Search

This paper examines changes in the relationship between class origins and the position young people occupy one year after finishing post-primary education in the Republic of Ireland over the period 1984-1993. We find that class differentials in the position occupied after leaving school do not change over time, although, among young women, the relationship between educational attainment and the position occupied does change slightly. We show that the reason why this latter change can co-occur with an absence of change in class differences is because class origin effects on the position a school leaver occupies one year after leaving school are substantially independent of educational attainment effects. In other words, class differences in how young people fare after leaving school are only weakly mediated by education. Other channels of class influence must therefore be operating, and their cumulative impact is much greater than that of class based educational inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of Basil Bernstein's work on language in relation to education and child rearing is widely recognized, but his contributions to the sociology of the school are less well-known. It is not the purpose of this article to make an extended critique of the theoretical and other propositions made in Bernstein's series of writings, but to report an attempt to put some of them to the empirical test. The results of the investigation give only limited support for some of the propositions made by Bernstein about the sociology of the school. This statement must be qualified by a number of reservations. Firstly, the variables used to test the propositions were not constructed for this specific purpose, and may not therefore represent the best use of the concepts involved. Secondly, they do not cover all the examples suggested by Bernstein. Thirdly, the schools to which the measures apply are secondary schools. With these reservations, the results suggest that Bernstein's explanation of the relationship between the different aspects of the school should be reconsidered. The explanations appear to be based upon an adaptive view of education, in which its form and change are determined by, or closely related to, the nature of and changes in superordinate sectors of society.

The aim of this paper on occupational prestige is two-fold. The first part of the paper is devoted to a more general discussion of some theoretical and methodological shortcomings of the sociological literature on occupational prestige. The aim of the second part of the paper is to provide an illustration of one possible approach to the theoretical and empirical analysis of dissensus in occupational prestige which may be able to transcend at least partly some of the suggested shortcomings of the conventional approach. The sample utilized for the empirical analysis is a sample of the West German élite. The findings indicate that the position of an individual in the structure of voluntary interaction and his normative standards have an impact on the prestige assigned to different groups of occupations. Comparing science and nonescience occupations all requiring a university education, it was found that members of the elite who had close, personal interaction with scientists as well as a more favourable attitude towards the consequences of science and read proportionally more science literature assigned disproportionally higher prestige to science occupations in contrast to occupations outside of science.

In the first part of this paper ethuomethodology is compared with realist and social constructionist sociology, with specific reference to notions of `reality'. In contrast with sociological concerns about the correct theorization of reality, for ethnomethodology `reality' is approached as a members' phenomenon. Ethnomethodology seeks to investigate how concerns with the `real' inform members' locally ordered practical action and reasoning. In the second part of the paper, we offer an ethnomethodological analysis of reality-as-a-members'-phenomenon in the context of a classroom storytelling. Our focus is on aspects of the teacher's and pupils' `reality analysis' which is touched off by events within the story. The discussion is divided into two sections: the first examines the participants' analysis of the `believability' of specific events in the story; the second considers their analysis of the status of these events with reference to the distinction between dreaming and being awake. In conclusion, we elaborate the differences between ethnomethodology's respecification of reality analysis as a topic of investigation and conventional sociology's theorizations of reality. In so doing, we emphasize the mundane and locally ordered character of members' - including sociologists' - reality analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents Basil Bernstein's response to an article by Michael Huspek which advanced a theory of the relationship between social class and communication codes. Bernstein acknowledges that a developing theory creates a burden for those who engage with it. Such a theory requires its readers a recency of reading. In the case of Huspek he seems to have parted company with the theory well before 1975. The major arguments derived from papers published well before 1970. The section headed A Reconsideration of Bernstein's Descriptions of Working-class Speech draws entirely from a paper published in 1962, and the description of codes reduced syntactic complexity goes back to a paper published in 1958. According to Bernstein, it is therefore difficult, if not possible, to comment on Huspek's paper without summarizing or at least referring to developments of the last 20 years. Developments which not only have escaped Huspek, but perhaps equally seriously have escaped the anonymous reviewers whom Huspek acknowledges. Bernstein's comments is grouped under two headings: Social Class and Education, and Class and Oppositional Codes. Huspek points out that Bernstein has operated with a two level model of empirical research.

