Ackermann, Tobias (2024). Inquiring Educational Inequalities: Perspectives on Measuring Social Origin and Mechanisms Beyond Inheritance. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern

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Abstract

The four contributions of this thesis centre around the issue of educational inequalities and questions pertinent to measuring the role of social origin and other ascriptive factors. The first two papers target the question surrounding the conceptualisation and the measurement of social origin in contemporary research, while the second two papers address mitigating factors beyond the realm of the social background. By employing record linkages to two waves of a national Large-Scale Assessment, the results from the first paper indicate that students with lower cognitive abilities, have a higher likelihood of non-response and measurement error regarding questions about their social origin, raising questions about multifaceted measurement error when analysing data from large-scale assessment studies. The second paper utilises administrative data on parental earnings to explain variance in student performance. The results suggest an independent effect of parental earnings on student performance, but only if the selectivity of the sample in complete case analyses is accounted for. In addition, it shows that administrative data holds the advantage of obtaining information on individuals even when they did not participate in the survey, which can be used, for instance, for calculating weights or imputation models. Using panel data, the third paper tells the story of how educational tracks in lower and upper secondary education in Switzerland are linked to the formation and revision of realistic educational aspirations. While track placement is found to be important for the formation and the revision of aspirations, social origin only accounts for their formation. The last paper investigates the persistence of relative age effects throughout compulsory education in Switzerland. Using a record linkage between the data of mandatory student assessments from the Northwestern part of Switzerland and administrative records, two identification strategies were employed. The results picture a diminishing of relative age effects throughout compulsory education, however, presumably not fast enough since they are still at play at the end of sixth grade when students are allocated to ability-based tracks. In sum, the works of this thesis show that the conceptualisation and the use of social origin in contemporary educational research is not a close matter and still needs improvement. Furthermore, it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of using additional data sources on social origin, namely parental surveys or administrative data. Lastly, it emphasises considering mechanisms that do not directly relate to the social origin of students and pupils as potential causes for educational inequality.

Item Type:	Thesis
Dissertation Type:	Cumulative
Date of Defense:	11 April 2024
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education
Institute / Center:	03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Sarah Stalder
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2024 13:54
Last Modified:	05 Jul 2024 13:50
URI:	https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/5177

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