Session Information
23 SES 09 A, Policy Change and Educational Inequalities
Paper Session
Contribution
Although the right to education has undeniably improved during the last few decades, the expansion of education has not reduced significantly those educational opportunities that are linked to students’ social backgrounds. The hegemonic view that schools do change structural inequalities and the legitimation of schools as unquestionable mechanisms of social promotion (OECD, 2007), has led to the notion that meritocracy is the sole explanation for those inequalities which are not reverted by school (Gillies, 2005; Tarabini, 2015). Some research has challenged these assumptions, and addressed the understanding of educational inequalities beyond an individual’s willingness. School segregation or internal processes such as instructional differentiation and teacher expectations has been identified as explanations to why structural inequalities still prevail in European educational systems (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005; Schofield, 2010).
The structure of educational systems, for example whether students are placed in different educational paths, varies greatly from one country to another. While in some countries students are streamed at early ages, in others they are together until the end of compulsory education. It has been shown that educational differentiation policies tend to promote higher academic inequalities (Dupriez & Dumay, 2006; Duru-Bellat, Mons, & Suchaut, 2004; Mons, 2007). Student grouping practices, such as ability grouping, have an impact on students’ educational results, on their school experiences and on their opportunities (Boaler, Wiliam, & Brown, 2000; Ireson & Hallam, 2005). Furthermore, social and academic composition at school and in the classroom is related to teachers’ expectations, which are low and communicated more explicitly in segregated schools or homogeneous classrooms (Dupriez, 2010; Van Houtte, 2011). We understand that teacher expectations are a mediating element between grouping practices, group composition and teaching practices, explaining their effects on students’ results, experiences and opportunities.
This paper studies internal processes of school differentiation trough a systematic analysis of the relations between student grouping practices and teacher expectations and its impacts on the reproduction of inequalities. The research is focused on secondary schools in Catalonia where the comprehensive nature of the system is formally established by law. Despite this formal recognition of a common curriculum until the end of compulsory education (16 years old) grouping practices are not clearly regulated, which means that in Catalonia student grouping practices are decisions that lie with the schools. The formal comprehensive model cohabits with informal mechanisms of educational differentiation (such as ability grouping), which leads to reframe the comprehensiveness debate in terms of equity.
In particular, the paper aims to explain the construction of teachers’ educability expectations and their sense of responsibility for student learning, and their relation to grouping and teaching practices. Educability expectations are defined as the assumptions that teachers make about how teachable they students are (Agirdag, Van Avermaet, & Van Houtte, 2013). Teachers’ sense of responsibility for student learning is defined as teachers’ willingness to take responsibility for helping all students learn (Halvorsen, Lee, & Andrade, 2009). Thus, this paper intends to understand how school social composition shapes a certain school culture -understood as the taken for granted assumptions and believes shared by the members of a school-, in which the rationales of grouping practices are embedded.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Agirdag, O., Van Avermaet, P., & Van Houtte, M. (2013). School Segregation and Math Achievement : A Mixed-Method Study on the Role of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. Teachers College Record, 115, 1-50. Boaler, J., Wiliam, D., & Brown, M. (2000). Students ’ Experiences of Ability Grouping: disaffection, polarisation and the construction of failure. British Educational Research Journal, 26(5), 631-648. doi:10.1080/01411920020007832 Dupriez, V. (2010). Methods of Grouping Learners at School. Paris: UNESCO. Dupriez, V., & Dumay, X. (2006). Inequalities in school systems: effect of school structure or of society structure? Comparative Education, 42(2), 243-260. doi:10.1080/03050060600628074 Duru-Bellat, M., Mons, N., & Suchaut, B. (2004). Caractéristiques des systèmes éducatifs et compétences des jeunes de 15 ans. L’éclairage des comparaisons entre pays (No. Les Cahiers de l’IREDU, No.66). Gillies, V. (2005). Raising the «Meritocracy»: Parenting and the Individualization of Social Class. Sociology, 39(5), 835-853. doi:10.1177/0038038505058368 Halvorsen, A.-L., Lee, V. E., & Andrade, F. H. (2009). A Mixed-Method Study of Teachers’ Attitudes About Teaching in Urban and Low-Income Schools. Urban Education, 44(2), 181-224. doi:10.1177/0042085908318696 Ireson, J., & Hallam, S. (2005). Pupils’ liking for school: ability grouping, self-concept and perceptions of teaching. The British journal of educational psychology, 75, 297-311. doi:10.1348/000709904X24762 Mons, N. (2007). Les nouvelles politiques éducatives: La France fait-elle les bons choix? Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. OECD. (2007). Understanding the Social Outcomes of Learning. Paris: OECD. Rumberger, R. W., & Palardy, G. J. (2005). Does Segregation Still Matter? The Impact of Student Composition on Academic Achievement in High School. Teachers College Record, 107(9), 1999-2045. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9620.2005.00583.x Schofield, J. W. (2010). International Evidence on Ability Grouping With Curriculum Differentiation and the Achievement Gap in Secondary Schools. Teachers College Record, 112(5), 1492-1528. Tarabini, A. (2015). Naming and Blaming Early School Leavers: an analysis of educational policies, discourses and practices in Spain. En A. Kupfer (Ed.), Power and Education. Contexts of Oppression and Opportunity (pp. 146-166). Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi:10.1057/9781137415356 Van Houtte, M. (2011). So where’s the teacher in school effects research? The impact of teachers’ beliefs, culture, and behavior on equity and excellence in education. En K. Van den Branden, P. Van Avermaet, & M. Van Houtte (Eds.), Equity and excellence in education: Towards maximal learning opportunities for all students (pp. 75–95). New York, NY: Routledge.
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