28. Sociologies of Education
Paper
Outcomes of Immigrant Children in Scotland Under the Curriculum for Excellence - Evidence from the 2018 Scotland PISA Study
Marina Shapira, Mark Priestley
University of Stirling
Presenting Author: Shapira, Marina
The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was introduced in 2010 to provide a coherent, competency-based education for children aged 3-18 years, aiming to better prepare young people for the modern world (Scottish Government, 2009). However, more than ten years since its implementation, there is growing evidence of a disjuncture between policy intention and practice at the school level. It has not been fully enacted in many secondary schools, and its provision is fragmented (OECD, 2015; RSE, 2018; Priestley, 2018; Shapira et al., 2021). This is significant because variances in provision have consequences for student equity and educational outcomes (Iannelli, 2013). Recent studies (e.g., Shapira et al., 2023) found that CfE led to fewer subjects being studied in the senior phase of secondary education, disproportionately affecting schools located in socially and economically disadvantaged areas. Immigrant children, often residing and attending schools in such areas, heavily rely on school resources (Arnot et al., 2014; Crul et al., 2017). Therefore, limited exposure to the broad curriculum and restrictions on their ability to explore diverse subjects and acquire a broad knowledge base through schools might negatively impact them more than non-immigrant peers, both in terms of educational attainments and broader outcomes indicating how well young people are prepared to succeed in the complex modern world.
This paper explored curriculum-making practices in Scottish secondary schools and the impact these practices have on the educational outcomes of young people from immigrant origins.
Aim of this Paper and Research Questions
Given limited evidence on immigrant children's educational experiences under CfE, our paper's main aim is to determine whether the breadth of the S4 (year four of secondary education in Scotland) curriculum affects immigrant outcomes and compare them with non-immigrants. To address the aims, the following research questions have been explored:
1. What is the association between the curriculum's breadth under CfE that 15-year-old students are exposed to at school and various outcomes evaluated by the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study?
2. Is this association different for immigrant children and non-immigrant children in Scotland?
3. Are there attainment gaps in the various PISA measures between immigrants and non-immigrant children?
4. What factors (including individual characteristics of students, their families, and their curriculum provisions) are responsible for the attainment gaps in PISA measures between immigrants and non-immigrant children?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used
Datasets
We utilized the 2018 Scotland PISA dataset alongside the Scottish Government's educational administrative data, which contains information on enrolments and attainment in national qualifications across various levels of the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework in state-funded secondary schools.
Operationalisation
For the purposes of the study, a child is defined as an immigrant if one of their parents was born outside the UK. The breadth of the S4 curriculum was defined as the average number of subjects studied by S4 students in school.
The outcomes of young people in this study encompass:
a) Measures of mathematics, language, and science competencies
b) Given the close alignment between the OECD's global competencies framework (OECD 2021) and the 'four capacities' of CfE, we further used the OECD measures of Global competences available in the 2018 PISA study as additional educational outcomes.
Methods
Our analysis employed descriptive and advanced methods of statistical data analysis, including linear multivariate regressions (Shapira et al., 2023). The dependent variables were the PISA measures of student outcomes described in the previous section. The independent variables included the characteristics of children (age, gender, motivation, enjoyment of reading, attitudes to studying), their family characteristics (parental level of education and occupational level, family socio-economic, educational and cultural resources, degree of parental involvement with their child’s studies), and the breadth of the curriculum they are exposed to, along with other characteristics of their schools.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsOur preliminary findings (see Shapira et al., 2023) revealed that a broad S4 curriculum positively influences all examined outcome measures, showing no disparities between immigrant and non-immigrant children. Students attending schools with a broader S4 curriculum achieved higher scores on the PISA language and mathematics tests. Even after accounting for students’ backgrounds and school characteristics, the association between PISA test scores and curriculum breadth remained strong, positive, and statistically significant.
Furthermore, the results additionally indicated that immigrant children in Scotland surpass their non-immigrant peers in academic achievements, including higher scores in mathematics, reading, and science tests. Investigating the drivers behind this enhanced performance revealed that cultural and educational resources available at immigrant children's homes in Scotland equip them with stronger test-taking abilities. For instance, reading enjoyment correlates with improved reading test scores among immigrant children. Emotional support and positive work attitudes also positively influence mathematics test results. Together, these factors completely account for the attainment disparity on these tests between immigrant and non-immigrant children.
