Less inequality through universal access? Socioeconomic background of tertiary entrants in Australia after the expansion of university participation

This article investigates the consequences of an expansion of domestic university places in Australia after 2009 for inequalities in access to tertiary education. I focused on how different individual-level socioeconomic factors were influencing not only the likelihood of continuing education at the tertiary level but also a type of institution one studies at. Thus, I simultaneously analyse vertical and horizontal dimensions of inequalities in access. The expansion has not dramatically changed the differentiated access within different socioeconomic groups. However, the influence of parental education and secondary school context on continuing education has weakened. But those who have benefited the most are young people from upper service class. They not only approach near-universal access faster than other social classes but also improve their relative chances to study at the most prestigious institutions. Controlling for academic ability at the age of 15 showed that socioeconomic background continuous to matter after that age. This means that student-oriented equity policies undertaken closer to the point of transition to tertiary education have a capacity to decrease educational inequalities. Results are discussed against the background of the current higher education policy trends regarding equity in access.     

Inequality in social capital: social capital,social risk and drop-out in the Turkish education system

This article examines the effects of social capital on the likelihood of dropping out from the compulsory education system (Grades One through Eight) in Turkey. It focuses on the question of whether school-related social capital can provide the means to stay in school in the presence of risk factors such as socioeconomic status, race, or gender that cannot be easily modified. Despite major progress in enrollment rates due to policies enacted in recent years, the overall drop-out rate in compulsory education is close to 15% in Turkey. Data collected from 764 student–mother pairs show that drop-outs are exposed to higher number of social risk factors. We further illustrate that school-related social capital, as measured by quality of in-school teacher–student interactions as well as parental involvement in school, significantly and positively contributes to adolescents’ likelihood of staying in school even in the presence of severe social inequalities.     

Is there a gender gap? A meta-analysis of the gender differences in students' ICT literacy

The study of gender differences in academic achievement has been one of the core topics in education, especially because it may uncover possible gaps and inequalities in certain domains. Whereas these differences have largely been examined in traditional domains, such as mathematics, reading, and science, the existing body of empirical studies in the domain of ICT literacy is considerably smaller, yet abounds in diverse findings. One of the persistent findings however is that boys consider their ICT literacy to be higher than that of girls. This meta-analysis tests whether the same pattern holds for students’ actual performance on ICT literacy tasks, as measured by performance-based assessments. In total, 46 effect sizes were extracted from 23 empirical studies using a random-effects model. Overall, the gender differences in ICT literacy were significant, positive, and favored girls (g = + 0.12, 95 % CI = [0.08, 0.16]). This effect varied between studies, and moderation analyses indicated that the grade level students were taught at moderated its magnitude—effect sizes were larger in primary school as compared to secondary school. In conclusion, our findings contrast those obtained from previous meta-analyses that were based on self-reported ICT literacy and suggest that the ICT gender gap may not be as severe as it had been claimed to be.     

Do the maths: An analysis of the gender gap in mathematics in Africa

This paper uses microdata for 19 African countries to examine the gender difference in maths test scores amongst primary school children. There is a significant difference in maths test scores in favour of boys, similar to that previously observed in developed countries. This difference cannot be explained by gender differences in school quality, home environment, or within-school gender discrimination in access to schooling inputs. However, the gender gap varies widely with characteristics of the regions in which the pupils live, and these regional characteristics are more predictive of the gender gap than parental education and school characteristics, including teacher gender. At the cross-country level, differences in fertility rates account for nearly half the variation in the gender gap, and this relationship is not due to the correlation between fertility and GDP.     

The historical and political context of adult literacy in Turkey

The aim of this article is to analyse the development of adult literacy education in Turkey in a historical and political context. The development of adult literacy education is studied in three different historical periods. To spread literacy and create novel institutions, although these institutions were closed later, played a critical role in the formation of modern Turkey. During the whole history of modern Turkey, five great mass literacy campaigns were organised. After this period of construction, later in the period of rapid social change adult literacy education was institutionalised as non‐formal education within Ministry of National Education and literacy education was defined as a public service. Literacy education still continues to be a public service during the neo liberal transformation period. Today illiteracy is still an important problem. Because of the regional, class and gender inequalities in education, illiteracy turned into being a chronic and structural problem. Therefore the solution of the problem necessitates positive action politics and more support.     

Soziale Ungleichheit beim Zugang in eine Berufsausbildung: Welche Bedeutung haben die Institutionen?

