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This paper concerns how credentials mark boundaries between different kinds of higher educational actors. In particular, this research inquires into how organizations respond to rapid shifts in their institutional environments in terms of the maintenance of symbolic boundaries that granting specific kinds of credentials provides. As a field of higher education expands rapidly to encompass new kinds of persons, and new areas of credentialing, what happens to the ways in which organizations manage their identities as distinct from others in the field? Are boundaries blurred or sharpened in such a process? This paper addresses these concerns within the field of higher education in business, and the rapid changes that occurred after 1972 (and the passage of Title IX legislation) as the field expanded from a relatively exclusive white male domain to include a wide swath of institutional space with women a majority of the degree recipients. Using government surveys of higher education, and formal analytic techniques (WMDS, Cluster Analysis), I model the shifting logics of distinction that structured the field over this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with a discussion of how transitions can be periods of growth or points of failure, depending on the person's response. Looking more specifically at the transition to college, Tinto (1993) identifies this transition period as crucial to a student's eventual success or failure in college. Tintos theory states that students stay in school when they become integrated into the social and academic realms of college life, which comes about as a result of adjusting to the formal and informal domains of these realms of the college environment. Because adjustment is actually about the social connections students form, I examine this adjustment process in terms of the ties that students form on campus. The final part of this paper examines the implications of the social and academic ties on academic (GPA) and social integration (satisfaction with social life). I find that the ties that students form in the process of adjusting to college do have implications for their later college outcomes. In particular, formal on-campus ties in both the social (school activities) and academic realms (engagement in coursework, talking to professors) are positively and significantly related to higher grades in college. I also find that those who form early ties with other students both informally and in the course of being involved in extracurricular activities express higher levels of satisfaction with their social life on campus at the end of their sophomore year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores selectively the thought of Pierre Bourdieu with attention to images of capital acquisition and conversion in order to conceptualize the career and scholarly work conditions of American academics employed as professors in major research universities. Much has been written about the terrains of higher education, viewed sociologically, psychologically, anthropologically, and politically. Yet, few scholarly contributions have examined the contexts of professors' work relative to their support for or constraint upon knowledge production as a desirable social aim. Although concerns have been raised about the applicability of Bourdieu's work to settings beyond the specific context of French higher education, it is possible to use his writings as opportunities to explore academic contextual issues (with attention to contextual constraint) in generic ways and relative to their resonance with American higher education. The paper capitalizes on these opportunities to frame the content of professors' scholarly careers and the "social sites" that shape their knowledge production efforts. The paper employs Bourdieu's ideas to address this aim, due to his concern with the social and cultural contexts -- and power dynamics -- that frame lives, individually and collectively, in institutions and in society more broadly. The paper closes with a set of ideas drawn from the works of social, sociocultural, and cognitive psychologists to consider possibilities for supporting scholarly learning, even within contexts of constraint as outlined by Bourdieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expertise development mentoring provides new students with useful information about "what to do in order to succeed at the university," insights into the culture of higher education, and tips on how to become "more expert" students. This form of mentoring goes beyond just informing students about the range of support services are available on campus to providing scripts for how to use specific campus resources appropriately as well as strategies for key campus interactions. In this paper we examine the effectiveness of this approach through a case study of an intervention designed to improve first-generation student academic success and retention at Portland State University, the Students First Mentoring Project (SFMP). After describing the lkey elements of this intervention, along with the underlying conceptual model, we present two years (2005-2007) of program results to establish that the program positively impacts first-generation student's academic performance and persistence. We conclude this paper by discussing the implications of this successful expertise-development mentoring program for first generation students and the colleges and universities seeking to support these students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As public funding for higher education has declined, the costs of higher education have risen dramatically, including sharp increases in technology costs. At the same time, college education has become more universally available—and more critical to individuals' economic success—and public institutions must accommodate a broader and more diverse array of students. This paper outlines the economic, demographic, and public policy environment for public higher education, arguing that campus governance structures are ill-prepared to respond to this changing context. The paper examines the impact of this changed environment for faculty work and morale, including implications for the field of sociology, and makes the case that universities must adapt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic training can be regarded as the key qualification in contemporary knowledge societies. Against this background, public debate has repeatedly highlighted two problems of the German system: first, a comparatively small proportion of the population attaining higher education and second, a relatively high degree of social selectivity in education, not least among university graduates where children from lower classes are highly underrepresented. Graduating from university is, however, just the final step of an extended educational career. Sociological transition research has revealed that final educational attainment must be understood as the result of a sequence of successive decisions. So where on the long way to the university degree does Germany 'lose' its potential academics and in particular its lower-class children?This paper presents a detailed picture of the life-course development of educational careers by reconstructing the various steps of the collective educational history of a particular birth cohort. The paper takes account of both the country-specific institutional structures of the educational system and inter-individual variation in educational trajectories and combines both aspects in an analysis of the most relevant types of educational transitions associated with the 'academic track'. Altogether, the transitions aggregate to the final number