Can children break the cycle of disadvantage? Structure and agency in the transmission of education across generations

Abstract

Research has shown that parents tend to pass educational advantage or disadvantage on to their children. However, little is known about the extent to which the intergenerational transmission of education involves children's agency. In this study we drew from two traditions in sociological and social psychological theorizing -the theory of cultural and social reproduction and the theory of human agency -to examine whether agency influences children's educational performance, and if so, whether this influence can be observed among children across social classes. We used data from the Spanish sample of the Program for International Student Assessment (N = 25,003 15-year-olds). Results indicate that the level of child agency was weakly positively related to social class, that child agency impacted on a child's educational performance, and that the positive effect of agency on educational performance did not vary by social class. This suggests that strategies to enhance disadvantaged children's agency may prove useful in reducing social gradients in educational performance. More generally, our findings may ignite a debate about the role that social structure and human agency play in shaping social inequality and mobility.

Filling in the gaps: A theoretical grounding for an education programme for adolescent socioemotional and vocational development in Ireland

“…Symonds and Hargreaves (), taking a stage–environment fit perspective, note that the extent to which students are provided with opportunities to contribute to decision‐making at school—matching their growing developmental need for autonomy—is a key factor in maintaining student engagement over the course of their school career. Furthermore, Burger and Walk () show positive associations between students’ agency in school and their educational achievement.…”

The socio-spatial dimension of educational inequality: A comparative European analysis

“…At the individual level, the analysis controls for gender, immigrant status, language spoken at home, the school grade in which a student is enrolled at the time of the assessment (school grade level), and whether a student attended (0) a general academic program or (1) a pre-vocational or vocational program, because these variables have a direct effect on student achievement (Burger & Walk, 2016;Schlicht et al, 2010). At the school level, the analysis controls for school type (public vs. private), the proportion of first-generation immigrants in school, and school socioeconomic composition (the aggregate SES of a school's student population) in order to account for their hypothesized effects on student achievement.…”

The role of social and psychological resources in children's perception of their participation rights

“…Although there is a lack of consensus on the exact scope of children's participation rights (Herbots & Put, 2015;Stoecklin, 2013), much of the debate to date focuses on challenging the primacy of adult-centred agendas and the resulting tokenistic forms of children's involvement in decision making (Hart, 1992;Thomas, 2007). Discussion has included recognising children's evolving capacities and abilities to formulate and represent their own interests towards others (Lansdown, Jimerson, & Shahroozi, 2014), as well as children's autonomy and agency to take some degree of control of their own lives (Burger & Walk, 2016;Mayall, 2000). Furthermore, debates around participation rights focus on children's status as holders of rights and their legal entitlement to participate actively in society (Lansdown, 2010).…”