Persistent inequality in educational attainment and its institutional context
Open accessAbstract
Research has repeatedly shown that educational opportunities are distributed unevenly in all countries. Therefore, the question is not whether family background and educational outcomes are related but to what degree they are related. This latter question then invites a comparative perspective. That is, does social inequality in education differ across time and countries? If yes, which institutional characteristics can explain differences in educational inequality? Educational inequality is conceptualized as the association between individuals’ and their parents’ highest educational level attained. Intergenerational educational mobility processes are analysed for 20 industrialized nations by means of log-linear and log-multiplicative models. The results show that the degree of educational mobility has remained stable across the second half of the 20th century in virtually all countries. However, nations differ widely in the extent to which parents’ education influences their children's educational attainment. The degree of educational inequality is associated with the institutional structure of national education systems. Rigid systems with dead-end educational pathways appear to be a hindrance to the equalization of educational opportunities, especially if the sorting of students occurs early in the educational career. This association is not mediated by other institutional characteristics included in this analysis that do not exert notable influences on educational mobility…
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Socio-economic background and gender are believed to affect student achievement.
“We also included socio-economic background and gender as contextual variables since these characteristics are believed to affect student achievement (e.g., Bodovski, Jeon, & Byun, 2017;Pfeffer, 2008;Parker et al., 2018).”
From Do those who talk more learn more? The relationship between student classroom talk and student achievement (2019) · cites this paper as Pfeffer, 2008
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Are Schools the Great Equalizer? Cognitive Inequality during the Summer Months and the School Year
Downey, D. B., von Hippel, P. T., & Broh, B. A. (2004) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.1177/000312240406900501 · Cited by 853 · see citing works
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Social and Economic Returns to College Education in the United States
Hout, M. (2012) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102503 · Cited by 943 · see citing works
Growing Wealth Gaps in Education
Pfeffer, F. T. (2018) · Demography · doi:10.1007/s13524-018-0666-7 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Self-citationSedova, K., Sedlacek, M., Svaricek, R., Majcik, M., Navratilova, J., Drexlerova, A., Kychler, J., & Salamounova, Z. (2019) · Learning and Instruction · doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101217 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
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van de Werfhorst, H. G. (2018) · Research in Social Stratification and Mobility · doi:10.1016/j.rssm.2018.09.002 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
How vocal and silent forms of participation in combination relate to student achievement
Sedova, K., & Sedlacek, M. (2023) · Instructional Science · doi:10.1007/s11251-022-09609-1 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pfeffer, F. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pfeffer, F. T.
- ORCID
- Pfeffer, F. T.
- Venue
- European Sociological Review
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-03-17
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 543-565
- ISSN
- 0266-7215 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-2672
- OpenAlex
- W1985422330
- Cited by
- 568
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 50 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 48.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- papers.ssrn.com
- Locations
- European Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Cultural Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Sociology and Education Studies
- Keywords
- educational inequality, intergenerational educational mobility, family background, parental education, educational attainment, student sorting, cross-national comparison, developed countries
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