of graduates as well as to the observed amount of inequality in educational attainment. In our empirical analyses, we are interested in both the overall selection at particular transitions and social differences in these transition patterns. We use survey data from various sources on participation and social selectivity in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a sample of 523 institutions of higher education in the United States to test neoinstitutional and diffusion explanations for curricular change. It explores the adoption of programs and majors in women's studies, Asian American studies, and queer/LGBT studies through logistic regression analysis and network visualization. The paper finds less support than expected for conventional neoinstitutional and diffusion explanations while determining that the institutionalization of a discipline in the higher education field increases the role for neoinstitutional pressures. In addition, the paper finds that peer networks based on structural position with the higher education field play less of a role in curricular change than do those peers claimed by institutions as comparison institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, Americans have seen an increased investment in social capital by the United States government, particularly as it pertains to higher education. The Federal Government has attempted to ameliorate many of its discriminatory and racist practices that have continually subjugated minorities to the lowest rungs of society as evidenced by the 1965 Higher Education Act and subsequent amendments. It is my contention that social capital is strongly correlated to educational attainment. Thus, because Latinos and African Americans have historically been discriminated against in their pursuit of higher education; their access to social capital has been severely limited. Furthermore, we argue that the current disproportionate federal funding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) compared to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) is due directly to the de facto segregation historically encountered by Latinos. The practice of de facto segregation is much more subversive than the de jure segregation encountered by African Americans. As a result, the federal government continues to discriminate against Latinos by disproportionately investing more in HBCUs than HSIs, thus, reducing the educational attainment and social capital for Latinos. This paper illustrates how the differences in federal appropriations disproportionately affect Latinos and how this disproportion relates to social capital. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Immigration Act of 1965, the flow of immigrants to the United States has shifted away from European countries and is now primarily from Asian and Latin American countries. During this time, economic restructuring has made it more difficult for low-skilled and less-educated workers to find employment in stable, high-quality jobs. Some immigrants have responded to the economic context in the United States through participation in ethnic economies, which provide job opportunities that are not available to them in the mainstream economy. Beyond the advantages or disadvantages of ethnic economy participation for immigrants themselves, little research has investigated the intergenerational impact of ethnic economies. Some research suggests that ethnic economies can act as a springboard for the second generation-encouraging youth to go on to higher education by increasing social capital and reinforcing high educational aspirations. Other research has suggested that the ethnic economy can act as a safety net, giving youth possibilities of employment without obtaining a college degree.I n this paper, I assess the impact of parents' ethnic economy participation on children's educational aspirations and post-secondary school enrollment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the GSS complete file (1972-2004), the paper examines the role of education, age, and cohort in explaining attitudes toward economic and social inequality. First, in general, Americans become more economically conservative as they age, though they also grow more tolerant and liberal on issues of free speech and racial discrimination. Second, educational attainment is associated, albeit somewhat weakly, with increasingly conservative economic dispositions. Third, the effect of age on attitudes toward economic redistribution varies across educational groups: while all Americans become increasingly more conservative, the slope for those with more education rises more sharply than it does for Americans with at most a high school diploma. This effect is mitigated somewhat by income, though not entirely. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of peace and conflict studies is still coalescing, despite the fact that the first undergraduate degree program in the United States was established in 1948. Almost sixty years later, the field still goes by so many names that core identity issues have not been resolved. The names of degree programs reveal various foci: peace studies; justice studies; conflict studies; conflict analysis; conflict resolution; conflict management; conflict transformation; and dispute resolution. This paper recounts the history of the field's development, and then charts and analyzes the curricular content of undergraduate degree programs in the United States and Canada. This is accomplished through analysis of the curricular requirements for those degree programs, as well as through comparative analysis of the syllabi for the required courses in those programs. This data allows us to identify whether and if core constructs have been established in this emerging discipline, and the degree of coherence that may be present in the field. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I apply a rational action perspective to the study of affirmative action in higher education. I argue that the evolution of affirmative action policies in college recruitment and admissions is best understood as a response by postsecondary institutions to a variety of both external and internal forces. Currently popular theories in social stratification, such as maximally maintained inequality, are ill-equipped to account for organizational activities like affirmative action that appear to undermine racial and ethnic stratification. I suggest that affirmative action is a variant of what Ralph Turner call sponsored mobility. Building on Skrentny, I suggest that this form of sponsorship may have originated as an organizational response to a perceived crisis in legitimacy brought on by the Civil Rights struggle. Over time, however, affirmative action became part of the normative behaviors in which even moderately competitive colleges engage. Using data from representative samples of high school graduates in the classes of 1972, 1982 and 1992, I find persistent patterns of affirmative action for African American students and emergent patterns for white students. Unlike race/ethnicity, however, I find that colleges do little to reduce stratification among students based on socioeconomic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As educational pathways become more complex, with expanded opportunities for schooling being provided through alternate routes and entry points, researchers have remained interested in the question of increased opportunities for whom? This paper investigates how individuals from different social origin and racial/ethnic backgrounds utilize the GED route to postsecondary attainment. I analyze data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), which contains information on a nationally representative sample