HAS THE EXPANSION OF PARTICIPATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION LED TO A DECREASE IN SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES WITHIN IT? THE ROLE OF CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.890Keywords:
higher education, social inequalities, expansionAbstract
In recent decades, the move from an elite to a mass higher education system in many countries and the resulting expansion of the higher education sector has not brought about a significant decrease in social inequalities. An important factor that has contributed to the persistence of social inequalities is attributed to the fact that increased access has been accompanied by a differentiated and stratified higher education sector. In this framework, researchers from many countries argue that students from upper and middle class backgrounds, with higher levels of cultural and social capital, are much more likely to attend high status higher education institutions and departments. By contrast, working class students usually choose to attend institutions and departments with a lower status. Class differentials in relation study completion and retention rates also exist, since working class students have lower retention rates than students from upper and middle class backgrounds. Bearing the above issues into consideration, in this paper, we conduct a short bibliographical review of studies examining the reasons for the persisting social inequalities in higher education and the relationship between social class and allocation in the different departments in higher education. We also present critically the most influential explanatory frameworks employed in the analysis and interpretation of the issue. Research findings provide strong evidence social class, and the students’ cultural and social capital play a major role in the persistence of social inequalities. Implications for policy makers are clear. On the basis of the above, we argue that socio-economic inequalities within higher education cannot be dealt with unless we tackle the issue of differentiated allocation in the different higher education departments.
Article visualizations:
References
Apple, M. W. (2004). Ideology and Curriculum (third edition). New York: Routledge Falmer.
Asimaki, A., Koustourakis, G., and Kamarianos, I. (2001). The concepts of modernity and postmodernity and their relationship with knowledge: A sociological approach. Social Science Tribune 60, 99-120.
Bailey, M. J., and Dynarski, S. M. (2011). Gains and gaps: Changing inequality in U.S. College entry and completion (NBER Working Paper No. 17633). The National Bureau of Economic Research.
Bastedo, M. N., and Gumport, P. J. (2003). Access to what? Mission differentiation and academic stratification in US public higher education. Higher Education, 46(3), 341–359.
Bernstein, B. (1990). Class, codes and Control: Vol. 4: The structuring of pedagogic discourse. London: Routledge.
Bernstein, B. (2007). Social Class and Pedagogic Practice. In A. R. Sadovnik (Ed.) Sociology of Education. A critical reader (97-114). New York, NY. Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1977a). Outline of a theory of practice. London: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1977b). Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction. In J. Karabel and A. H. Halsey (Eds.) Rower and Ideology in Education. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1986a). Distinction. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1986b). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (241-258). New York: Greenwood Press.
Bourdieu, P., and Passeron, J. C. (1977). Reproduction in education, society and culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Bourdieu, P., and Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bowles, S., and Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.
Bowles, S., and Gintis, H. (2007). Broken Promises: School Reform in Retrospect. In A. R. Sadovnik (Ed.) Sociology of Education. A critical reader (53-69). New York, NY. Routledge.
Brooks, R. (2004). ‘My mum would be as pleased as punch if I actually went but my dad seems a bit more particular about it’: parental involvement in young people’s higher education choices. British Educational research Journal, 30(4), 495-514.
Brown, P. (2003). The opportunity trap: Education and employment in a global economy. European Educational Research Journal, 2(1), 141-79.
Brown, P., Hesketh, A., and Williams, S (2003). Employability in a knowledge-driven economy. Journal of Education and Work, 16(2), 107-26.
Chabbott, C., and Ramirez, F. O. (2000). Development and Education. In M. T. Hallinan (Ed.) Handbook of the Sociology of Education (163-187). New York: Springer.
Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94 (Suppl.), 95-120.
Connor, H., and Dewson, S. (2001). Social Class and Higher Education: Issues Affecting Decisions on Participation by Lower Social Class Groups. Research Report, No. 267. Institute for Employment Studies. Great Britain. Department for Education and Employment.
Crosier, D., Horvath, A., Kerpanova, V., Kocanova, D., and Riihelainen, J. (2014). Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe: Access, Retention and Employability. European Commission, Eurydice Brief. Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.
Erikson, R., and Jonnson, J. O. (1996). Can education be equalized: The Swedish case in comparative perspective. Oxford, England: Westview Press.
European Commission (2011). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on 'Supporting growth and jobs – an agenda for the modernisation of Europe's higher education systems'. COM (2011) 567 final.
European Commission (2013). Report to the European Commission on Improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institutions. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Eurydice (2014). Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe: Access, Retention and Employability. European Commission. Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.
Gerald, D., and Haycock, K. (2006). Engines of inequality: Diminishing equity in the nation’s premier public universities. Washington, DC: Education Trust.
Giroux, H. (1983). Theory and resistance in education: A pedagogy for the opposition. Amhert: Bergin and Garvey.
Green, A., and Vryonides, M. (2005). Ideological tensions in the educational choice practices of modern Greek Cypriot parents: the role of social capital. British Journal of Sociology of Education 26(3), 327-342.
Hénard, F. (2009). Learning our lesson: Review of Quality Teaching in Higher Education. OECD. IMHE.
