Persistent inequality : changing educational attainment in thirteen countries / [edited by] Yossi Shavit and Hans-Peter Blossfeld.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Shavit, Yossi.

Blossfeld, Hans-Peter.

Series:

Social inequality series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Educational equalization--Cross-cultural studies.

Educational equalization.

Educational attainment.

Academic achievement.

Students--Social conditions.

Education--Social aspects--Cross-cultural studies.

Education.

Students--Social conditions--Cross-cultural studies.

Students.

Academic achievement--Cross-cultural studies.

Educational attainment--Cross-cultural studies.

Education--Social aspects.

Genre:

Cross-cultural studies.

Physical Description:

xi, 396 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1993.

Summary:

This book encompasses a systematic, comparative study of change in educational stratification in thirteen industrialized countries, exploring which societal conditions help reduce existing inequalities in educational opportunity. The contributors show that in most industrialized countries inequalities in educational opportunity among students from different social strata have been remarkably stable since the early twentieth century. Only in Sweden and the Netherlands has there been a reduction in educational inequalities. The improvements are attributed to aggressive social welfare policies that have equalized living conditions and overall life opportunities in the two countries. Interestingly, the social policies of former socialist states did not produce similar advances - a finding consistent with assertions that under socialism the bureaucratic elites were as effective in protecting the interests of their own children as were elites in many capitalist societies. In contrast to the persistence of socio-economic inequalities in educational opportunity, the gender gap in education has narrowed in all thirteen countries. In fact, in some countries women now attain higher mean levels of education than men. The book concludes with an integrative methodological chapter that introduces new methods of dealing with observed and unobserved sources of heterogeneity in models of educational attainment. The highly structured analyses of educational systems in the thirteen countries allow illuminating comparisons without sacrificing the specialized knowledge required to understand the particularities of each system.

Contents:

Foreword / David B. Grusky and Maria Tienda

Persisting barriers : changes in educational opportunities in thirteen countries / Hans-Peter Blossfeld and Yossi Shavit

Making the grade : educational stratification in the United States, 1925-1989 / Michael Hout, Adrian E. Raftery and Eleanor O. Bell

Changes in educational opportunities in the Federal Republic of Germany : a longitudinal study of cohorts born between 1916-1965 / Hans-Peter Blossfeld

Family background and educational attainment in the Netherlands for the 1891-1960 birth cohorts / Paul M. DeGraaf and Harry B.G. Ganzeboom

Persistinginequalities in Sweden / Jan O. Jonsson

Educational attainment in a changing educational system : the case of England and Wales / Alan C. Kerckhoff and Jerry M. Trott

Inequality of educational opportunity in Italy / Antonio Cobalti and Antonio Schizzerotto

The lifelong shadow : social origins and educational opportunity in Switzerland / Marlis Buchmann and Maria Charles with Stefan Sacchi

Changes in educational stratification in Taiwan / Shu-Ling Tsai and Hei-Yuan Chiu

Trends in educational attainment in Japan / Donald J. Treiman and Kazuo Yamaguchi

Who won and who lost in a socialist redistribution in Czechoslovakia? / Petr Mateju

Inequalities in educational opportunity in Hungary / Szonja Szelenyi and Karen Aschaffenburg

Educational inequalities in postwar Poland / Barbara Heyns and Ireneusz Biatecki

From peasantry to proletariat : changes in the educational stratification of Arabs in Israel / Yossi Shavit

Educational stratification on observed and unobserved components of family background / Robert D. Mare.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-394).

ISBN:

0813311217

9780813311210

OCLC:

27727756