of 8th graders originally sampled in 1988 and followed over time in four subsequent waves of data collection. To address my research question, I use logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between postsecondary participation and route of high school exit (Diploma, GED, Dropout) for individuals from different social strata. I then use the existing distributions of dropouts, GED recipients and diploma holders to present expected rates of postsecondary participation for each respective route of high school exit across socioeconomic status. To address selection bias, I conduct a set of sensitivity analyses using a propensity score blocking technique to hypothesize and specify the mechanism that generates the selection of students into the three possible high school exit routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenges of measuring school racial composition in a multiracial society, and proposes a novel methodological approach using school support of higher educational aspirations as an example outcome. We use 2 distinct specifications of school racial composition, percent white enrollment and categorical clusters of schools, to illustrate the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of examining the impact of race in multiracial settings. In addition, we argue that in a time when our schools are becoming increasingly diverse, and school districts are increasingly reluctant to use race as a consideration in school assignment, the necessity of showing that race still matters is paramount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates athletic programs within institutions of higher education in the US on the world stage, where frankly, it rightly belongs at this point in time. The United States remains the only country wherein a university education and athletic participation is combined. The theoretical perspective serves as a heuristic and pedagogic conceptual tool for setting competitive athletic contests within the context of a larger world-systen, as they are no longer held on the consecrated grounds of campus, but still fought in the name of State U. Intercollegiate athletics is today a part of the World-System not so much because it encompasses the whole world, but moreso because it is now larger than the academic enterprise itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key theme in the literature on migration is transnationalism, the concept of having a foot in both worlds ? the homeland that immigrants have left behind and the country that they have entered. This paper contributes to the emergent research on how transnationalism and ethnicity play out in the lives of the second generation, e.g., the American-born children of immigrants, and foreign-born children who arrived in the United States by the age of 12, with a particular focus on the Chinese and Dominicans and their views on and experience with higher education and mobility. Surveys and interviews with respondents of both groups show that they come from families embedded in strong transnational fields. The second generation Chinese, however, were only weakly transnational themselves, unlike the Dominicans, for whom the homeland figured strongly. Contrary to what we might expect, given that the Chinese have higher levels of educational attainment on average than many other immigrant groups, including Dominicans, the Chinese express more pessimism about the opportunity structure in the United States and their prospects for mobility. This is because the Chinese tended to use only ethnic/panethnic lenses to understand their educational and mobility trajectories in the United States and thus believed they should be doing better. By using both ethnic and transnational lenses, Dominicans compared themselves positively with their peers in the Dominican Republic and their co-ethnics in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using ethnographic and social science survey methods, the formation of social networks among the socio-economically disadvantaged students of the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) at Barnard College were examined in an effort to determine the effects of the types of networks formed by these students on post-graduate job attainment and their opportunity to achieve upward mobility through their network usage. It was found that the social networks of these students tend to be HEOP focused, but that the class ?disadvantage? of these networks do not negatively affect their employment prospects as these students tend to use their more ?advantaged? weak ties in the job search. It was further found that the type of social tie used by the HEOP student was dependent on the monetary nature of the objective that was to be achieved through network usage. Among the sample, strong ties were used to obtain non-monetarily beneficial objectives, like housing, while weak ties were used to obtain monetarily beneficial objectives, such as employment. It is argued that there is a strong correlation between this differential network usage, the SES of the user, and the objective of network usage. It is therefore suggested that ?weak ties? theory be ?commodified? so as to reflect the influence of class on network usage. This paper concludes by arguing that due to degree inflation and the utility of network usage on job attainment, programs such as HEOP are integral to providing opportunities for the upward mobility of ?high risk? students in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, the policies for transforming higher education in South Africa will serve as the primary background to explore the complex relationship between the country?s national-liberation struggle to overcome its racially divided history, and its post-apartheid future. In an effort to highlight how progressive reforms that contributed to both the end of apartheid and the emergence of an equity agenda spearheaded by the African National Congress (ANC) government have nonetheless been limited by the divisive racial policies of the past, a case study is presented involving the University of the Western Cape (UWC). More specifically, it examines UWC?s radical transformation from a so-called ?bush? college created by the apartheid state for the education of Coloured or mixed-race peoples to South Africa?s first non-racial, ANC-aligned, open admission institution. The historical lessons we can learn from UWC?s transformation should inform the debate over the ANC government?s recent decision to reduce the number of South African public higher education institutions over the next two years. Influenced by the World Bank?s neo-liberal prescriptions for post-secondary institutions in developing countries, the need to restructure the South African higher education system has centered around the promotion of core market values characterizing the so-called ?global economy? that emphasize the importance of fiscal restraint, standardization, efficiency, research productivity, to an emphasis on competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between multiple individuals and multiple objects have always been mediated by the social process of abstraction, but the reliance on institutionalized abstraction is particularly prominent in a modern, capitalist society. Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, and Guy Debord have expressed different views regarding the process of abstraction; while in Marx?s writing the process of abstraction is portrayed as firmly based on materialist conditions, in Debord?s writing institutionalized abstraction could be relatively separated from the realities represented. The paper first compares the theoretical observations of these three theorists, and then uses the U.S. News and World Report college rankings as a case study to examine the latter form of abstraction characterized by Debord. Based on a document analysis of twelve issues of the USN rankings and a variety of secondary sources, the case study first identifies some peculiar aspects of this institutionalized abstraction process, as it creates divorces between the rankings and the use-values of colleges. The study then proceeds to analyze the basis of social legitimacy of this institution of abstraction by examining the theoretical justifications and practical changes undertaken by this institution in response to criticisms and social pressures. The relationship between the U.S. News rankings and the institution of higher education, implications for change, and the theme of ?culture,? are critically discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1980s and 90s in Japan, discussions of internationalization were frequent in relation to many different institutions of society, including education. A prominent example was the targeting of 100,000 foreign students in higher education, a goal finally reached in 2003. Globalization has changed the way that Japanese higher education institutions view internationalization by bringing forward considerations of their role as knowledge institutions. Renewed emphasis on research, scientific knowledge production, and human capital formation for international competition have led Japanese universities to seek more network linkages with international partner institutions. A challenge to the accepted practices of allowing those actors (faculty and students) who are most inclined to pursue international connections and opportunities autonomously is apparent in a move toward a more integrated internationalization. This involves struggles over the codification of international practices within the university. This paper reviews the uses of internationalization and globalization in Japanese universities, illustrating their strong ideological bases. Concurrently, the advent of a new law governing public universities, set to take effect in April of 2004, entails that they become IAIs (Independent Administrative Institutions) and ostensibly more transparent and accountable in funding and outcomes. While the public universities are only a minority of the higher education institutions in Japan, they have a disproportionate influence due to their elite status. I conclude that that the problem of change deriving from internationalization and globalization in Japanese universities is not that it is ideological but that it is bureaucratically driven and not openly ideological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education system is significantly stratified with regard to degree completion. Much research on student persistence emphasizes academic and social integration in an institution, and looks to differences in levels of integration to explain differences in completion rates. However, substantial variation remains, even after controlling for these factors. In addition, current theories emphasize student involvement in single institutions over integration into the higher education system. But the growth of multi-institutional attendance and discontinuous enrollment challenges this approach to college retention. Today, nearly one-fifth of undergraduates attend more than two institutions, and nearly one-third take some time off during college. Until now, this pathway, called ?swirling? to emphasize the churning in these students? educational trajectories, was an unexplored potential influence on degree completion. This paper uses national longitudinal postsecondary transcript data to demonstrate that swirling has a negative impact on persistence. Previous work revealed that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely than economically advantaged students to swirl. Thus, swirling is an important new mechanism perpetuating the lower degree completion rates of disadvantaged college students. Class matters in shaping postsecondary pathways; examining swirling provides an improved understanding of how and why, by fleshing out the specifics of one pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between the educational expectations of high school seniors and their parents and whether or not these seniors complete college. Specifically, is there a difference in college completion between those respondents who expect to complete college and those respondents who do not expect to complete college? If this is the case, what are mitigating factors affecting this relationship? Do expectations have an effect on college completion that is independent of the socioeconomic status, race, gender, and academic ability of the respondents being analyzed? Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study from 1988 to 2000, I explore how these variables relate to college completion, i.e. the receipt of at least a Bachelors? degree from a four year institution. My results indicate that educational expectations do have a positive effect on college completion for my respondents, and this effect is independent of the previously mentioned variables: socioeconomic status, race, gender, and academic ability. More specifically, those respondents who report that they and their parents expect college completion are more likely to do so than those respondents who do not have these expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many economically advanced societies, higher education is beeing transformed from elite to a mass system. Massification has been accompanied by institutional differentiation. Systems, which had consisted almost exclusively of research universities have added a second-tier of less selective colleges. These second tier institutions have absorbed most of the growth in enrollments. At one and the same time, higher education is opening up to the working classes, and is being stratified within. This paper reports results of a 15 country comparative study of the association between the transformation of higher education on the one hand, and changes in educational stratification on the other hand. We capitalize on differences between countries in the extent of higher educational expansion and its forms of differentiation, and study how they are related to changes in the rates of attendance in the first and second tier institutions as well as class, gender and ethnic/racial inequalities therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines and compares two previous qualitative studies conducted at a small liberal arts college on the West Coast. Pineda’s study of Latina college students’ experiences of campus racial climate is juxtaposed with Orsi’s research on White college juniors’ attitudes and understandings of racism. By looking for similarities and differences in the ways that Latinas and Whites talk about their views and experiences with racism and the campus racial climate, this comparative approach yields insight and suggestions for improving negative campus racial climates and combating structural racism. Analysis and conclusions will suggest ways that institutions of higher education could introduce or alter programs in order to (1) create concern for the problem of racism, (2) foster non-oppressive inter-racial communication about racism, (3) develop broader understanding about the social, material, and psychological effects of racism, and (4) build inter-racial coalitions to act against racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the foundations of neoinstitutional theory through the lens of social labeling processes in higher educational fields. While neoinstitutional theory has laid the groundwork for building an organizational approach to labeling, in practice research has neglected the content of local orders and the dynamics