Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Multidimensionality matters: the implications of educational hierarchy and differentiation for intergenerational mobility in Europe

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Anja GiudiciORCiD

Downloads


Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

The effects on social mobility of stratifying pupils into different educational pathways have been debated for decades. We intervene in this debate by showing that stratification in secondary schooling is multidimensional. The extent of differentiation into separate tracks is distinct from hierarchy between tracks. To address data limitations in existing research, we collect novel data on education policies from 1945 onwards for 16 European countries. Combined with mobility data from the European Social Survey we use difference-in-differences regression models to test the effects of hierarchy and differentiation on intergenerational mobility. Hierarchical stratification shapes the inheritance of educational attainment while differentiation does not. Differentiation only reduces mobility where educational pathways are hierarchically structured. These findings imply that studies using measures of differentiation (e.g. the tracking age), may instead be picking up aspects of hierarchy. They therefore highlight the importance for future research to measure multiple dimensions of stratification and assessing how combinations of policies can reinforce or undermine one another


Publication metadata

Author(s): Gingrich J, Giudici A, McArthur D

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Comparative Education Review

Year: 2024

Volume: 68

Issue: 2

Print publication date: 01/05/2024

Online publication date: 26/04/2024

Acceptance date: 27/06/2023

Date deposited: 13/12/2023

ISSN (print): 0010-4086

ISSN (electronic): 1545-701X

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/729572

DOI: 10.1086/729572

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/hg4b-0868

Data Access Statement: The article includes two online appendices, additional data is available from the authors upon request


Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric


Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
ERC grant number 759188
ERC

Share