Implications For Social Mobility Research Articles

Participatory Action Research Addressing Social Mobility

Low wealth and first-generation high school graduates face many information barriers in accessing college information. Most of these students attend public high school without sufficient high school counselor staff and information resources to support college going. Further, limiting information about college to one location such as the high school excludes supports from the community. The purpose of this participatory action research (PAR) study was to investigate an alternative to the high school centric model of college access service delivery with a goal to reduce barriers to college information to improve social mobility. This paper first presents background on the challenge of college access and the theoretical framework guiding the study. Next the paper documents the participatory action research study examining how a community came together to create an action plan to increase college going and attainment. The PAR process engaged ten students and four adults in a rural high poverty Mississippi Delta community through photovoice and Q methodology. The community identified locations for outreach and noted the importance of trust in the institution and persons delivering the college access services. The resultant action plan created a roadmap and guide for community action. The study has implications for social mobility and the design of college access outreach and programs. Implications for communities considering college access outreach programs are provided. Policy implications are outlined including the need to fund sufficient planning time to enable low wealth and minority communities to design and plan social mobility programs.

Chile's Missing Students: Dictatorship, Higher Education and Social Mobility

We study the relationship between political regimes and higher education and its implications for social mobility and political opposition in the context of the 1973 coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile. We show that the Pinochet dictatorship's aims of political control and fiscal conservatism caused a large contraction of all universities in the country, mostly through a steady reduction in the number of openings for new students. Individuals that reached college age shortly after the coup experienced a sharp decline in college enrollment, had worse labor market outcomes throughout the life cycle and struggled to climb up the socioeconomic ladder. These individuals registered to vote at higher rates for the 1988 plebiscite that triggered the democratic transition and we provide suggestive evidence that they increasingly voted against Pinochet. After democratization, children with a parent in the affected cohorts are also less likely to enroll in university.

Adolescent Racial Discrimination and Parental Perceptions of Safety in American Neighborhoods and Schools

Recently, a number of violent interracial interactions—between community members and public safety officers—has ignited a national debate about race, inequality, environmental/situational context, and the use of force among police and school resource officers. We investigate how perceptions of neighborhood and school safety are associated with adolescent exposure to racial discrimination. Using data from the National Survey of Child Health (NSCH) 2011–2012, we find that nonwhite youth experience greater levels of racial discrimination than their white counterparts after accounting for difference in exposure to violence and perceptions of neighborhood and school safety. Estimates from propensity score matching models show that differences in ever experiencing discrimination between safe and unsafe schools decline as perceptions of neighborhood safety increase, except in residential areas that are usually safe. Yet, black and Hispanic adolescents attending safe schools in neighborhoods that are always safe experience similar rates of discrimination as other nonwhite youth living in residential areas that are never safe. The implications for social mobility are discussed.

Ethnic Insularity Among 1.5- and Second-Generation Korean American Christians

Building on insights from Min’s (2010) comparisons between Korean Protestants and Indian Hindus, and my findings of elite freshmen Korean racial insularity (Park 2012), I use data from the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (2004) survey to examine the extent to which religion serves to not only preserve ethnicity but also support insularity in young adult 1.5- and second-generation (“second generation” hereafter) Korean Americans. Findings suggest that at the racial level of comparison, second-generation Korean-American endogamy resembles that of white, black, and Latino endogamy; second-generation Korean-American endogamy reflects not only the highest intraracial marriage rate, but also the highest intraethnic marriage rate of all Asian groups in the sample. Further, religious married second-generation Korean Americans have the highest racially homogeneous composition rate in the congregations they attend relative to other racial groups and other Asian ethnicities. In multivariate analyses, these two dynamics of marital endogamy and congregational racial homophily produce strong effects on one another and diminish the unique Korean effect. Findings suggest that these group relational patterns are more evident for second-generation Korean Americans and may have implications for social mobility in a racialized context.

Leaving university early: Exploring relationships between institution type and student withdrawal and implications for social mobility

Fair access to university continues to dominate public and intellectual discourse in the United Kingdom. There is mixed evidence for the effect of recent UK policy to widen participation. Significant variation in representation across types of higher education institution (HEI), with the most selective institutions demonstrating the least diversity in their student profile, point to the persistence of social class inequalities affecting and exacerbated by access to higher education. There is less attention in research literature and public debate in relation to students withdrawing or leaving their studies before graduation and very little about the post-access performance of traditional and non-traditional students in more and less selective institutions. Drawing on research which made use of a unique national dataset of students from 86 UK HEIs between 2006 and 2012 including students who left their studies early, this paper presents and explores the implications in terms of social mobility of two key findings: that 'non-traditional' students are, across the board, more likely to leave university early; but also that they appear proportionally more likely to leave from more selective institutions.

