The Speed of Educational Expansion and Changes in Inequality of Educational Opportunity

2016 ◽  
pp. 77-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia N. Blossfeld ◽  
Gwendolin J. Blossfeld ◽  
Hans-Peter Blossfeld
2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 625-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Hannum ◽  
Hiroshi Ishida ◽  
Hyunjoon Park ◽  
Tony Tam

This article reviews research on the coevolution of educational expansion and educational inequality within China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in the post–World War II period. These societies are often lauded for their spectacular economic growth, widespread commitment to investing in education, and intense competition for academic success. This review first considers organizational sorting and horizontal stratification within the educational system, followed by returns to education in the labor market and then the inequality of educational opportunity, with special attention to the nominal versus positional approaches to measuring education. This combination of regional focus and substantive diversity offers the leverage of an approximately matched comparison. The findings demonstrate that there are significant heterogeneities in the coevolution of educational expansion and inequality among these societies with strong cultural and political ties. The findings also suggest complex causal and contingent relationships among educational expansion, educational stratification, returns to education, and inequality of opportunity.


Author(s):  
Louis-André Vallet

Using the 1970, 1977, 1985, 1993, and 2003 Formation et Qualification Professionnelle (INSEE) surveys, this chapter analyzes how intergenerational social mobility and social fluidity have evolved in France for men and women born between 1906 and 1973. It demonstrates that the statistical association between class of origin and class of destination has become weaker in recent cohorts than in older ones, and also that the same association diminishes with age, i.e., along the occupational career. It demonstrates that change in education has played a key role in the process of increasing social fluidity. In the 1945–54 cohort, the reduction in inequality of educational opportunity is the main factor and the educational expansion is the secondary factor for explaining the reduction of the association between class of origin and class of destination, but the relative importance of these two factors is reversed in the 1955–64 and 1965–73 cohorts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-240
Author(s):  
Rob J Gruijters ◽  
Tak Wing Chan ◽  
John Ermisch

Despite an impressive rise in school enrolment rates over the past few decades, there are concerns about growing inequality of educational opportunity in China. In this article, we examine the level and trend of educational mobility in China, and compare them to the situation in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Educational mobility is defined as the association between parents’ and children’s educational attainment. We show that China’s economic boom has been accompanied by a large decline in relative educational mobility chances, as measured by odds ratios. To elaborate, relative rates of educational mobility in China were, by international standards, quite high for those who grew up under state socialism. For the most recent cohorts, however, educational mobility rates have dropped to levels that are comparable to those of European countries, although they are still higher than the US level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110198
Author(s):  
Bastian A. Betthäuser ◽  
Caspar Kaiser ◽  
Nhat An Trinh

A large body of literature documents cross-national variation in the level of inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) among children from different social backgrounds. By contrast, relatively little attention has been given to the extent to which IEO varies within counties and across regions. On the basis of data from the European Social Survey, the authors map variation in IEO across regions in Europe and show that IEO varies substantially within counties. This visualization of the heterogeneity of IEO within European countries highlights the need for researchers and policy makers to extend the current focus on cross-national differences and to investigate and address IEO at the regional level. The visualization raises important questions with respect to the contours, causes, and consequences of cross-regional variation in IEO.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473
Author(s):  
Bastian A Betthäuser

Abstract In 1990, German unification led to an abrupt and extensive restructuring of the educational system and economy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the latter was reintegrated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). However, the consequences of this large-scale institutional change for the educational inequality between children from different social class backgrounds in East Germany continue to be poorly understood. This article seeks to shed new light on this question by using a quasi-experimental approach to examine the difference in educational inequality between East and West Germany before and after German unification. We compare changes in the class gradient in the attainment of comparable school and university qualifications in East and West Germany across six birth cohorts, including three cohorts of individuals who completed their schooling after unification. We find that before unification, inequality of educational opportunity at the mid-secondary, upper-secondary and tertiary level was substantially lower in East Germany than in West Germany and that unification led to a substantial and sustained convergence of the level of inequality of educational opportunity in East Germany towards that of West Germany.


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