We did not find any difference in the performance of immigrant and non-immigrant children on tests of global competences and subjective well-being. In schools with a broader S4 curriculum, students, irrespective of their immigrant background, achieved higher scores on measures of global competence. Students in such schools were more prone to experiencing a sense of school belonging, gaining knowledge about diverse cultures, taking pride in their achievements, and feeling empowered to address global issues (Shapira et al., 2023).
Our findings demonstrate that a broad secondary curriculum has yielded positive outcomes for all children in Scotland, regardless of their immigration status. However, our findings emphasise the crucial role of parental support, positive attitudes toward learning, reading enjoyment, and the availability of educational and cultural resources at home in enabling children to achieve better outcomes.
ReferencesArnot, M., Schneider, C., Evans, M., Liu, Y., Welply, O. and Davies-Tutt, D. (2014). School approaches to the education of EAL students. Language development, social integration and achievement. Cambridge: The Bell Educational Trust Ltd
Crul, M., Schneider, J., Keskiner, E., & Lelie, F. (2017). The multiplier effect: How the accumulation of cultural and social capital explains steep upward social mobility of children of low-educated immigrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40, 321-338. OECD (2021). Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future, Implementing Education Policies, OECD Publishing, Paris
Scottish Government (2009). Curriculum for Excellence building the curriculum 4: skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Retrieved from:
Shapira, M., Priestley, M., Barnett, C., Peace-Hughes, T., & Ritchie, M. (2023). Choice, Attainment and Positive Destinations: Exploring the impact of curriculum policy change on young people. Main Public Report. Nuffield Foundation. February 20231.
28. Sociologies of Education
Paper
Beyond Family Influence: On Students’ Cultural Participation as a Determinant of Educational Attainment
Jannis Burkhard1, Markus Lörz1, Annabell Daniel2,1, Stefan Kühne1, Kai Maaz1
1DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Berlin, Germany; 2Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Presenting Author: Burkhard, Jannis
Theoretical Background
Two models have been established for many years when analyzing the effect of cultural capital on educational attainment: the reproduction model (Bourdieu, 1986; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1990) and the mobility model (DiMaggio, 1982). The former describes the intergenerational transmission of capital and persistence of inequalities, while the latter focuses on the potential of cultural capital for social upward movement (see Jæger, 2022). While European scholars often emphasize systemic factors, their North American counterparts stress individual agency (Stetterson & Gannon, 2005).
Both have in common that they do not typically distinguish between the cultural capital of parents and their children. However, at a closer look, this does not seem to do justice to the real-world complexity: Research has shown that cultural capital is a dynamic construct that develops over the life course (Georg, 2004). Also, ethnographic research suggests that children do possess their own cultural capital (Chin and Phillips, 2004). Thus, one can assume that students’ cultural capital can be distinguished from their parents’.
Moreover, the distinction between primary and secondary effects has been proven to be productive for studies on social disparities in educational attainment (Boudon, 1974). However, prior studies have mostly focused on investigating the relationship between cultural capital and achievement (Tan et al., 2019) and thus primary effects. The role of secondary effects (i.e. educational decisions) remains empirically unclear but seems to hold additional explanatory potential.
The effects of cultural capital on educational success have been shown to be highly dependent on the operationalization of cultural capital (Tan et al., 2019). However, there is no consensus in the literature on how cultural capital should be measured (Jæger, 2022; Vryonides, 2007). Most commonly, non-formal arts (education) activities are used (Aschaffenburg and Maas, 1997). However, formal and informal activities could potentially function as cultural capital, too (Broer et al., 2019; Veale, 1992).