of fields in favor of modeling institutional diffusion processes at the societal level. We develop the concept of the 'labeling niche' as the cornerstone for building a neoinstitutional approach to labeling as an organizational process, and develop an empirical method for modeling niches using archival data and formal methods. We examine the emergence and differentiation of labeling niches in the field of agricultural higher education as a theoretically salient case. Ultimately, we see educational labels as emblems whose values are rooted in the different social categories of persons who come to bear them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between social background and educational attainment in postwar Japan. The overall picture regarding the effect of social background on educational attainment is of stability. However, gender inequality in access to higher education was reduced substantially in the postwar period, although gender inequality in access to university rather than junior college persisted. There was neither a clear correspondence between the pattern of the effects of social background and the stages of expansion, nor a linear pattern of diminishing or increasing effects of social background. The stability is remarkable given that the Japanese higher education went through the series of changes, closely following the educational policies of the Ministry of Education. Although the educational policies of the Ministry of Education did not explicitly attempted to reduce the impact of social background, the expansion of the higher educational system did not necessarily bring about equality of access to higher education in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores connections between the growth in diversity curricula in higher education "general studies courses" and the shaping of career trajectories for faculty, contrasting the experiences of faculty and instructors who teach in these arenas. Our research questions focus on the distinctive shape of the teaching experience for faculty and instructors with the goal of identifying how these mark the career paths for higher education teachers of color in contrast to past conceptualizations of an academic career. Using qualitative interview techniques and constant comparison coding strategies, we identify a set of themes which allow us to describe these distinctive career paths and the potential effects on recruiting and retaining instructors and faculty of color. We ask the question of who benefits from this burgeoning niche within the academy and in what ways this may influence how we prepare future faculty for their roles in the academy. Our selection frame included a complete listing of all faculty and instructors (adjunct and graduate) with individual responsibility for a course that meets University "Area H" (Diversity) curriculum requirements during the years 1999-2002. This yielded a listing of 68 diversity teachers and we completed interviews with a total of 47 diversity teachers, including faculty members across the full range of professorial ranks and adjunct and graduate instructors. Qualitative coding yielded a focus for this paper on the political burden of teaching in this arena, as it contradicts prior literature on traditional patterns for building academic careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sociologists of education have devoted substantial time to the study of gender and schooling across traditional metrics, comparatively less attention has been paid to considerations of both masculinity and psychological measures of student views. This paper attempts to remedy this using an oppositional culture framework that is typically applied to the study of racial disparities in education. With data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS), I employ Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey's (1998) framework for analyzing oppositional culture, and apply it to gender differences in education. My findings note that while males tend to exhibit more oppositional attitudes, their importance for educational achievement is less clear. Gender differences in skills, habits, and styles predict the female advantage in school performance, but the same cannot be said for concrete attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pupose of this paper is to address the problem of the gap between teaching and practice higher education and to examine the implications for teaching sociology and creating community base change. The objective is to develop at least four reasons for teaching and developing applied sociology and practice in the community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes educational attainment of Tajikistani adults born between 1944 and 1983. Adults in the oldest cohorts were educated during the educational expansion of the Soviet period and the youngest cohorts completed their education in the Post-Soviet period of educational contraction. Research about societies experiencing educational expansion finds that gaps between high status and low status youth shrink, but high status youth maintain their comparative advantage in educational attainment. A review of work about societies experiencing educational contraction indicates that inequality increases during periods of contraction. Do the same patterns apply in Tajikistan's case? Using household survey data collected in 2003 by the World Bank, adults are divided into 8 cohorts, based on the year of birth. For each cohort multivariate logistic regression techniques are used to investigate the likelihood of completing basic, secondary, and higher education. Findings indicate that the gap in educational attainment between men and women decreases during the Soviet era, but increases in the Post-Soviet period. The gap between rural and urban residences also shrinks during the Soviet period, but the gap widens at the level of higher education in the Post-Soviet period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the undocumented population and immigrants' geographic dispersion into new destinations throughout the country have changed the face of contemporary American immigration. Yet surprisingly little is actually known about the ways in which immigrants, particularly undocumented ones, are being incorporated into versus excluded from American society. In this paper, I examine to what extent Hispanic newcomers, especially undocumented ones, are being incorporated into several sets of social and legal institutions in two new rural Southern immigrant destinations in eastern North Carolina: public elementary and higher educational institutions, social and medical services institutions, law enforcement agencies, and court systems. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and 129 indepth interviews with Latin American immigrants, U.S.-born Hispanics/Latinos, and white and black "key native informants" in eastern North Carolina, I argue that Hispanic newcomers are undergoing a process of "bureaucratic incorporation" rather than civic and political incorporation as it has been traditionally conceptualized by political incorporation theories. I highlight the dual roles played by (1) state policies and (2) professional norms and missions among bureaucrats working in these institutions in this process. My results document variation organized primarily by state policies and secondarily by professional missions, the latter of which is visible at both the institutional ("service" vs. "service/regulatory" bureaucracies) and individual levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the amount of stratification among American and Canadian universities and examines Canadian trends from 1971-2001. Gini coefficients and boxplots for income and expenditures are used to summarize the amount and distribution of inequality among institutions in each country and over time. We find far more inequality among American universities, and a slight trend towards greater stratification in Canada. In conclusion we discuss directions for future research and ways to incorporate the New Institutionalism into the study of stratification in higher education. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions about the role of highly competitive intercollegiate athletics generate considerable controversy within the higher education community. For examples, see--Bowen and Levin Reclaiming the Game (2003) and Shulman and Bowen The Game of Life (2001). Such debates often focuses on several "value-added" outcomes such as increased alumni giving, or enhanced student applicant pools thought to be associated with having successful high-profile sports teams. The present study focuses on primarily on one aspect of college choice-college's athletic reputation. We first examine, among high school seniors planning to attend a four-year college or university, the overall distribution of self-reported factors that shape the selection of their first choice institutions. We then conduct factor analyses and discriminant function analyses to examine the structure of relations among the diverse factors shaping student preferences and their contribution to understanding variation in the college choice process. Finally, to understand the relations of athletic reputation with other college selection considerations we undertake logistic regression analyses. Overall, the results suggest that both males and females, despite attaching importance to various college characteristics and inducements, also consider the reputation of a school's athletic program when making their college choice. Interestingly, the most important discriminating factor for both males and females is social life. This indicates that for students who value the potential for an active college social life, a college's athletic reputation is a significant consideration. Thus, many of these students may see their college social life centering, at least in part, on their school's sports events. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While America's colleges and universities are more egalitarian than they were a half century ago, significant social inequalities can still be traced back the world of higher education. As college enrollments grow, researchers must begin to explore much more fully how such social inequalities are reproduced not just through processes that either exclude some students all together or relegate them to lesser quality institutions, but also through processes by which inequalities are produced within institutions of higher education. This research begins to fill this gap by exploring the cultural underpinnings of such inequalities. Data from interviews with 61 privileged and lessprivileged students attending two different colleges shed light on how social class background structures college students' experiences, how students use cultural resources to navigate the world of higher education, and how students' understandings of social class are related to processes of inclusion and exclusion within higher education. Analyses suggest that students from different social class backgrounds do, indeed, have different experiences on the same college campuses, and that what students "get out" of their college educations differs along class lines. In addition, these data show that while differential access to economic resources plays an important part in structuring these differences, the application of different cultural understandings also significantly shapes the structure and content of college students' lives. Theoretically, this research contributes to cultural understandings of social stratification. Practically, it may generate insights into how institutions of higher education can improve the academic and social experiences of students from all backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research conducted in order to examine the role of ideology, culture and politics of education in the Russian educational system. The research emphasizes on the Department of Russian Literature at Tartu University in Estonia. This department is headed by Yuri Lotman for many years. The bureaucratization of higher education is called by Tartu professors as "pedagogization" of university education, especially in the humanities. Moreover, Tartu professors attribute student resistance to teaching to the "ideologization" or "politization," of the language of teaching.

Although competition is pervasive in higher education, it is largely taken for granted, and thus poorly understood. Using three distinct datasets containing information on students, postsecondary institutions, and state environments, I demonstrate that private and community college sectors have significant effects on organizational structure and student outcomes of public four-year institutions. Consistent with resource dependence and niche theories, competition from private and community college sectors alters financial arrangements and internal structures of public four-year institutions. Moreover, the competition affects the bachelor's degree attainment of public four-year students, although these effects are not mediated by examined organizational structures. These results imply that the practices and outcomes of educational institutions are affected by larger organizational contexts, and thus cannot be understood as produced solely by particular educational institutions. Understanding how environmental forces shape school practices and student outcomes is crucial in the current era of increasing fiscal and accountability pressures. Without considering these environmental influences, the evaluation, as well as policies implemented to alter school practices and improve student outcomes, will likely be ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A perusal of university web-sites, brochures, and the like provides an overview of sociocultural activities at universities that are often emphasized as integral parts of the co-curriculum. Prominent examples include international cultural events for overseas demographic groups represented on American campuses and those for African, Asian, or Latin American celebrants. Striking to the astute observer is the blending of indigenous American socio-cultural values and those of other nations. While attention has been paid to general aspects of socialization within universities, there has been relatively little information about the roles that new holidays and rituals have on socialization and re-socialization within the academic community. We raise basic question including inter alia: What are the cultural meanings attached to the blending of cultures for international individuals and their American counterparts? Will these campus cultural celebrations actually be recognized as integral parts of the campus co-curriculum? Would the university cultural participants assume a different posture if they are part of a larger metropolitan milieu? To begin addressing these matters, we examined conceptual tenets of culture pertaining to holidays and rituals; engaged in participation observations of Kwanzaa and an African celebration at a large comprehensive public research university and a university-associated cultural event; and analyzed our explorations in order to explicate the nexuses between the conceptual and the observed phenomena. We conclude by positing how cultural events and changing university and government policies interact and thus affect the essence of university life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study I analyze data