The corporatistic governance model of nonacademic vocational training, which is predominant in Germany, has produced heterogeneous and complex conditions for the access to vocational training. Which training programs are offered and the selection of applicants is largely determined by the training companies themselves. Adolescents interested in vocational training are thus confronted with diverse admission requirements. Which resources they can and have to use in order to receive a training position is significantly determined by the respective admission requirements. The present paper elucidates key institutional conditions of the access to vocational training which can serve as explanations for the (re-)production of social inequalities in the transition process from school to vocational training. In particular, the inequalities with respect the admission to vocation training along the lines of educational degrees, gender, as well as regional, social, and ethnic backgrounds are investigated.     

Sacrificial girls: a case study of the impact of streaming and setting on gender reform

This article reports on research funded by the Australian Research Council to investigate school responses to gender equity. It addresses the efforts of a disadvantaged school to tackle what they perceived to be gender inequalities, but in the process of constructing a top‐set and bottom‐set/stream class they are developing new forms of old inequalities and new forms of inequalities. This research indicates that despite popular assertions that girls' education has become the priority of schools and education systems, girls are being further disadvantaged through attempts to implement market strategies coupled with gender reform agendas grounded in liberal notions of equity and relying on unsophisticated notions of affirmative action. In addition, this study highlights the extent to which a media‐driven debate about boys' education has influenced the constitution of boys as the ‘new disadvantaged’ with the capacity to determine the nature of gender reform agendas and programmes in schools.     

Unequal access,unequal participation: some spatial and socio‐economic dimensions of the gender gap in education in Africa with special reference to Ghana,Zimbabwe and Kenya

The question of unequal access to education among males and females appears to be universal in the developing world. However, females in Africa seem to suffer more discrimination in terms of access to education. This study revisits the question of gender disparities in educational access in Africa by analyzing data from recent comparative national surveys including the Demographic and Health Surveys, Living Standards Surveys, and World Bank data, focusing on Ghana, Zimbabwe and Kenya. It concludes that while substantial progress has been made in the last 40 years, female illiteracy rates are still high compared to males, and entrenched attitudes continue to keep females out of the educational system, thereby perpetuating the gender gap. Furthermore, while females are generally disadvantaged vis a vis their male counterparts, females living in the urban areas and some core regions tend to be better off than those living in the rural areas and peripheral regions. The paper suggests a number of policy recommendations that would enable African countries, especially the three countries used as case studies, to reap the full benefits that accrue from female education. These include the need for African governments to rededicate their efforts towards giving female education the highest priority, creating girl‐friendly school environments, helping resolve parental poverty issues that compel them to force girls into early marriages, legislating and enforcing laws that compel all children to stay in school for at least 12 years, and wiping out the long existing spatial inequities that enable people in certain locations to have better access to education than others.     

The cultural politics of school relocations: an ethnographic study of an Istanbul neighbourhood school

ABSTRACT

In Turkey, the social and economic changes of the past couple of decades have facilitated a neoliberal reconstruction of the city and a concomitant reorganisation of its educational spaces. The interaction between the urban space economy and school spaces has been documented by various studies, most of which point to the interplay between education policies and the racialised restructuring of urban spaces. In Turkey, this process has been particularly convoluted, perhaps more so than anywhere else. With reference to a particular school relocation/closing case, this article examines how school relocations induced by urban transformation have interacted with the desecularisation of the education system in Turkey. By drawing on the responses of a specific neighbourhood to the relocation of their school, I argue that school relocations are inextricably linked to the material and symbolic reorganisation of neighbourhoods and lead to the destabilisation of secular middle class neighbourhoods and their schools. And by showing how neoliberalisation interacts with inherited regulatory systems, through this research article I aim to contribute to the existing literature on the interaction between education policy and urban space.     

Ahead of the pack? Explaining the unequal distribution of scholarships in Germany

This article investigates to what extent scholarships are unequally distributed among students in Germany and how these inequalities can be explained. Following sociological theory, the article argues that elites seek qualitative ways of distinguishing themselves in a mass higher education system. Using student surveys, we demonstrate that class effects cannot merely be explained with reference to class differences in academic achievement but that higher classes have better access to scholarships independent of earlier school performance. Class differences were particularly persistent when the intermediate classes were compared with higher classes with more education. These findings illustrate that social classes have different strategies when it comes to participating in higher education and suggest that information about and access to scholarships is important in gaining a class advantage.     

Differential access to primary schooling: Can education promote equality in a multi-cultural society?