Research Questions
In line with the mobility model, one can assume that students’ own cultural capital has an effect on educational attainment even when holding constant their parents’ resources. First, our goal is to investigate whether student cultural participation has an effect on later degree attainment when controlling for parental socioeconomic status and parental cultural capital. Second, we aim to explore to what extent formal and informal cultural activities can function as cultural capital. Third, we analyze the mechanisms how cultural capital affects educational outcomes by investigating both primary and secondary effects as mediators between cultural participation and educational attainment.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedMethod
To examine the effects of student cultural participation on attaining the upper secondary degree, we perform secondary analyses using data from starting cohort 3 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, Blossfeld and Roßbach, 2019; NEPS, 2022). 8329 students are included in the sample. Cultural participation is operationalized using highbrow activities, attending a school with an arts profile, arts education courses outside school, culture club participation and arts activities at youth centers. We use step-wise logistic regression modeling with mediating effects of achievement and aspirations. Data preparation and imputation of missing values were conducted in R with analysis following in Stata.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsResults
Results show that the probability of attaining the upper secondary degree (average marginal effects) can be increased through courses outside school (5,7%) and highbrow activities (4,6%), while pursuing arts activities at youth centers is associated with a smaller probability (-8,3%). Results for participation in culture clubs (2,5%) and attending a school with an arts profile (-1%) are non-significant on the 5%-level.
Turning to the mediation effects, we find that both achievement and aspirations mediate the effects. Including them separately in our models, achievement (16-33%) and aspirations (19-35%) mediate a similar proportion of the effects. Simultaneously modeling the two mediators results in a mediation of approximately half of the effects of the independent variables (42-57%).
Taken together, our results show that students can have agency of attaining the upper secondary degree through cultural participation, which can have both negative and positive effects when controlling for family background - depending on the specific activity. Both primary and secondary effects are at work. In line with the mobility model, findings point to the possibility of upward social mobility through investment in cultural capital.
ReferencesReferences
Aschaffenburg, K., & Maas, I. (1997). Cultural and educational careers: The dynamics of social reproduction. American Sociological Review, 62(4), 573. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657427
Blossfeld, H.-P., & Roßbach, H.-G. (Eds.). (2019). Education as a lifelong process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) (2nd ed.). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-658-23162-0
Boudon, R. (1974). Education, opportunity, and social inequality: Changing prospects in western society. Wiley.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–58). Greenwood.
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (Vol. 4). Sage.
Broer, M., Bai, Y., & Fonseca, F. (2019). Socioeconomic inequality and educational outcomes. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11991-1
Chin, T., & Phillips, M. (2004). Social Reproduction and Child-Rearing Practices: Social Class, Children’s Agency, and the Summer Activity Gap. Sociology of Education, 77(3), 185–210.
DiMaggio, P. (1982). Cultural capital and school success: The impact of status culture participation on the grades of U.S. high school students. American Sociological Review, 47(2), 189–201.
Georg, W. (2004). Cultural Capital and Social Inequality in the Life Course. European Sociological Review, 20(4), 333–344. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jch028
Jæger, M. M. (2022). Cultural capital and educational inequality: An assessment of the state of the art. In K. Gërxhani, N. de Graaf, & W. Raub (Eds.), Handbook of sociological science: Contributions to rigorous sociology (pp. 121–134). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi. org/10.4337/9781789909432
NEPS. (2022). NEPS-starting cohort 3: Grade 5 [data set, version 12.0.0]. LIfBi
Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories. https://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC3:12.0.0
Tan, C. Y., Peng, B., & Lyu, M. (2019). What types of cultural capital benefit students’ academic achievement at different educational stages? interrogating the meta-analytic evidence. Educational Research Review, 28, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100289
Veale, A. (1992). Arts education for young children of the 21st century. ERIC. Retrieved January 13, 2023, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED351124.pdf
Vryonides, M. (2007). Social and cultural capital in educational research: Issues of operationalisation and measurement. British Educational Research Journal, 33(6), 867–885. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657009
28. Sociologies of Education
Paper
Education or (and) Work is a True Social Elevator: the Case of Russian Youth on Longitudinal Data
Vera Maltseva, Natalja Rosenfeld
Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation
Presenting Author: Maltseva, Vera;
Rosenfeld, Natalja
Perceived decline in social mobility is an important and challenging topic for OECD countries, especially in the youth agenda (OECD, 2018). Education is typically seen as a major social elevator, given the relatively high returns to education (Psacharopoulos, Patrinos, 2018; Altonji, Zhong, 2021), and despite socioeconomic inequality in access to high-quality education institutions and especially tertiary education (Duta, Wielgoszewska, Iannelli, 2021; Malinovskiy, Shibanova, 2022). At the same time, the massification of tertiary education, resulting in the growing number of graduates aspiring for social status associated with highly qualified specialists, accompanied by a high level of labor force participation due to population aging, puts more pressure on the mechanism of social elevators.