collected by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) to determine the impact of experiences with racial diversity in college on students? racial attitudes and values at a small liberal arts university in California. Exposure to diversity during college was found to play an important role in changing students? racial perspectives, net of social background characteristics, although students? pre-college attitudes were found to be the strongest predictors of change in students? attitudes across groups. Findings also suggest that college experiences do not have the same impact on all students. Experiences with diversity in college were found to have more of an impact on shifting the racial perspectives of Asian American students and students from low income families. These racial and economic differences underscore the complexity of the impact of college and the importance of considering individual differences between students. It is clear that the impact of experiences with diversity in college vary in magnitude for different kinds of students and that ascribed variables such as race and family economic background play a significant role. This is evidence of the importance of being sensitive to the possibility that not all students will benefit equally from the same college experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College Selectivity is more significant in the era of college for all. Other than academic ability, research on the transition to college has documented the persistent effect of social backgrounds on the college matriculation process. However, most predictors in previous research have focused on static characteristics of the family such as family composition, income, educational attainment, and occupational status. Building on the dynamic characteristics of alignment proposed by Schneider and Stevenson (1999), this research further explores conditions that ease the transition to college, especially for students who are disadvantaged, e.g. children of immigrants. Using the data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS: 88-94), this research asks the question: To what extents does parental actions influence college selectivity, taking into account students? academic ability? The inquiry entails another question: Does the competition process for college selectivity differ from the choice process of beginning college type (e.g., two- versus four-year colleges)? This study examines multinomial logit for differentiating transition process among various college types and Heckman selection model for college selectivity. Results show that alignment of parents? and students? goals increases the odds for the selective transition to postsecondary schooling. In particular, for college selectivity, the influence of parental education is contingent upon alignment of parents? and students? goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project explores the meaning of membership for twenty undergraduate members of a Black Greek organization on a predominantly white campus. In the context of high attrition rates for African American men in higher education (DeSousa & Kuh 1996), the project focuses on one possible mechanism of success and explores how the members utilize the fraternity to create connections to each other, to the campus, to the black community, and within the labor market. It connects these findings to Tinto?s (1993) theory of college student departure and has implications for the development of retention programs on predominantly white campuses and the need to support the efficacy of these organizations as one form of ?ethnic enclave? (Murguia 1991) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the motivation for the ever-increasing demand of young people for college education in contemporary Russia. This demand can be adequately explained neither by the economic situation nor by the government policy. The study was conducted in Penza Pedagogic University, Penza, Russia. Several methods were used: survey designed for the study, interviews, observation, analysis of statistical data and documents. The students majoring in four subjects (sociology and social work, pre-law, physics and math, and foreign languages) served as respondents. Based on the data, we concluded that the educational motivation is mostly personal derived from socio-cultural and socio-psychological rather than economic considerations. The interests of self-fulfillment, cultural and intellectual enrichment, respect by the community, etc, prevail over the income expectations. The income prospects were important, but they never appeared as the major, much less, the only, reason to seek college education. To that end, the students and their families were willing to invest considerable funds out of their meager budgets. Higher education seems to be associated with their social position as members of the middle class, the position threatened by the economic disenfranchisement and, thus, to serve as a mean of social self-preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although female enrollment in higher education has increased dramatically throughout the world, women remain significantly underrepresented in engineering programs. We examine cultural and structural factors influencing the gender composition of engineering programs in 44 countries. Our results suggest that different causal processes are at work within more and less economically developed countries. Cultural factors (i.e., girls? attitudes toward mathematics, and exposure to macro-cultural norms of gender-egalitarianism) are better predictors of female representation in engineering in advanced industrial societies, while structural factors (i.e., economic modernization and tertiary system size) are more important in less economically developed countries. We argue that universalistic mandates for gender egalitarianism within higher education have been addressed through creation of female occupational and educational ?ghettos,? which contribute to the generation of gender-specific career preferences and aspirations among adolescents. The relative material security and the self-expressive value systems prevailing in modern ?postmaterialist? societies allow for the realization of such gender-specific aspirations, despite the substantial economic costs of such choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the likelihood of applying to college for high school seniors and finds that the gap between first-generation (whose parents did not graduate from college) and non-first-generation students is wider for those with higher grades or test scores. Based on theories of social and material capital, four hypotheses were tested. The results suggest that this gap is not due to a bias among school personnel in favor of providing more, or earlier, information about the college application process to students with college-educated parents. Rather, the parents' desire for their children to live at home during college accounts for two-thirds of the effect of parental education and interacts with test scores, such that students with higher test scores are particularly disadvantaged when their parents want them to live at home during college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student academic engagement is an important construct connecting individuals to their educational institutions, but existing research at the collegiate level could be enriched both methodologically and theoretically. Methodologically, the global nature and content validity of existing measures are causes for concern. Moreover, theoretical models of engagement in higher education neglect the potential connection between larger societal stratification processes and schooling, a long-standing concern