Social inequality in (post-)secondary educational careers: The relevance of spatial contexts
Final Report Abstract
The aim of the research project has been to understand how social mechanisms that can be located in socio-structural contexts contribute towards explaining social disparities in the later educational career. Regional and local context with their spatial extension have been major explanatory determinants. We have focused on later educational stages because they are likely to be affected by a greater variety of socio-economic characteristics of the surrounding contexts. The process of educational attainment has been understood as two-folded; first, the project has aimed at explaining the demand side of education in form of the formation and modification of educational aspirations along the later educational career; second, the supply of education and training has been integrated into the analytical models in terms of actually completed transitions. Our first step was the elaboration of a systematic theoretical concept of socio-spatial context conditions and their influence for educational attainment in terms of educational aspirations and transitions. The second challenge was to correctly conceptualise spatial references of considered theoretical mechanisms of influence. We have developed different conceptualisations of relevant areas based on the particular research question and according to the particular theoretical considerations. For this purpose, high quality contextual data was needed. Therefore, a considerable part of the project work has been collecting, harmonising, organising and preparing contextual data on different levels of aggregation and in timeseries. Based on the acquired data and using the developed theoretical and methodological concepts we have carried out substantive studies evaluating the impact of socio-economic and socio-structural context conditions on educational outcomes. We have, first, found evidence for the relevance of the regional socio-economic environment particularly for educational aspirations and transitions at the end of secondary school. Second, we have found that beneficial neighbourhood environments encourage young adults to strive for higher education. Third, we have found that the appropriate spatial scale is highly relevant. Therefore, such analyses require georeferenced data or at least data on different local or regional levels. Fourth, we have found that different contextual characteristics interact with regard to educational transitions chances. There has been no essential deviation from the original project application. Our work has followed the project plan and our results address the main originally formulated research questions.
Publications
- (2015). Möglichkeiten der Nutzung regionaler Daten im Nationalen Bildungspanel (NEPS) – ein Überblick. NEPS Working Paper. No. 54
Weßling, Katarina & Wicht, Alexandra
(See online at https://doi.org/10.15496/publikation-38345) - (2015). Spatial structure counts: The relevance of regional labour-market conditions for educational transitions to vocational training. Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training 7(12)
Weßling, Katarina, Hartung, Andreas & Hillmert, Steffen
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1186/s40461-015-0024-6) - (2016). The influence of socio-spatial contexts on transitions from school to vocational and academic training in Germany. Doctoral dissertation. University of Tuebingen
Weßling, Katarina
(See online at https://doi.org/10.15496/publikation-15222) - (2017). A decomposition of local labour-market conditions and their relevance for inequalities in transitions to vocational training. European Sociological Review 33(4): 534-550
Hillmert, Steffen, Hartung, Andreas & Weßling, Katarina
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcx057) - (2017). Dealing with space and place in standard survey data. Survey Research Methods 11(3): 267-287
Hillmert, Steffen, Hartung, Andreas & Weßling, Katarina
(See online at https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2017.v11i3.6729) - (2017). Local and regional context effects on individual educational and occupational aspirations and transitions. Doctoral dissertation. University of Tuebingen
Hartung, Andreas
(See online at https://doi.org/10.15496/publikation-19757)
