, such as school funding, target-setting and league tables, and yet it is only just beginning to be recognized as an important policy issue. This paper examines the relationship between pupil mobility and educational achievement in an inner city LEA. The performance of three cohorts of pupils at key stages 2 and 3 and GCSE are analysed by the mobility factor to illustrate the effect of pupil mobility on educational attainment. This is followed by a discussion of the causes of pupil mobility in schools and strategies adopted by schools to address mobility problems. The final section of the paper addresses the implications of the empirical evidence for school improvement strategies and funding allocations.     

Complex Inequalities of Educational Opportunities. A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study on the Relation Between Gender,Social Class,Ethnicity and School Success

It is well documented that stratification in education precedes social stratification. Many authors hypothesise that the stratification patterns in education may be related to background characteristics of students in a more complex way than researched so far in this field. Therefore, in this article the interactive effects of social class, ethnicity and gender on various indicators for school success are analysed and discussed. A large-scale longitudinal database offered the possibility to establish the complex relations between the three student background variables and school careers, measured by educational attainment 6 years after entering secondary education and by technical or science related choices. Results show that school success is not always predicted by expected additive or multiplicative effects of the different background variables. For example the situation of girls from ethnic minorities is better than expected, while that of indigenous boys from low socio-economic backgrounds is worse when compared to similar boys from ethnic minorities. Inequalities arising from different choice patterns regarding technical and science subjects can only partly be deduced from differences present at the age of 12, whereas in terms of general educational attainment secondary schools even reduce arrears of ethnic minority female students as these can be observed at the age of 12.     

Constructions of locality and gender and their impact on the educational aspirations of working-class children

Over recent years the moral panic that has surrounded 'boys' underachievement' has tended to encourage crude and essentialist comparisons between allboys and allgirls and to eclipse the continuing and more profound effects on educational achievement exerted by social class and 'race'/ethnicity. While there are differences in educational achievement between working-class boys and girls, these differences are relatively minor when comparing the overall achievement levels of working-class children with those from higher, professional social class backgrounds. This article argues that a need exists therefore for researchers to fully contextualize the gender differences that exist in educational achievement within the overriding contexts provided by social class and 'race'/ethnicity. The article provides an example of how this can be done through a case study of 11-year-old children from a Catholic, working-class area in Belfast. The article shows how the children's general educational aspirations are significantly mediated by their experiences of the local area in which they live. However, the way in which the children come to experience and construct a sense of locality differs between the boys and girls and this, it is argued, helps to explain the more positive educational aspirations held by some of the girls compared with the boys. The article concludes by considering the relevance of locality for understanding its effects on educational aspirations among other working-class and/or minority ethnic communities.     

What are the effects of ability grouping on GCSE attainment?

The use of ability grouping is frequently justified on the grounds that it is an effective means of raising attainment. Little large‐scale quantitative research has been undertaken since the introduction of the National Curriculum in England and Wales. The aim of this article is to examine the effects of setting on students' achievement in English, mathematics and science General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations. Data were collected from a cohort of over 6000 Year 9 students in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools who were followed up in Year 11 when they sat GCSE examinations. Multilevel modelling was used to estimate the effect of setting on GCSE attainment, taking account of prior attainment, social disadvantage, gender and attendance. There were no significant effects of setting in English, mathematics or science. Effects on higher and lower attaining students were not consistent in the three subjects. Socially disadvantaged students achieved significantly lower grades and girls achieved higher grades than boys, especially in English. In all three subjects, students of similar ability achieved higher GCSE grades when they were placed in higher sets. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Stability and Consistency in Secondary Schools’ Effects on Students’ GCSE Outcomes over Three Years∗

This paper reports the results of a UK study investigating the issue of differential school effectiveness. The size of overall school effects versus departmental differences in effects on 16 year old students’ General Certificate in Secondary Education performance are examined, as well as the internal (within school) consistency of departmental effects across six GCSE subject outcomes and the stability of school and departmental effects across three GCSE cohorts (1990‐1992). A value added approach is adopted, controlling for selected student intake measures (such as attainment at secondary transfer). The findings of multilevel analyses suggest that very few schools perform both consistently (across subjects) and with stability (over time). The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the publication and interpretation of schools’ examination results as well as the use of school and departmental effectiveness measures for school self‐evaluation.

     

Young people and school General Certificate of Secondary Education attainment: looking for the ‘missing middle’

In Britain, educational qualifications gained at school continue to play an important and central role in young people’s educational and employment pathways. Recently there has been growing interest in documenting the lives of ‘ordinary’ young people. In this paper we analyse the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales in order to better document the experiences of those with ‘middle’ levels of school General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. The overall pattern of school GCSE attainment is one of increasing levels of performance. GCSE attainment is still highly stratified. Girls performed better than boys, and there were some marked differences in attainment for pupils from the main minority ethnic groups. Most notably, parental socio-economic positions are the most important factor. The analyses fail to persuade us that there are clear boundaries that demark a ‘middle’ category of school GCSE attainment. We conclude that sociologists should study ‘ordinary’ young people; however, school GCSE attainment is best understood as a continuum, and measures such as the number of GCSEs or point scores are preferable.     

