Educational family background and the realisation of educational career intentions: participation of German upper second
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Educational family background and the realisation of educational career intentions: participation of German upper secondary graduates in higher education over time Felix Weiss • Hanna-Marei Steininger
Published online: 19 December 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Abstract In this article, we evaluate the impact of social origin on the realisation of educational intentions at the time of becoming eligible for higher education in Germany. In general, we find high persistence of intentions and actual attendance of higher education. However, effects of parental education on the changes of educational intentions increase the existing social inequality with regard to higher education at the time of leaving secondary school. The group which is affected most are those young adults planning to study after vocational training—while the gap between different origin groups does not widen much during other stop-outs from education. This can be explained only partly by previous educational performance. The findings suggest that estimates of educational inequality are attenuated when entry into higher education is approximated by educational intentions of young adults. Keywords Educational inequality Social origin Educational expectations and intentions Educational careers
Introduction Numerous studies have reported that the educational decisions of young adults depend on their social origin which leads to differences in educational careers and achievement. For Germany, this finding has been confirmed even for the highly selective group of young adults qualified for higher education and their decision about participation in tertiary education (Mayer et al. 2007: 118; Schindler and Reimer 2010). Social background, such as parental occupational status or parental education, also predetermines participation in multiple educational programmes and educational career patterns (Jacob and Weiss F. Weiss (&) Institute for Sociology, University of Cologne, Greinstr. 2, 50939 Cologne, Germany e-mail: [email protected] H.-M. Steininger Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
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High Educ (2013) 66:189–202
2010b). Although social origin does not only influence the level of education which is achieved but also the timing of entry into higher education, the majority of the literature omits this aspect (Carneiro and Heckman 2003: 118). However, later entry into college results in foregone earnings (Mincer 1974) and can be an additional dimension of social inequality. On the other hand, a high participation rate of young adults from a lower family background in later enrolment into education could decrease the impact of differences in social origin on educational achievement. Only few quantitative studies on this topic exist and they leave several research questions open. Among these open questions is the development of young adults’ intentions to participate in higher education within the period that was initially planned as a temporary stop-out.
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