Social mobility can be measured objectively in terms of earnings, income, or social class. The perceived (subjective) approach to measuring social mobility offers a holistic assessment of social position (Duru-Bellat, Kieffer, 2008), encompassing both objective indicators and other well-being dimensions. The majority of empirical studies employ the former approach and measure income mobility (OECD, 2018) or objective mobility in terms of social class (Wielgoszewska, 2018), while perceived social mobility, especially in the youth samples and in the context of education and career pathways, remains understudied.
Whereas the majority of Russian youth and their parents aspire to higher education (Kondratenko, Kiryushina, Bogdanov, 2020), an increasing proportion of younger cohorts get higher education (from 20% for those born in the 1950s to 35% in the 1990s), which is comparable with European countries (Bessudnov, Kurakin, Malik, 2017). On the other hand, the stratification of universities and the heterogeneity of tertiary education in Russia (Malinovskiy, Shibanova, 2022) make this aspiration challenging in terms of social mobility. At the same time, combining study and work has become a widespread phenomenon (Beerkens, Mägi, Lill, 2011), including in Russia, where graduates who combine study and work experience a 30% wage premium (Rudakov, Roshchin, 2019; Dudyrev, Romanova, Travkin, 2020). This pattern of school-to-work transition could have become a new tool for promoting social mobility.
Using data from the Russian national cohort longitudinal study "Trajectories in Education and Career, this study aims to untangle the ten-year education-career pathways of 9th-grade students by the age of 25. Our study aims to identify the different types of pathways followed by Russian youth (with a special focus on college graduates) in their journey from school to work and explore how these pathways contribute to perceived social mobility. We investigate pathways following the sociological approach and methodology of sequence analysis while considering the key findings of labor economists, thus embracing the framework of socioeconomic background, educational inequalities, and human capital theory. We investigate how the paths through postsecondary education and the world of work, as well as an extended set of socio-demographic factors, shape patterns of perceived social mobility and which educational or career pathways contribute to the upward and downward mobility patterns.
Our research contributes to the studies of social stratification and life trajectories of youth, taking into account the variety of school-to-work transition patterns (Boylan, 2020; Wielgoszewska, 2018). The use of longitudinal data and sequence analysis enables us to overcome the limitations of cross-sectional studies in the epoch of increasing nonlinearity and complexity of paths (Sullivan, Ariss, 2021) and decreased relevance of one-time measures of school-to-work transition (Duta, Wielgoszewska, Iannelli, 2021).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWe trace the ten-year trajectories of Russian youth, employing the data from the ten waves (2012–2021) of the Russian national cohort longitudinal study "Trajectories in Education and Career" (TrEC). The study follows a nationally representative sample of 9th-grade students through high school and on to postsecondary attainment or work. The longitudinal study TrEC is based on similar ones from Switzerland (TREE), Canada (YITS), and Australia (LSAY) and contains PISA and TIMSS results as well as questions about educational and career choices and family status (Malik, 2019).
We used sequence analysis followed by cluster analysis to derive the typology of their educational and career trajectories (Monaghan, 2020; Maltseva, Rozenfeld, 2022). A sequence consists of a series of states in which respondents are found at different points in their life course within an observation period, in our case between the ages of 15 (16) and 25 (26). The sequences were built based on the following states in the education and labor market: 1) studying at school; 2) studying at a vocational school; 3) studying at the university; 4) combining study and work; 5) temporary or permanent employment; 6) inactivity or unemployment. The research sample of respondents who have passed all the waves of the longitudinal study and have answers in every wave about education and work (i.e., are suitable for sequence analysis) includes 2935 observations. This number includes imputed missing states. The subsample of college graduates includes 1539 observations.
We measure subjective social mobility as a difference between the respondent's subjective social status in the last wave and the perception of the family's status during the respondent's adolescence, employing the scale of a social ladder with 10 stages (where 1 is the lowest social status and 10 is the highest) (Kelley, Evans, 1995). Firstly, three groups of social statuses were made: bottom (from 1 to 4), middle (5, 6 stages), and top (from 7 to 10), which were created according to the quartiles of the status data (median = 5th stage, Q3 = 7th stage). Secondly, we assign 3 mobility patterns: downward (including top-bottom, middle-bottom, and top-middle), upward (bottom-top, middle-top, and bottom-middle), and immobility when the family and personal status groups match.