Parental role models are often put forward as an explanation for the choice of gender-atypical educational routes. This paper aims to test such explanations by examining the impact of family background variables like parental education and occupation, on choice of educational programme at upper secondary school. Using a sample of around 73,000 Swedish teenagers born between 1972 and 1976, girls' and boys' gender-atypical as well as gender-typical educational choices are analysed by means of logistic regression. Parents working or educated within a specific field increase the probability that a child will make a similar choice of educational programme at upper secondary school. This same-sector effect appeared to be somewhat stronger for fathers and sons, while no such same-sex influence was confirmed for girls. No evidence was found that, in addition to a same-sector effect, it matters whether parents' occupations represent gender- traditional or non-traditional models. Parents of the service classes or highly educated parents - expected to be the most gender egalitarian in attitudes and behaviours - have a positive influence upon children's choice of gender-atypical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changes in the dimensions and sources of educational inequality in Australia. Data from a sample of the urban population is used, and divided into three education (rather than birth or age) cohorts in order to assess the effects of educational expansion over time. The results show that there has been some decline in the effect of social background on years of basic schooling and total years of education, and some increase in the effects of ability. However, the impact of social background remains important, while gender differences in qualifications and tertiary attainments are mostly undiminished. This suggests that while basic schooling has become more meritocratic with the expansion of educational opportunities, higher attainments still reflect and perpetuate systematic inequalities within the broader society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1980s Conservative governments instituted programs that were intended to use religion to achieve Conservative goals. An example is the reform of religious education in the English state schools undertaken by the Thatcher government. This paper reports on the expectations regarding religious education by several influential groups: Thatcherites, religious education specialists, and religious leaders. The conclusion is that the reform of religious education is not likely to advance Conservative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper published in "British Journal of Sociology," the author made the claim that despite decades of intensive investigation, not a single researcher had ever shown that class difference in education was indeed unfair and unjust. It was a charge that was underwritten by a simple, if technical, argument, which drew attention to what, in logic, would have to be shown if such a difference was to be regarded as an inequality, rather than as just another difference in a differentiated society. In this case, it was suggested that, other things being equal, the researcher would have to meet one of two conditions. He would have to show that the different classes were similarly disposed to education or, alternatively, if there were evidence, as in Great Britain, of considerable working-class indifference to education, he would need to demonstrate that such indifference was itself the result of structural or cultural inequality. Only then, it was argued, could the researcher be said to have reasonably shown that class difference in education was unfair; for only then could the researcher be reasonably sure that such a difference was not, after all, just another difference.

Trends in class inequality in attendance at selective schools are hard to interpret, since the number of places at these schools and the distribution of children by class also change over time. Reanalysing data from the Nuffield Mobility Study, it is shown that interpretation of the trends depends on which measure of association is used. By viewing stratification as a continuous hierarchy which is then sliced up into 'classes' of differing sizes, some interpretative problems can be overcome; greatest clarity is achieved by defining a top class equal in size to the number of selective school places. Reanalysing the data using this 'fixed marginals' approach, a clear pattern emerges: growing inequality before 1944, movement towards equality in the first decade after, but sharply increased inequality thereafter. An explanation is proposed to explain this pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on curriculum reform from the 1960s onwards and examines the English experience in comparison with similar reforms in neighbouring European countries. Educationalists and sociologists, like historians, have been drawn to the study of national institutions and to observing the attempts to resolve national problems. Categorisations of educational systems, therefore, inevitably cluster national systems into groups formed around criteria that reflect the complementary nature of countries within a specific category and the distinctiveness of these systems from other. An OECD publication for example suggested that the contrast between centralized and decentralized systems seemed an obvious indicator of style, both with regard to education in general and curriculum development in particular. A Council of Europe report used the term confined to describe systems such as those in France and Denmark where development is effectively and predominantly initiated and controlled centrally by the Minister of Education. National traditions, therefore, are seen as highly significant in understanding control and change and this is best exemplified in the wide raging study by Margaret Archer (1979) on the origins of the four European education systems.