in the sociology of education. This study uses an expanded set of indicators to measure engagement specifically with a student's major. Results from a survey of students in sociology classes show that sociology students score relatively lower on faculty-student contact, active learning, and challenge, but they fare better on motivation compared to students from other major fields. Preliminary regression analyses reveal a positive relationship between one's perceived connection between major and career opportunities and two engagement indicators--faculty-student contact and active learning. These results suggest that narrowing our focus to engagement within one's major adds to our understanding of variations in students' academic experiences and that more attention should be given to links between larger stratification-related phenomena and students' attitudes and actions at the collegiate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in contextual norms between the U.S. military and institutions of higher education mean that student veterans may experience difficulty integrating into the wider campus community, leading to educational inequity. Prior research indicates that connecting with peers (particularly peers who have military experience) may be an important aspect of the college experience, yet little research investigates these relationships specifically and intentionally. Moreover, since individual veterans are embedded within communities that are shaped by collegiate institutional contexts, the affordances of a peer community depend on certain features of its context. This study employs case study methods to illuminate veteran peer relations at different types of higher education institutions. I find that peer communities play a vital and under-researched role in veteran persistence and success, through creating camaraderie and sharing information and academic assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents quantitative data that demonstrates that the pipeline model currently being used to increase womens participation in the physical sciences in not working. The pipeline model claims that once women are recruited into the sciences at the earliest stages, the disciplines need only wait for these women to make their way through the science pipeline, at which point gender parity will be reached. However, not only are the sciences not recruiting sufficient numbers of women at the earliest stages, but also they are losing a larger proportion of women throughout the pipeline, as compared to men. The paper uses degree-award frequencies from the National Science Foundations WebCASPAR database system to evaluate recruitment and retention in the various disciplines of the physical sciences. The paper closes with a few suggestions for improving the recruitment and retention of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the shift that saw black students become a prominent part of the social and academic landscape of college campuses, fifty years after integrated higher education, Black students are present, yet silent. Although educational research has long been concerned with issues of race and inequality as measured by standardized test scores and grades, this data does not explain racial inequality in terms of process. In other words, as a research community, we are clear that racial gaps exist, but less clear about how they are constituted and produced. Fifty years after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case that proclaimed separate educational facilities were unequal, Black students still face worlds of continuing educational inequity and are still struggling to construct a social, political, and academic identity that transcends deficit notions of race. Addressing these issues requires an understanding of local contexts and experiential aspects of group membership. Thus, in this paper, I draw on qualitative methods, Bourdieu?s notion of cultural capital, symbolic capital and Omi and Winant?s notion of racial discourse to consider the labels and cultural markers that serve as mechanisms through which racial and educational inequality is reproduced, negotiated and challenged. Through interview data collected from college students at two small liberal arts colleges, we learn about racial practices operating in the college settings; how race shapes their college experiences, identities and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study draws on three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the influence of juvenile delinquency on later education outcomes (i.e. attendance at a four-year college), as well as the paradoxical role of higher education in crime and substance use. A life course perspective on these dynamics is used to highlight that criminal heterogeneity is interwoven with later changes in local life circumstances that may further modify the criminal career. Results indicate that violence at wave 1 is negatively related to later college attendance at wave 3, while other crime categories and substance use bear no significant influence on this education outcome, net of controls. However, college attendance among men is found to be associated with significantly higher involvement in property offending as compared to non-college peers, even though the latter report significantly higher levels at wave 1. Findings reveal a similar 'cross-over' pattern in male and female levels of drinking and unstructured socializing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on effective diversity planning in higher education calls for long-term strategic planning that is evidence-based, addresses and embraces all systems in the institution and tightly couples recruitment with program designs. In this article, I discuss the Scientific Leadership Scholars (SLS) project at Humboldt State University as a case study in the application of recruitment and retention theories in building diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The SLS project was designed and proposed in response to institutional and programmatic self study, building on existing curricular and student support strengths. Recruitment efforts targeted financially eligible Native American and first generation students, as well as other groups underrepresented in STEM. Thirty students were awarded four-year scholarships to participate in an enhanced academic program with common course scheduling, leadership training, professional development and support services. Participants were strongly encouraged to enroll in an interdisciplinary service learning seminar using collaborative problem solving with local Native American communities. In this article, I present the program theory and design, challenges of recruiting and selecting scholarship recipients, and first-semester retention outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study based on my dissertation research, I examine Latino student experiences of racism and discrimination at three, large universities in different regions of the country. Currently, there is a gap in the literature on what Latino students are subjected to at predominately white universities. Though there have been previous analyses of the African American experience of racial discrimination in education, (Feagin, Vera, and Imani 1996), this type of analysis has not been applied to Latino students. Feagin's theory of systemic racism was the guiding framework for this student. Qualitative interview methodology was used in order to ascertain the experiences of approximately 10 students on each campus. This study provides an in-depth analysis of how mistreatment based on races plays out for these students on both the individual and institutional level. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]