Medicalised pupils: the case of ADD/ADHD

Changing financial arrangements for undergraduates have led to a growth in widening participation research. However, hardly any studies explore gender differences in the impact of differential funding on students' sense of well‐being, their financial coping strategies and their educational attainment. Our research shows that there are few gender differences in students' actual financial situation, reflecting the similarity of their social class backgrounds, but women perceive themselves to be under greater pressure. Women worry more about their finances and express lower levels of well‐being, but this has no overall effect on their attainment, since the strategies they use to ameliorate worry align with sound educational practice. Men express a more complacent financial attitude, which does not usually affect their attainment. There is, however, evidence of a gender‐related ‘threshold effect’ among students who express low levels of well‐being. Extreme worriers perceive themselves to be, and genuinely are, worse off than other students, despite the apparent homology of their social class backgrounds. In this extreme group, the strategies women devise to cope with worry, such as curtailing their student life and building supportive friendship groups, appear to consolidate their attainment, but men's complacency sometimes pushes them down into the lowest class of degree.     

Combining multilevel analysis with national value‐added data sets—a case study to explore the effects of school diversity

The advent of large‐scale matched data sets, linking pupils' attainment across key stages, gives new opportunities to explore the effects of school organisational factors on pupil performance. Combined with currently available sophisticated and efficient software for multilevel analysis, it offers educational researchers the chance to develop objective evidence about issues both old and new. Previously reported research, based on separate data sets from Key Stage 2 1997 to Key Stage 3 2000 and Key Stage 3 1998 to General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) 2000, focused on the impact of selective, specialist and faith schools. We now have access to a national data set with 380,000 pupils' Key Stage 2 levels in 1996 matched to their GCSE performance in 2001, and this has enabled us to rework these analyses based on value‐added results across all five years of secondary education. Results of the analysis largely confirmed the findings of previous work, in terms of the apparent impacts of different school types on pupils' progress. The article emphasises the important contribution that the marriage of national matched data sets and multilevel modelling will continue to make to educational research.     

Age,gender, ethnicity and the digital divide: university students’ use of web‐based instruction

This paper focuses on the effects of social–structural factors (age, ethnicity and gender) on university students’ use of web‐based instruction. The study uses data from registration questionnaires of students at the Open University of Israel. During the period between 1995 and 2002 there has been a continuous increase in the proportion of students who use the Internet and email for study purposes. However, a significant minority (one‐third of the students) are still not Internet users. Previous studies have referred to the digital divide in terms of differences in access to the relevant hardware and explained it mainly by social and structural factors. Current research tends to focus on the digital divide in terms of use rather than access, and explains it mainly by micro, individual and situational characteristics. The present study shows that structural factors such as age, gender and ethnicity also play a significant role in the continuous existence of the usage gap. The social and educational implications of this gap are discussed.     

Mathematics and science inequalities in the United Kingdom: when elitism,sexism and culture collide

An examination of gender, social class and ethnicity performance and participation patterns in different UK countries shows that inequities occur in relation to gender, class and ethnicity but that the patterns of inequity look quite different in the three domains. Achievement is equal for different genders but many more males take mathematics forward to advanced levels; social class differences persist in both achievement and participation; and ethnicity shows a varied pattern with some groups performing and participating at particularly high levels and some particularly low. This paper identifies some critical issues that we face in making mathematics and science equitable and begins to analyse some of the barriers that stand in the way of students who are female, and from some ethnic and social groups.     

Gender differences in perceptions of studying for the GCSE

This study explored gender differences in perceptions of studying for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The sample comprised 644 pupils drawn from eight schools in Outer London, UK. The schools encompassed pupils who could be regarded as high, middle and low achievers drawn from co‐educational and single‐sex schools. Pupils completed a self‐report questionnaire on two occasions, once in Year 10 and once in Year 11. The questionnaire was designed to assess perceptions of studying for the GCSE including statements relating to coursework, examinations, research, study strategies and homework. This research demonstrated few gender differences in perceptions of studying among Year 10 and Year 11 pupils, who had similar attainment levels. In this sample, the boys were conscientious and completed more homework in Year 10. For the future, it appears important to explore further how the attainment of girls might be mediated by anxiety.     

Social justice,race and class in education in England: competing perspectives

‘Narrowing the gap’ and addressing low educational achievement of specific social class and ethnic groups has long been an expressed government concern. This paper considers the links between poverty, ethnicity and gender and school attainment and the interrelations of these factors using national data sets and other quantitative data. The limitations of single-theme analyses and their potentially misleading implications are explored. Related to this, the failures of social and educational policies to bring about greater equality are examined. Competing perspectives on low attainment and their positions are critiqued. The paper argues that ethnic and class discrimination stems from the same structural arrangements contrived for the advantage of more affluent sectors of society. Theoretical development is needed to bring together class, race and other discriminatory features and construct more sophisticated causal analyses that relate to the web of economic, status and power regimes and the negative processes of ‘racialisation’.     