This paper assesses the effects of sex and class on the employment status of a sample of 2000 Irish school-leavers at the end of their first year in the labour market by modelling the factors influencing the risk of unemployment along similar lines to status attainment models; The model is estimated using log-linear analogies to path analysis. In general the effects of sex and class on the risk of unemployment are found to be mediated via educational attainment. The hypothesis is advanced that unemployment is more likely among those with low levels of educational attainment because they are more likely to enter an exposed sector of the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses individual data on 6,873 male employees from the 1972 General Household Survey in the U.K. to assess the extent to which differences in personal characteristics explain differences in occupational and economic success. This is done by means of a path model fitted on the following key variables: father's occupation, respondent's occupation, education, ability and earnings. In addition, alternative specifications of the same basic model are fitted involving age or experience as an additional variable and different proxies for the ability variable. The results indicate that personal characteristics explain about one-third on the variance in earnings in the U.K. and that education is art important contributor to economic and social ascent. Although this finding is in slight variance with the conclusion of a similar study by Jencks using U.S. data, it is noted that the differences in results might be due to our inadequacy in matching the exact definition of variables for the purpose of international comparisons of the kind attempted here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationally representative data sets are used to of social class inequality in educational attainment in England and Sweden during the twentieth century. Logit models are estimated to test hypotheses about change in class inequalities at crucial branching points in the educational system. Our analyses show that equalizations are apparent in both nations at the first branching point, where traditionally inequalities were most severe. Working class children increased their odds of clearing the first educational hurdle relative to offspring of the service class. In Sweden, children of farmers reduced their great initial disadvantage. Surprisingly, the trends involving the working classes are remarkably similar in England and Sweden. We find little evidence that any general causal mechanism was behind the equalization, and it cannot be interpreted unambiguously as the result of specific educational reforms or expansion programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence for the influence of the parental home and the school on adult male earnings is provided by a national longitudinal study. Earnings when cohort members were 36 years old were found to be related to aspects of their family of origin (fathers' social class, family size, parental education and interest in their offspring's education), with their early educational attainment and attitude to school work, with the type and quality of primary and secondary schooling and with their final level of educational qualifications. Statistical modelling to predict the men in the top third of earnings found that those from the most disadvantaged home backgrounds and from primary schools with poor academic records were significantly less likely to be high earners even after educational qualifications and achieved social class were taken into account. High scores on attainment tests taken at eight years mainly influenced earnings by improving an individual's chance of attending a selective secondary school which in turn led to better educational qualifications and hence a greater choice of well paid occupations. But for men with no qualifications high scores on these tests were also important predictors of the small minority who would become high earners. The ways in which early life factors may have influenced adult earnings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using household census data from Hong Kong in 1971, 1976, 1981, and 1986, we constructed new individual data sets for four separate cohorts of youth. The new data include family background variables, and permit us to study the selectivity in education over time. The question of how background and gender affect educational attainment is addressed in two complementary ways. We first use linear regressions on the number of school years completed, and then logistic regressions to calculate the likelihood of making particular school transitions. Consistent with prior research in the USA, Hungary, and the Philippines, these two methods yield results which are apparently contradictory. The linear effect of family background and gender on attainment diminished over time, suggesting a more open educational system. However, the effect of these same variables on the odds of making transitions actually increased at the higher levels. During the fifteen-year period we examine, Hong Kong attempted to expand the educational opportunities for its youth. Few nations have provided free and compulsory secondary schooling so shortly after having instituted universal primary education. One might expect rapid educational expansion to lead to a more open educational system as well. In fact, while the system did become much more open at the primary and secondary levels, it also became more selective at the higher educational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a study to describe the social background of the Nigerian university students, and to present data from the Nigerian university to compare with the data from other West African countries. In recent years political scientists and social scientists, have shown an increasing interest in the analysis of elite groups and social stratification. In modern Nigeria, like other African societies, education, which has a great impact on recruitment and stratification, has played a vital role in shaping relations between groups in the Nigerian society. Presently, around 3,000 graduates are produced by Nigerian universities each year. These students are the future of the continuity and change in Nigeria.