Finally, we used logistic regression models to estimate the probability of belonging to the subjective social mobility pattern (downward, upward, and immobile) for a given educational and career trajectory while controlling for a set of background characteristics, including parental educational attainment.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe educational and career trajectories of Russian youth are ambiguously linked to subjective social mobility. The ten-year educational pathway without accounting for work does not function as a statistically significant predictor of subjective social mobility by the age of 25. Only a postponed education pathway without finished postsecondary education predicts subjective downward mobility.
On the contrary, career trajectories do matter for subjective social mobility. Combining study and work (during both vocational and higher education) is associated with an upward mobility pattern, while those who stay for a long time in education without entering the labor market are statistically significantly less likely to experience subjective upward mobility by the age of 25. Youth experiencing short-term postsecondary education without work are especially vulnerable to downward mobility.
Similar results were obtained on the subsample of college graduates, who have more chances to experience upward mobility as higher education attainers. However, they are likely to experience downward mobility more often compared to vocational graduates. HE graduates with education-career pathways that include postgraduate education have significantly more chances for subjectively measured downward mobility. This unexpected finding could be interpreted in multiple ways, i.e. graduates with postgraduate degrees (meaning prolonged education and mostly part-time jobs) by the age of 25 are unable to reach the high status of their parents. Controlling parental educational attainment, we found a positive relationship between upward social mobility and trajectories with early entrance to the labor market. Therefore, our finding that the early start of career pathways through combining study and work plays a crucial role in the mechanism of social mobility for the youth is relevant for both Russian youth in general and university graduates.
ReferencesAltonji, J.G., Zhong, L. (2021) The Labor Market Returns to Advanced Degrees. Journal of Labor Economics, 39(2), 303–360.
Beerkens, M., Magi, E., Lill, L. (2011) University Studies as a Side Job: Causes and Consequences of Massive Student Employment in Estonia. Higher Education, 61, 679–692.
Bessudnov A., Kurakin D., Malik V. (2017) The Myth about Universal Higher Education: Russia in the International Context, 3, 83–109.
Boylan R.L. (2020) Predicting Postsecondary Pathways: The Effect of Social Background and Academic Factors on Routes through School. Socius, 6.
Dudyrev, F., Romanova, O., Travkin, P. (2020) Student employment and school-to-work transition: the Russian case. Education + Training, 62(4), 441–457.
Duru-Bellat M., Kieffer A. (2008) Objective/subjective: The two facets of social mobility. Sociologie du travail, 5, 1–18.
Duta A., Wielgoszewska B., Iannelli C. (2021) Different degrees of career success: Social origin and graduates’ education and labour market trajectories. Advances in Life Course Research, 47.
Kelley, J., & Evans, M. D. R. (1995) Class and Class Conflict in Six Western Nations. American Sociological Review, 60(2), 157–178.
Kondratenko V. A., Kiryushina M. A., Bogdanov M. B. (2020) Educational aspirations of russian schoolchildren: factors and dynamics, 1(26).
Malik, V. (2019). The Russian panel study ‘Trajectories in Education and Careers’. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 10(1), 125–144.
Malinovskiy S. S., Shibanova E. Yu. (2022) Access to higher education in Russia: how to turn expansion into equality, 7(67). HSE.
Maltseva V.A., Rozenfeld N.Ya. (2022) Educational and Career Trajectories of the Russian Youth in a Longitudinal Perspective: A Case of University Graduates, 3, 99–148.
Monaghan D.B. (2020) College-Going Trajectories across Early Adulthood: An Inquiry Using Sequence Analysis. The Journal of Higher Education, 91(3), 402–432.
OECD (2018) Broken Social Elevator?: How to Promote Social Mobility
Psacharopoulos G., Patrinos H.N. (2018) Returns to investment in education: a decennial review of the global literature, Education Economics, 26(5), 445–458.
Rudakov, V., Roshchin S. (2019) The impact of student academic achievement on graduate salaries: the case of a leading Russian university, Journal of Education and Work, 32(2), 156–180.
Sullivan, S. E., Ariss, A. (2021). Making sense of different perspectives on career transitions: A review and agenda for future research. Human Resource Management Review, 31(1).
Wielgoszewska B. (2018) Onwards and Upwards? Migration and Social Mobility of the UK Graduates. Regional Studies, 5(1), 402–411.
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