The concept of equality in education cannot be regarded as universally valid, although education per se is often viewed as potential social equalizer and/or an instrument for boosting economic growth. The present paper summarizes a section of the empirical evidence from a national evaluation educational survey of equality of educational opportunity at primary level in a multicultural society of the developing world-Mauritius.In Mauritius as elsewhere, education is viewed as a panacea for existing social, economic, ethnic and regional inequalities. In the Mauritian survey (Chinapah, 1983), equality of educational opportunity was examined from the standpoints of school participation and scholastic performance of primary school children differing in age, sex, ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics and belonging to four distinct educational settings: Government Rural, Government Urban, Aided Rural, and Aided Urban. The overriding thesis in the survey is the extent to which differential access to primary schooling may promote or hinder equality of educational opportunity in a complex, multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual society like Mauritius.Access to education as viewed from the numbers game, does not guarantee equal treatment in schools. For example, the explosive increases in participation in the 1950s and 60s in the OECD countries, and in the 1970s and 80s in the developing nations, have domonstrated that imbalances between ethnic/racial and socioeconomic strata tend to persist.Evidence from the survey shows that school alone cannot reduce inequalities along sex, ethnic, socioeconomic, and regional lines without a genuine effort to redress the overall problem of social, ethnic, and economic stratification which the school system quite often tends to maintain and reproduce. This paper provides the basis for a discussion of the prospects for and limitations of cross-cultural counselling in education.     

Costs and economies of scale in Turkey's postsecondary vocational schools

The study reported in this paper examines the institutional cost structures of the postsecondary vocational education system in Turkey. The study uses a single-output quadratic cost function to analyze 65 individual vocational schools located within the 28 existing universities. Appropriate controls for institutional quality, discretionary allocation of staffing resources, the degree of technical instruction in the cirriculum, and regional variation are also included. Both average and marginal costs for each school are estimated over relevant ranges of student enrollments for determing prospective degrees of economies of scale. The findings should help policy makers in Turkey determine which vocational schools can reap efficiencies by an expansion (or contraction) of their student enrollments.     

Access to higher education in China: Differences in opportunity

Access to higher education in China has opened up significantly in the move towards a mass higher education system. However, aggregate growth does not necessarily imply fair or reasonable distribution of opportunity. In fact, the expansion of higher education has a rather more complex influence on opportunity when admissions statistics are viewed by geographical region, rural and urban environment, social class, type of school, gender, and ethnicity. Since 1999, gaps in access opportunities have generally diminished, especially in terms of the urban-rural dimension. Efforts to increase university admission rates for women and minorities have resulted in significant progress. However, the gap in university admission between different social classes has been closing more slowly. Children from more advantaged backgrounds have more chances to study at key universities, and differences in access between provinces are still considerable. Social class polarization in secondary school is still a serious issue. Such problems at high school level directly lead to the accumulation and continuation of a gap in opportunities to access higher education. While agreeing that the aggregate growth of higher education provision in China is a positive development, we also strive to improve equality of opportunity.     

Affirmative Action for Gender Justice in South African and Kenyan Education Systems

Abstract

Since women struggled to access higher education during the colonial era, tackling gender imbalances post-independence became a major focus for Kenya and South Africa. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that affirmative action has not guaranteed gender equity in South African and Kenyan higher education systems. the author argues that, although higher education is generally available to all in both countries, women still struggle with access and “success”. This is besides the existence of post-independence higher education policies and parallel gender frameworks meant to bolster women’s access. The article uses a critical and thematic exploration of secondary literature, theory and data. The article contends that the unresolved gap between policies and the reality of the lived experiences of women exacerbates inequalities. It is suggested that both countries refocus and recalibrate existing policies and remedial action measures in order to ensure that academically deserving women are able to access and participate meaningfully in higher education.     

Girls claiming education rights: Reflections on distribution,empowerment and gender justice in Northern Tanzania and Northern Nigeria

The article considers the analytical connection between two approaches to discussing girls’ schooling and gender justice. One trend considers injustice primarily as a question of inequalities in distribution and raises few questions about the nature of the gender norms associated with inequitable distribution. A second approach looks at issues of empowerment, the ways in which structural gendered inequalities in the political economy and socio-cultural formations constrain the capacity of girls inside and outside school to claim the rights promised by education, but tends to underplay issues of distribution. The article considers what the relationship between these two approaches to gender justice might be though a detailed discussion of baseline data collected in 2008 for the NGO led TEGINT (Transforming education for girls in Nigeria and Tanzania) project. Girls’ identification of the obstacles to claiming education rights and possible solutions are used as proxies for empowerment, while different features of distribution are examined with regard to gender parity in access and progression, governance and management, and teacher qualifications. Quantitative data based on responses to a survey allows for correlation between aspects of distribution and empowerment to be considered across different contexts. The strongest association between empowerment and distribution is found with regard to the levels of teachers’ qualifications, although there is not sufficient data to explain the reasons for this. The conclusion highlights the importance of contextual factors in understanding the relationships between distribution and empowerment evident from the data and the importance of designing future studies to look more closely at the dynamic two way relationship of distributional and empowerment aspects of gender justice in education.     

