Education policy and school segregation of migrant students in Catalonia: the politics of non-decision-making

This article shows how the Catalan government has not developed an agenda to tackle school segregation despite the growing number of migrant pupils who arrived over the course of the last decade. Education policy has explicitly disregarded the possibilities of improving the regulatory framework for tackling segregation; it has exercised insufficient control over the effective application of education regulations on the balanced schooling of pupils with specific educational needs; and it has taken decisions on education policy which have even accentuated school segregation. This article provides empirical evidence on the characteristics of school segregation in Catalonia and on the education policies developed by the Catalan government in the domain of the schooling of migrant pupils. The study illustrates how the absence of an explicit school desegregation policy is an example of the politics of non-decision-making and a case which clearly manifests the need to overcome behavioural analysis in policy decision-making.     

Autographs and the global art market: the case of hedonic prices for French autographs (1960–2005)

The market for autographs has become more open to international buyers since 1990. Our data set features a large sample of store and auction sales for selected authors every 5 years from 1960 to 2005. The estimation of a hedonic price function shows that page count, type of author, date and type of the document conditionally to author explain more than three quarters of the price differences. The apparent price of autographs increased by 7.7 % per year during the period, while the hedonic price index increased by 7.9 % on average. With a supply function responsive to market valuation, as well French autograph prices seemingly showing trend similar to art market index, the French autograph market has become more integrated in the global art market.     

The relationship between emotional competence,classroom climate and school achievement in high school students / La relación entre competencia emocional,clima de aula y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de secundaria

The aim of this study is, on the one hand, to find out if differences exist in emotional competence and secondary school students’ perceptions of classroom climate according to gender and educational level and, on the other hand, to analyse the relationship between emotional competence, classroom climate and school achievement in secondary school students. The study advances the hypothesis that emotional competences and classroom climate are mediators in school achievement. For this purpose, 420 students from secondary and further education were selected with an average age of 14.29 ± 1.52.

In emotional competence, the results showed differences according to gender and educational level, while in classroom climate, differences were only found according to educational level. The mediational analysis showed that classroom climate is an influential variable in the predictive value of emotional competence in relation to school achievement. Likewise, emotional competence acts as a mediating influence on classroom climate and school achievement. This study thus highlights the need to implement training processes to help teachers to promote positive socio-emotional contexts and programmes to develop students’ emotional competence, which will improve their school achievement.     

Inequalities in school systems: effect of school structure or of society structure?

In this study the authors start from the observed fact that equality of opportunities of educational achievement is higher in integrated school systems than in differentiated school systems. In other words, in integrated school systems, a pupil’s school achievement depends less than elsewhere on the social and cultural resources of his or her family. However, before concluding that school structure has a significant influence on inequalities at school, it is important to distinguish between the influence of the socio‐economic context underlying each school system, and the specific influence of the structure or organisation of the school system itself. The fact is that not only do the most egalitarian countries with regard to schooling have in common an integrated structure, but also these schools are set within the context of countries which are more egalitarian in other ways, particularly with regard to income distribution. To distinguish between the influence of this social environment and that of school structure, the authors offer three analyses based on a comparative analysis of international databases measuring educational achievement. The results of these three analyses lend credence to the hypothesis that the structure of the school system has a specific effect on the extent of inequalities.     

Globalization, Educational Targeting, and Stable Inequalities: A Comparative Analysis of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile

The present study analyzes educational targeting in Argentina, Brazil and Chile from a sociological point of view. It shows that a ‘logic of induction’ has become the vehicle for anti-poverty education strategies meant to help targeted groups improve on their own. The analysis explores the influence of the global educational agenda, the empirical connection between the logic of induction and the mechanism of emulation, and the territorial aspects of educational inequalities. Emulation plays a main role inasmuch as the logic of induction leads targeted groups to compare their adverse situation with more privileged groups, which actually legitimizes inequalities. A brief statistical summary completes the study, showing that educational inequality has remained unchanged as far as urban–rural ratios (in Brazil and Chile) and regional disparities (in all three countries) are concerned.     

Is the World Bank education policy adequate for fighting poverty? Some evidence from Latin America

This paper focuses on the relationship between the World Bank’s education policy and the recent anti-poverty priorities and strategies that shape the present Bank’s agenda for development. The paper provides a critical assessment of the explicit strategies of the World Bank’s education policies aimed at fighting poverty by identifying the contradictions embedded in anti-poverty discourses and strategies, and relating them to an education policy that generates inequalities and shows little effectiveness in helping people to escape from poverty. This analysis is applied to the situation of Latin American education systems, which have, during the last decade, experienced an important expansion but have also maintained strong inequalities in educational performance and access to post-compulsory education.