Inequality Across Societies, Volume 14: Families, Schools, and Persisting Stratification (Research in Sociology of Education)

299 Pages·2003·1.62 MB·English

by  David Baker

RESEARCHINSOCIOLOGYOFEDUCATION VOLUME14
(FormerlyResearchinSociologyofEducationandSocialization)
INEQUALITY ACROSS
SOCIETIES: FAMILIES,
SCHOOLS AND PERSISTING
STRATIFICATION
EDITEDBY
DAVID BAKER
PennsylvaniaStateUniversity,USA
BRUCE FULLER
UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,USA
EMILY HANNUM
UniversityofPennsylvania,USA
REGINA WERUM
EmoryUniversity,USA
2004
Amsterdam–Boston–Heidelberg–London–NewYork–Oxford–Paris
SanDiego–SanFrancisco–Singapore–Sydney–Tokyo
INEQUALITY ACROSS SOCIETIES:
FAMILIES, SCHOOLS AND PERSISTING
STRATIFICATION
RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION
(FormerlyResearchinSociologyofEducationandSocialization)
Series Editors: Bruce Fuller and Emily Hannum
PreviousVolumes:
Volume10: ResearchinSociologyofEducationand
Socialization–Editor,AaronM.Pallas
Volume11: ResearchinSociologyofEducationand
Socialization–Editor,AaronM.Pallas
Volume12: ResearchinSociologyofEducationand
Socialization–Editor,AaronM.Pallas
Volume13: SchoolingandSocialCapitalinDiverse
Cultures–Editors,BruceFullerand
EmilyHannum
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ISBN:0-7623-1061-8
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION:INEQUALITYACROSSSOCIETIES
BruceFullerandEmilyHannum 1
GRANDMOTHERS,FORMALCARE,ANDEDUCATIONAL
ADVANTAGEINCHINA
SusanE.ShortandRongjunSun 7
EDUCATIONALEXPANSIONANDINEQUALITYINKOREA
HyunjoonPark 33
EDUCATIONALOPPORTUNITIESFORBOYSANDGIRLS
INTHAILAND
SaraR.Curran,ChangY.Chung,WendyCadgeand
AnchaleeVarangrat 59
INPURSUITOFCOLLEGEQUALITY:MIGRATION
DECISIONSAMONGCOLLEGESTUDENTSINJAPAN
HiroshiOno 103
COMMENTARY:EDUCATIONALSTRATIFICATION
INASIA
EmilyHannumandBruceFuller 125
EGALITARIANISMVERSUSSOCIALREPRODUCTION:
STRATIFICATIONINEASTERNEUROPE
RaymondSin-KwokWong 139
v
vi
PARENTS,PARTNERS,ANDCREDENTIALS:SELF-
EMPLOYMENTMOBILITYINTHEUNITEDSTATES
ANDGERMANY
PatriciaA.McManus 171
HEATINGUPTHEASPIRATIONSOFISRAELIARAB
YOUTH
GadYair,NabilKhattabandAaronBenavot 201
EDUCATIONALPATHWAYSINTOTHEEVOLVING
LABOURMARKETOFWESTAFRICA
StephenL.MorganandWilliamR.Morgan 225
UNEVENINROADS:UNDERSTANDINGWOMEN’SSTATUS
INHIGHEREDUCATION
KarenBradleyandMariaCharles 247
COMMENTARY:INEQUALITYANDSCHOOLING
ASANINSTITUTION
ReginaE.WerumandDavidP.Baker 275
ABOUTTHEAUTHORS 285
SUBJECTINDEX 291
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WethankguesteditorsDavidBakerandReginaWerumforanenjoyablecollabo-
rationincreatingthisvolume.WealsovaluethecontributionsofBobHass,ofHass
andAssociates,whohelpedtoeditthemanuscripts.Fortheirongoingsupportand
reviewofmanuscripts,wewouldliketoacknowledgeoureditorialboard:Annette
Lareau, Temple; Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Harvard; Pedro Noguera, New York
University; Aaron Pallas, Columbia; Francisco Ramirez, Stanford; Stephen
Raudenbush, Michigan; Yossi Shavit, Tel Aviv; and Fran Vavrus, Columbia.
Finally, we appreciate the fine work of external reviewers called upon for
thisvolume.
BruceFuller
EmilyHannum
SeriesEditors
vii