Hard and soft choices? Subject selection by schools and students

We present an analysis of A-level subject choices at around age 16 for a cohort of students in English schools who completed their studies in 2014. We examined both the National Pupil Database and a unique rich dataset on the subject preferences and subsequent choices between the ages of 16 and 18 (i.e. GCSE and A-level). We found substantive differences between students’ preferences and actual choices of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ post-16 subjects (i.e. A-level). These differences were strongly associated with falsification of students’ expectations of examination grades taken at age 16 (i.e. GCSE) in the core subjects of English and mathematics. The sizes of these falsification effects were much larger than other significant associations such as gender, ethnicity, and social class. This suggests that subject choices are not rigidly framed by stable individual preferences and they are therefore open to influence from new information, persuasion, and opportunities.     

Learning at every age? Life cycle dynamics of adult education in Europe

Adult learning is seen as a key factor for enhancing employment, innovation and growth. The aim of this paper is to understand the points in the life cycle at which adult learning takes place and whether it leads to reaching a medium or high level of educational attainment. We perform a synthetic panel analysis of adult learning for cohorts aged 25–64 in 27 European countries using the European Union Labour Force Survey. We find that investment across the life cycle by cohorts older than 25 still occurs: participation in education and training as well as educational attainment increase observably across all cohorts. We also find that the decline with age slows down, or is even reversed for older cohorts, for both participation in education and educational attainment. Finally, we can identify cross-country differences in approach. In Nordic countries, adult learning is achieved primarily through participation in education and training without adding to formal educational attainment. In central Europe, adult learning occurs primarily in the form of increasing educational attainment. In Ireland and the UK, a combination of both approaches to adult learning is observable.     

Child Welfare,Education, Inequality,and Social Policy in Comparative Perspective

Using international data on child well-being and educational attainment, this article compares child well-being in the United States to member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Multiple measures of child well-being are analyzed, such as material well-being (including poverty, unemployment, and income inequality), child health and safety (birth weight, infant mortality, health care, and childcare), educational attainment, and family and peer relationships (including generational cleavages). Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory as an organizational framework, the impact and interrelatedness of these systems on educational attainment are examined, with parallels drawn between a nation's social policies, child well-being, and educational attainment. The author asserts that social policy in the United States is more comprehensive than is commonly believed, although the redistributive benefits of social policies are allocated much differently compared to OECD countries. Explanations for comparative differences in social policy include differences in political culture and political development as well as racial and class conflict. The author concludes that it is difficult to ignore the role of race and socioeconomic class in explaining differences in social welfare expenditures between the United States and European countries because the pattern of social welfare distribution (broadly conceived—including programs, tax breaks, and incentives) falls largely along racial and class lines.     

Social and economic influences on graduation rates from higher education in Australia

This paper presents an examination of national survey data on the graduation rates of young people who enter higher education in Australia. Two cohorts of young people were surveyed – those born in 1961 and those born in 1965. Of interest is the influence of gender and of selected social and economic background characteristics on graduation rates. The results for both cohorts provide further evidence of the gains made by young females during the 1980s in terms of educational participation and attainment. The results for the first cohort show also there were some signs of lower graduation rates being associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, at least as indicated by parent'`s occupational status and family wealth. For the second cohort, however, there was little evidence of any effect in the same direction. This suggests that attempts to deal with equity which have focussed on performance within higher education have either been quite effective or might be better directed towards the selection processes which lead to higher education.     

The power of positioning: on the normalisation of gender,race/ethnicity,nation and class positions in a Swedish social work textbook

This article presents a feminist reading of a Swedish social work academic textbook as a case study. We use a discourse analytic approach and positioning theory, focusing on author positions through different story lines. The aim is to make visible how differences are created and positions of the author/reader normalised in terms of gender, race/ethnicity and class. The analysis illustrates how the organisation of the book privileges a particular story line by presenting gender research in a special section of the book and as a perspective. A neutral, unmarked author position is assumed, presented as a common ‘we’ by identifying ‘women researchers’ and ‘feminist’ points of departure as different. If the unmarked author/reader ‘we’ position appears desirable and morally superior, the clients’ gender, ethnicity and class are often openly discussed in relation to social problems, positioning them as ‘the other’. Finally there is also a story line of more critical and ambivalent knowledge positions.     

Adolescent Alienation: its correlates and consequences

This research is into the experience of alienation amongst British adolescents. The study had three major aims: firstly to investigate potential differences across various dimensions of alienation on the basis of gender, ethnicity and religion. Secondly, to establish a relationship between alienation, self‐esteem and selected undesirable school behaviours. Finally, there is an attempt to evaluate the use of alienation scales as a research tool in education. The study involved 254 participants aged between 13 and 15 years attending large, multi‐ethnic comprehensives. The findings show that reported levels of alienation were influenced by religious orientation but only minimally by gender or ethnicity per se. Reported alienation negatively correlated with self‐esteem but was positively associated with truancy, exclusion and disruptive behaviour. The authors conclude that, whilst alienation remains a useful concept for educational research, it is unhelpful to see it as an inevitable consequence of deprivation or membership of certain social groups.