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23-05-2020 | Empirical Research

Upward Mobility of Students from Lower-educated Families in Stratified Educational Systems: The Role of Social Capital and Work Habits

Auteurs: Marlis Buchmann, Irene Kriesi, Sybille Bayard, Fabian Sander, Stephanie Bundel

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence | Uitgave 3/2021

Abstract

In tracked and highly stratified educational systems, where educational reproduction is particularly strong, the chances of students to achieve more education than their parents did are truncated. Little is known, however, what may help students raised in lower-educated families to become upwardly mobile at the transition to upper-secondary education. In tracked educational systems, this transition is decisive for ultimate educational attainment across the life course. The study addresses this research gap by examining whether quality of social relationships (i.e., social capital) among students, parents, and teachers matters for student and teacher assessment of students’ agentic capabilities (i.e., work habits) at age 15. If so, the question is whether these assessments help students become enrolled in high-status upper-secondary school tracks at age 18, thus achieving educational upward mobility. The analyses are based on 401 students from two cohorts in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, interviewed at the ages of 15 (T1) and 18 (T2) (60.35% females, M_age 15 = 15.2, SD_age 15 = 0.2; 58.35% older cohort), including data collected by questionnaire from primary caregivers and teachers at student age of 15. The students come from families where highest parental education attainment is below the high-status academic or vocational baccalaureate in upper-secondary education. They may thus experience the opportunity to gain access to these high-status tracks at the transition to upper-secondary education. A structural equation model reveals the role of student assessment of their agentic capabilities and teacher assessment of these competencies in mediating the relation of social capital accrued at home and at school to educational upward mobility. This novel evidence on mechanisms of social advancement may be prone to inform interventions helping students from less-educated families to succeed in tracked and stratified educational systems.

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This study does not investigate whether teachers reward these competencies unequally by social group membership and other student characteristics, thus potentially contributing to the reproduction of social inequality.

Another line of research on social capital has been informed by Bourdieu’s social reproduction approach (Dika and Singh 2002; Mayger et al. 2017).

Structural social capital, referring to the availability of social relationships (for this distinction, see Baumert et al. (2003)), is not taken into account in view of the research question of interest.

This study does not consider social capital accrued in the peer context, despite the importance of social relationship quality with peers in adolescence. Empirical evidence shows that the quality of social relationships with peers is particularly predictive of social behaviors in the school context, for example, prosocial behavior (Wentzel 1998; Wentzel et al. 2016). This is not the analytical focus of this study.

Coefficients of the binary endogenous variables used in the model (upward mobility, parental educational aspirations, cohort, and gender) represent standardized probit coefficients. Standardized coefficients involving a binary independent variable indicate the change in y, if x changes from 0 to 1 (Muthén and Muthén 2009: 577).

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Titel: Upward Mobility of Students from Lower-educated Families in Stratified Educational Systems: The Role of Social Capital and Work Habits
Auteurs: Marlis Buchmann
Irene Kriesi
Sybille Bayard
Fabian Sander
Stephanie Bundel
Publicatiedatum: 23-05-2020
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence / Uitgave 3/2021
Print ISSN: 0047-2891
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01257-3

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