Inter-Generational Mobility Rates of Public School Teachers1

Abstract

AbstractThe occupation of public school teacher is analyzed in terms of the inter-generational flow of personnel from different occupational origins. Analysis of mobility ratios by age cohorts from two national samples of teachers reveals that: (a) professional and managerial occupational categories contributed well over their expected share to teaching but this ratio is smaller for younger than for older teachers; (b) blue collar occupations contribute less than chance expectations but this ratio is larger for younger than for older teachers; (c) ratios of mobility from farm origins are both more than chance and higher for younger than older teachers; and (d) males from blue collar origins have increasingly utilized teaching at both the elementary and secondary level as a vehicle for social mobility. The data suggest that the occupation of teaching is becoming increasingly more accessible to children of lower prestige origins.