Evaluating Effectively Maintained Inequality: School and post-school transitions, socioeconomic background, academic ability and curricular placement

In this paper we draw on the hypothesis of “Effectively Maintained Inequality” (EMI), which holds that inequalities in higher education concern differentiation as regards the institutions or study programmes which people from different socioeconomic backgrounds choose, rather than the difference between participating and non-participating. It is an important issue, as in modern knowledge and information societies, characterized by new methods of getting, processing and distributing information, higher education is important as a means of equipping people with the knowledge necessary to participate actively in them, for personal growth and national growth. It also impacts positively on social justice, equality of educational opportunity and can boost intergenerational social mobility. These potential benefits, however, are undermined by segregation within higher education. In this paper we present the findings of a research study that examined the breadth of segregation of the higher sector in Greece by socioeconomic background. Research findings indicate a correlation among cultural, social and financial capital and programme or institution, thus conforming the theory of “Effectively Maintained Inequality”.

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Sex Differences in Educational Aspirations and Expectations

American Educational Research Journal ◽

10.3102/00028312015001067 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 67-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Margaret Mooney Marini ◽

Ellen Greenberger

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Sex Differences ◽

Educational Attainment ◽

Random Sample ◽

Educational Aspirations ◽

Achievement Test ◽

Academic Ability ◽

Socioeconomic Background ◽

Educational Goals ◽

Almost All

Previous studies of sex differences in adolescents’ goals for educational attainment have focused on either educational aspirations or expectations and found that socioeconomic background has a greater effect on the educational goals of girls than boys, and that academic ability has a greater effect on the educational goals of boys than girls. Almost all of these studies are based on students who attended high school between 1955 and 1960. This paper examines more recent evidence on sex differences in both educational aspirations and expectations, obtained from a random sample of eleventh grade students in Pennsylvania. The findings indicate that: (1) boys both aspire to and expect higher levels of educational attainment than girls; (2) the discrepancy between educational aspirations and expectations is greater for girls than boys at higher levels of aspiration; and (3) both socioeconomic background and academic ability, as measured by an achievement test, have a greater effect on educational ambition for boys than girls.

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Educational Inequality in Apartheid South Africa

American Behavioral Scientist ◽

10.1177/0002764216682988 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 61 (1) ◽

pp. 114-131 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Matthew McKeever

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

School Transitions ◽

Racial Categories ◽

Class Differences ◽

Inequality Theory ◽

Parental Background ◽

Using Data ◽

Effectively Maintained Inequality

In this article, I explore the utility of effectively maintained inequality theory in examining educational inequality in South Africa at the end of the apartheid era. As an obviously unequal country, South Africa provides an excellent opportunity to test the claim that even with large quantitative differences in achievement, qualitative differences will matter. Using data from the early 1990s, I find that there were extensive quantitative differences in secondary school transitions across respondents in different racial categories. The minority White population was consistently able to achieve both more and better education. At the same time, though, qualitative distinctions mattered. For the majority of the population, particularly Africans, the quality of education attained varied across parental background. These outcomes are important not only for examining the veracity of effectively maintained inequality, both in terms of racial and class differences but also because they illustrate how educational differences have served to perpetuate inequality over time in a society that no longer allows for the explicit denial of opportunity by race.

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Perception of Smokers: Results from the Tobacco Monitoring Switzerland

SUCHT - Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Praxis / Journal of Addiction Research and Practice ◽

10.1024/0939-5911.a000070 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 131-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Theda Radtke ◽

Roger Keller ◽

Andrea Bütikofer ◽

Rainer Hornung

Keyword(s):

Social Ties ◽

Tobacco Consumption ◽

School Transitions ◽

Prevention Measures

Aim: The purpose of the study is to present adolescents’ perceptions of smokers and non-smokers among 1015 Swiss adolescents. Method: The analyses are based on data from Tobacco Monitoring Switzerland, which is a survey of tobacco consumption in Switzerland. To measure the perceptions of smokers and non-smokers, respondents were asked to attribute a series of adjectives to each group. It was also recorded when respondents mentioned that “there is no difference between smokers and non-smokers.” Results: Results show that regardless of whether the adolescents smoked or did not smoke – with the exception of more sociable – the image of smokers was more negative than the image of non-smokers. Findings also indicated that regular smokers in particular often stated that there are no differences between both groups. Conclusions: Overall, the image of smokers is more negative than the image of non-smokers, with the exception of the attribute more sociable. This perception of smokers could be important for prevention measures in new contexts (e. g., school transitions), where smoking could be a means of establishing new social ties.

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