7 Social inequality and educational decisions in the life course

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that social origin has exceptionally strong effects on educational outcomes in Germany. Aside from primary effects of social origin, there are especially strong secondary effects. The reasons for these differences in educational decisions when academic abilities are held constant are not clear. Several theoretical approaches claim to explain the association between social origin and educational decisions. These approaches are rational choice theory and different versions of bounded rationality, theories based on the relevance of values, social norms, and reference groups, social capital theory, and cultural capital theory. However, the necessary data for simultaneously judging the relative merits of these approaches is not yet available. In particular, there is a lack of consistent measures across all relevant educational stages over the life course. Longitudinal data would be a great advantage for determining the causal effect of the factors under consideration. At present, available data is restricted to a single educational decision and either cross-sectional or restricted to locally defined samples. Pillar 3 of the German National Educational Panel Study aims to measure the relevant factors for explaining educational decisions and inequality in educational opportunity in all relevant stages over the life course.