Hoxby, C. M., and Avery, C. (2009). The missing “one-offs”: The hidden supply of high merit students for highly selective colleges. Paper presented at the American Economic Association annual meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Iannelli, C. (2007). Inequalities in entry to higher education: A comparison over time between Scotland and England and Wales. Higher Education Quarterly, 61(3), 306-33.
Jones, R. (2008). Student retention and success: a synthesis of research. York: Higher Education Academy.
Karen, D. (2007). Changes in Access to Higher Education in the United States, 1980-1992. In A. R. Sadovnik (Ed.) Sociology of Education. A critical reader (251-265). New York, NY. Routledge.
Kyridis, A. (1997). Inequality in Greek education, and access to University. Athens: Gutenberg. [in Greek]
Lamont, M., and Lareau, A. (1988). Cultural capital: Allusions, gaps and glissandos in recent theoretical developments. Sociological Theory, 6, 153-168.
Lynch, K. (2000). Research and Theory on Equality and Education. In M. T. Hallinan (Ed.) Handbook of the Sociology of Education (85-105). New York: Springer.
Machin, S., and Vignoles, A. (2004). Educational inequality: The widening socio-economic gap. Fiscal Studies, 25(2), 107-28.
Metcalf, H. (1997). Class and higher education: The participation of young people from lower social classes. London: CIHE.
OECD (2014). The State of Higher Education - 2014. OECD Higher Education Programme (IMHE). Pars.
Panagiotopoulos, N. (2009). Educational inequalities: a scientific and social stake. In Th. Thanos (Ed.) Educational Inequalities, Methodological, Theoretical and Empirical Issues (33-41), Conference Proceedings in honor of Professor I. Pyrgiotakis, Rethymnon, Motivo Publications.
Perna, L. W., and Titus, M. A. (2005). The relationship between parental involvement as social capital and college enrollment: An examination of racial/ethnic group differences. The Journal of Higher Education, 76(5), 485-518.
Phillips, D., Burwood, S., and Dunford, H. (1999). Projects with young learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Posselt, J. R., Jaquette, O., Bielby, R., and Bastedo, M. (2012). Access without equity: Longitudinal analyses of institutional stratification by race and ethnicity, 1972–2004. American Educational Research Journal, 49, 1074-1111.
Pugsley, L. (2004). The university challenge. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Quinn, J. (2013). Drop-out and completion in higher education in Europe among students from under- represented group. An independent report authored for the European Commission. NESET: European Commission.
Raftery, A. E., and Hout, M. (1993). Maximally maintained inequality: Expansion, reform, and opportunity in Irish education, 1921-1975. Sociology of Education, 66(1), 41-62.
Reay, D., M.E. David, and S. Ball. 2005. Degrees of choice: Social class, race and gender in higher education. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
Reimer, D., and Jacob, M. (2011). Differentiation in higher education and its consequences for social inequality: introduction to a special issue. Higher Education, 61(3), 223-227.
Schofer, E., and Meyer, J. W. (2005). The Worldwide Expansion of Higher Education in the Twentieth Century. American Sociological Review, 70(6), 898-920.
Sianou-Kyrgiou Ε., and Tsiplakides, Ι. (2009). Choice and social class of Medical School students in Greece. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(6), 727-740.
Sianou-Kyrgiou, Ε., and Tsiplakides Ι. (2011). Similar performance but different choices: social class and access to higher education in Greece. Studies in Higher Education, 36(1), 89-102.
Sianou-Kyrgiou, E., Tzafea, O., and Tsiplakides, I. (2013). Social class and student’s retention in the Greek University. Conference Proceedings, ECER 2013, Creativity and Innovation in Educational Research, Istanbul, 10-13 September 2013.
Shavit, Y., and Blossfeld, H. P. (1993). Persistent inequality: Changinf educational attainment in thirteen countries. Boulder, CP: Westview Press.
Stevens, M. L. (2007). Creating a class: College admission and the education of elites. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Thanos, Th. (2007). Contribution towards a sociology of social inequalities in education in Greece: A study of opportunities in access to higher education of the socio-occupational groups in the period after the Second World War. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, Department of Philosophical and Social Studies, University of Crete, Rethymnon.
Thanos, Th. (2009). Introduction: Methodological, theoretical and empirical issues in the study of educational inequalities in Greece. In Th. Thanos (Ed.) Educational Inequalities, Methodological, Theoretical and Empirical Issues. Conference Proceedings in honor of Professor I. Pyrgiotakis, Rethymnon, Motivo Publications. [in greek]
Vryonides, M., and Gouvias, D. (2012). Parents’ aspirations for their children's educational and occupational prospects in Greece: The role of social class. International Journal of Educational Research, 53, 319-329.
Walker, I., and Zhu, Y. (2008), The College Wage Premium and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110, 695-709.
Weber, L. E. (1999). Survey of the Main Challenges Facing Higher Education at the Millennium. In W. Z. Hirson and L. E. Weber (Eds.) Challenges Facing Higher Education at the Millennium (3-17). American Council on Education. Oryx Press.
Wolf, A. (2002). Does education matter? Myths about education and economic growth. London: Penguin.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