Ethnic Insularity among 1.5- and Second-Generation Korean-American Christians

Building on insights from Min’s (2010) comparisons between Korean Protestants and Indian Hindus, and my findings of elite freshmen Korean racial insularity (Park 2012), I use data from the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (2004) survey to examine the extent to which religion serves to not only preserve ethnicity but also support insularity in young adult 1.5- and second-generation (“second generation” hereafter) Korean Americans. Findings suggest that at the racial level of comparison, second-generation Korean-American endogamy resembles that of white, black, and Latino endogamy; second-generation Korean-American endogamy reflects not only the highest intraracial marriage rate, but also the highest intraethnic marriage rate of all Asian groups in the sample. Further, religious married second-generation Korean Americans have the highest racially homogeneous composition rate in the congregations they attend relative to other racial groups and other Asian ethnicities. In multivariate analyses, these two dynamics of marital endogamy and congregational racial homophily produce strong effects on one another and diminish the unique Korean effect. Findings suggest that these group relational patterns are more evident for second-generation Korean Americans and may have implications for social mobility in a racialized context.

The Quest for More and More Education: Implications for Social Mobility*

AbstractIn this paper, we discuss the quest for more and more education and its implications for social mobility. We document very rapid educational upgrading in Britain over the last 30 years or so and show that this rise has featured faster increases in education acquisition by people from relatively rich family backgrounds. At the same time, wage differentials for the more educated have risen. Putting these two together (more education for people from richer backgrounds and an increase in the pay‐off to this education) implies increasing within‐generation inequality. By reinforcing already‐existing inequalities from the previous generation, this has hindered social mobility. We also highlight three important aspects that, to date, have not been well integrated into the social mobility literature: the acquisition of postgraduate qualifications; gender differences; and the poor education performance of men at the lower end of the education distribution.

The Distributional Impact of the 2012–13 Higher Education Funding Reforms in England*

AbstractThis paper investigates the financial implications of the higher education funding regime to be introduced in English universities in September 2012. The analysis is based on simulated lifetime earnings profiles among graduates, linked to imputed information on parental incomes and institution and course choices. We find that, on average, total gross tuition fees will increase by over £15,000 as a result of the reforms; nevertheless, students will be significantly better off while they study due to the increased generosity of student support. The average graduate will be roughly £8,850 worse off over their lifetime, while universities will, on average, be better off as they are more than able to make up for the loss of substantial amounts of direct public funding through higher fees. The taxpayer is set to lose 33p of every £1 loaned to students (up from 25p under the current system) because of the generosity of the loan repayment terms, although the new regime is still expected to save the taxpayer around £2,500 per graduate overall. The reforms involve a substantial shift in the incidence of the cost of higher education away from the public sector and towards the private sector.In terms of the likely implications for social mobility, our work confirms that the new funding regime is actually more progressive than its predecessor: the poorest 29 per cent of graduates will be better off under the new system, while other graduates will be worse off. Moreover, the richest 15 per cent of graduates will pay back more than they borrow, while others will be subsidised. If prospective students from poorer backgrounds are aware of these facts, then, in theory, the new funding system should not dissuade them from applying to university – and thus it would increase, rather than reduce, social mobility in the long run. However, this will require a lack of debt aversion amongst students from the poorest backgrounds, and the ability for the government and universities to provide students with clear information about the likely costs of going to university.

The Quest for More and More Education: Implications for Social Mobility

In this paper, we discuss the quest for more and more education and its implications for social mobility. We document very rapid educational upgrading in Britain over the last thirty years or so and show that this rise has featured faster increases in education acquisition by people from relatively rich family backgrounds. At the same time, wage differentials for the more educated have risen. Putting these two together (more education for people from richer backgrounds and an increase in the payoff to this education) implies increasing within generation inequality and, by reinforcing already existent inequalities from the previous generation, this has hindered social mobility. We also highlight three important aspects that to date have not been well integrated into the social mobility literature: the acquisition of postgraduate qualifications; gender differences; and the poor education performance of men at the lower end of the education distribution.

Education, Social Structure and Culture

First, they have learned that ideas tend to have sustaining qualities of their own, because the institution of education has endured many changes, and has seldom been repudiated. Educators now admit that despite the turbulent rhetoric of the last twenty years, knowledge and scholarship still remain the vital part of a cultural system. Nevertheless, beyond this tradi tional task of generating values, education has a significant impact on social structure. Officials governing educational systems have been made aware by the masses that the manner whereby education is distributed and the consequences of that distribu tion-providing entry into culture have significant implications for social mobility.

Class, Entrepreneurship and the Service Sector: Towards a Conceptual Clarification

Opportunities for entrepreneurship within modern economies are concentrated primarily within the service sector. On the basis of recent empirical research this paper develops a conceptual framework which differentiates entrepreneurs according to the relative mix of capital and labour utilised. Four sub-categories within the entrepreneurial middle class are identified and the implications for social mobility on the basis of capital accumulation are explored. In particular, attention is drawn to the significance of employment relationships as a factor which limits the growth of labour-intensive businesses. Despite its neglect within sociological theory the entrepreneurial middle class continues as a significant force within contemporary economies, and several areas for future research are suggested.