Abstract
Although a number of policies tackling educational inequalities have been introduced in recent decades in Europe, educational inequalities exist to a varying extent both in different sub- and supranational contexts. In this article, we address the link between social and educational policies with respect to educational inequalities. Educational policies aim to guarantee opportunities throughout educational trajectories and beyond. They pertain to all areas and the entire duration of the human life. Our contribution to socialpolicy.ch introduces the ongoing Horizon 2020 project PIONEERED on educational inequalities by elaborating on the social problems behind those disparities, and by outlining the project’s conceptual and methodological approaches that join together multilevel, intersectional and life-course perspectives.
Highlights
Educational inequalities, defined as systematic variations in access to and uptake of education associated with individual characteristics, such as social background, gender, disability, or immigrant background, as well as the intersections between these axes, still persist in most European education systems. They are perceived as a social problem overall, as such inequalities are coined by disadvantages of certain groups in aspects of formal and informal education, and non-cognitive educational aspects
Educational inequalities are not static, finite outcomes in terms of single one-time events during a life course, but relate to processes characterised by the accumulation of events of unequal treatment and the resources linked to this (Skrobanek and Karl 2016)
A social policy relevance of the project is predefined as the respective Horizon call related to the programme Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge of Europe in a Changing World – Inclusive, Innovative and Reflective Societies and links to societal and social problems that are key targets of social policy
Summary
For a long time, it was plausible that educational policies would link to early phases in the life course (e.g. childhood, youth) and social policies to later phases This order became more fluid, as individual life paths are increasingly characterised by a mix-up between phases of education and labour force participation, while social policy measures increasingly address issues in the earlier developmental stages like, for example, child poverty. The researchers followed a trade-off thesis, assuming that (n)either the education system (n)or the social system would function as a great equaliser (Heidenheimer 1981) Based on this argument, the starting point of Hega and Hokenmeier (2002: 3) is that for a long time, a “trade-off took place between public investment in educational opportunities at the post-primary level and social insurance programs”. We outline the background, objectives, conceptual framework, and methodological approaches to assess the potential contribution of the project to social policies.
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