Student teachers in the classroom: their perceptions of teaching practice

This paper examines student teachers’ perceptions of the course of school experience in a teacher education programme in Turkey. Data were obtained through interviewing student teachers in Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. In order to analyse the data, Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory methodology was adapted. The analysis revealed that although the current teacher education programme put emphasis on effective practical training, in some circumstances student teachers feel that their chances of gaining real teaching experiences are minimal. The study suggests that there is a need for further strengthening the existing school–university partnership in teacher education.     

Social inequity and educational expansion in Slovenia

The study examines the relationship between social inequalities (stratificational, gender and other disparities) and schooling, including academic attainment, longitudinally, in Slovenia. The issue is indicated most clearly at the tertiary education level. The basic finding is the parallel between educational expansion and the diminution of social inequalities as measured by standard parameters. This was particularly evident in the 1990s. Inequalities are measured in terms of gender, parental education and occupation. The impact of parental education proves to be an indicative, observable and longitudinally comparative measure. Parental occupational status is also clearly linked to their children’s scholastic attainment, although there are difficulties in the formation of occupational strata. Further considered is the impact of school reforms over a lengthier period of time; there was not, however, any detectable impact. School and welfare policies, even financing, have little significance. There are clear indications that social disparities at school are continually regenerated, despite the decline established by standard measures. New forms of social disparities appear, through which the privileged ensure the continuation of privilege.     

Cross‐cultural Similarities in Attitudes toward Computers and the Implications for Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

Results of a three year longitudinal study of elementary school children's attitudes toward computers in Japan, Mexico, and the United States of America are presented, along with implications of the findings for teacher education. Two types of attitudes toward computers (importance and enjoyment) were found to be positively influenced by the introduction of computer activities in primary school. No novelty effect was found regarding enjoyment of computers, and perceived computer importance declined less from Grades 1–3 than several other dispositions measured. No consistent gender differences were found for attitudes toward computers among the three nations. These findings imply that students begin school eager to learn about computers and lacking the gender biases often found in older age groups, and that teachers should be educated to help preserve interest in and access to information technology for all students. Reflections for teacher education conclude the article.     

Interactions of gender with predictors of academic achievement

Predictive models of academic achievement are used in various (often high stakes) applications, including selection and study orientation procedures for higher education. Considering the far-reaching consequences of their outcomes, these models should show as little bias for irrelevant factors as possible. While numerous studies have researched the impact of gender on the isolated individual predictors of academic achievement, no studies yet have explored how gender affects program-specific prediction models of academic achievement. As such, the present study examined whether prediction models exhibit gender differences in the accuracy of their predictions, and how such differences relate to the gender balance within a study program. Besides that, we developed gender-specific prediction models of academic achievement in order to examine how these models differ in terms of which predictors are included, and whether they make more accurate predictions. Data was examined from a large sample of first year students across 16 programs in an open access higher education system (N = 5,016). Results revealed interactions between gender and several predictors of academic achievement. While the models exhibited little difference in the accuracy of their predictions for male and female students, analyses showed that using gender-specific models substantially improved our predictions. We also found that male and female models of academic achievement differ greatly in terms of the predictors included in their composition, irrespective of the gender balance in a study program.     

Inequalities in school leavers’ labour market outcomes: do school subject choices matter?

Abstract

Despite a wide international literature on the effect of vocational and general education on school-to-work transition, relatively little is known about the role of having studied specific subjects in explaining inequalities in young people’s labour market outcomes. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining differences in employment chances of young people who left education early, either at the end of compulsory schooling or at the end of secondary school. Using data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a large-scale linkage study created using data from administrative and statistical sources, we found little gender differences but strong parental background differences in school leavers’ employment status and type of occupation entered. Social inequalities in labour market outcomes were only partly explained by curriculum choices. Moreover, after controlling for social origin and grades, only history and business for lower-secondary leavers and maths for upper-secondary leavers were associated with a reduction in the chances of being unemployed/inactive.