INTRODUCTION: INEQUALITY
ACROSS SOCIETIES
Bruce Fuller and Emily Hannum
Thank you for faithfully opening yet another book on education and inequality.
Therolethatschoolingplaysinmakingasocietymorefair–oractivelyreinforcing
disparities across groups – is a topic that certainly demands greater attention
fromscholarsandpolicymakersalike.Ascapitalismandtheneoliberaltenetsof
everyday life evolve on a global scale, politicians and institutional leaders bank
on schooling as the organization that will deliver us from evil, from inequality,
fromtheroughedgesofunrelentingmaterialism.
But indeed, volumes have already been written on the role of education in
reproducing inequality, or as the institutional stage on which stratification has
been contested throughout the modern era. Nor does the academic record tell a
storythattypicallyendswithahappyresolution,orevenanintriguingclimax.So
whydidwedecide–alongwithguesteditorsDavidBakerandReginaWerum–
tocraftyetanothervolumeonstratificationandtheroleofschooling?
In a word, possibilities. The stratification literature continues to be largely
embeddedwithinthepoliticalandeconomicconditionsofparticularsocieties.By
lookingacrossnationsandculturalsettings,newpossibilitiesarise.Forexample,
in this volume, Hyunjoon Park’s study examines a half-century of successive
generations moving through South Korean schools. He finds that the removal
of selective exams reduced the influence of parents status on their son’s school
attainment.Yettheremarkableexpansionofformalschoolinghasnotlessenedthe
overallforceofparents’socialclassindrivingtheirchildren’seducationalattain-
ment. The chapter on formal preschools in China, authored by Susan Short and
InequalityAcrossSocieties:Families,SchoolsandPersistingStratification
ResearchinSociologyofEducation,Volume14,1–5
(FormerlyResearchinSociologyofEducationandSocialization)
©2004PublishedbyElsevierLtd.
ISSN:1479-3539/doi:10.1016/S1479-3539(03)14001-3
1
2 BRUCEFULLERANDEMILYHANNUM
Rongjun Sun, illuminates how this novel institution is serving to reinforce class
andgender-basedinequality,asitadvancestheearlylearningofsomechildren.
Steve Morgan and William Morgan detail how traditional apprenticeship
trainingpersistsinpartsofNigeria,complementingtheskillsandmodernstatus
awarded by government schools. More successful young merchants appear to
draw proficiencies, cultural knowledge, and social networks from these tandem
institutions.Thesocialmechanismsofinequality–betheyembeddedinschools,
families, or community organizations – vary dramatically across societies.
And this variation in mechanisms holds important consequences both for the
magnitudeofstratificationandfortheeconomicorsymbolicmarkersthatsignal
tellingdifferencesamonggroups.
The effects of “high-stakes testing,” preschool expansion, and public support
ofreligiousschoolsarehottopicsintheUnitedStatesandEurope,whereincome
inequality has grown wider even as mass schooling has spread. As we get our
headsoutofourowncontextandthinkcross-nationally,wegainnewinsightsinto
thepeculiaritiesofstratifyingmechanismsandourtacitassumptionsaboutthem.
By looking across societies and at the forms of difference in each, we discover
newdynamicsandfindmoreeffectivepolicyoptionsavailabletous.
THEMES,FRESHEVIDENCE,AND
THEORETICALADVANCES
Beyond reporting on new possibilities, the nine empirical chapters and two
commentaries that follow lend order to what scholars are discovering about the
mechanisms,motivators,andtacitformsofinequalitythatcharacterizestratified
societies,andthatimplicatetheschoolinstitutionateveryturn.
Wesuggestthatyouputthreequestionstoeachauthorwhoseworkappearsin
thisvolume.First,howdothesecross-nationalreportsilluminatenewmechanisms
or locations of where particular groups benefit from differing opportunities?
Second,howdoesthestudyilluminatefacetsoftheschool’sinner-workingsthat
broadenorsystematicallynarrowchildren’slifechances?Andthird,whatactions
bygovernmentcanactivelyreducetheschool’sstratifyingeffect?
Empirical knowledge from cross-national perspectives is accumulating on
theseimportanttopics(Buchmann&Hannum,2001;Shavit&Blossfeld,1993).
And theory regarding the subtle or vivid character of stratifying mechanisms
continues to mature, ranging from the activation of cultural capital between
parents and teachers (Lareau, 2002), to curriculum tracking (Lucas & Berends,
2002), to situating children and parents in neighborhoods that possess unequal
local institutions and social networks (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 2000; Fuller