An apple doesn't fall far from the tree—Or does it? Occupational inheritance and teachers' career patterns

Abstract

Based on 15years of employment and job mobility data from a sample of Swiss primary school teachers (N=999 in three cohorts), we use optimal matching analysis (OMA) to identify six career patterns between the mid-1960s and the late 1990s. Thereby, we provide a rare historical perspective on career patterns in the last four decades of the 20th century. Results indicate that career patterns have not consistently become less stable between cohorts despite changes in socially constructed career boundaries, such as increasing occupational opportunities for women. Further, we examine whether or not occupational inheritance (i.e., the increased probability for children to follow their parents' profession) affects individual career patterns beyond the first vocational choice. We find that teacher graduates whose mothers also worked as teachers follow a stable teacher career pattern less frequently than graduates whose parents were not teachers. The article concludes with theoretical and methodological directions for future research on career patterns.