Inequality of Educational Opportunity in West and East Germany: Convergence or Continued Differences?
Author(s):
Markus Klein (presenting / submitting) Michael Kuehhirt Katherin Barg
Conference:
ECER 2017
Network:
28. Sociologies of Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

28 SES 08 B, The Normativity of Schooling

Paper Session

Time:
2017-08-24
09:00-10:30
Room:
K4.20
Chair:
Sarah Croché

Contribution

Cross-country comparative research on inequality in educational opportunity (IEO) has consistently shown that countries differ in the degree of social inequalities in educational attainment (Blossfeld and Shavit 1993; Breen et al. 2009; Erikson and Jonsson 1996b; Pfeffer 2008). Cross-country variations in IEO are associated with differences in the institutional features of national education systems such as tracking (i.e., early selection into different educational tracks), curriculum differentiation (general vs. vocational tracks) or examination procedures (standardized vs. non-standardised testing) (e.g., Bol and Van de Werfhorst 2013; Bol et al. 2014; Brunello and Checchi 2007; Hanushek and Wößmann 2006). The more ‘stratified’ the education system and the less ‘standardized’ the system nationwide (with respect to school-leaving examinations, teachers’ training, school budgets and curricula), the more inequality of educational opportunity exists (Van de Werfhorst and Mijs 2010).

Social inequalities in educational attainment may not only be framed by the educational system but may vary depending on the macro-level political, socio-economic and cultural conditions under which students transition from one educational level to another. Bukodi and Goldthorpe (2009) argue that free-market economies are incompatible with the idea of an education-based meritocracy since parents from higher socio-economic backgrounds have the freedom to convert their advantageous resources and support into children’s higher educational attainment. While intergenerational reproduction of educational attainment would inevitably emerge in free-market economies, these authors argue that socialist states are the “most fully developed form of meritocracy, of an education-based kind”. This is because socialist states introduced particular policies aimed at increasing equality of educational opportunity and imposed a general scale of education-based merit.

The division of Germany into a Western free-market economy and an Eastern socialist society and the Reunification after 1989 offers a unique opportunity to jointly investigate the impact of the political system and the associated institutional and socio-economic context on the degree of social inequalities in educational attainment. One major institutional difference in the education system between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was the extent and timing of tracking. West Germany is known for its early selection of pupils (at age 10) into different school tracks. In contrast, the GDR implemented a comprehensive school system and selected students into different tracks at a relatively old age. Moreover, the socialist government implemented education policies aimed at a positive selection of children from agricultural and working class background into upper secondary education in the first two decades of the GDR’s existence (Köhler and Stock 2004; Mayer and Solga 1994; Solga 1995). After reunification East Germany adopted the education system and policies from the West German part. Hence, the East German case bears the advantage that we can compare social inequalities in educational attainment before and after the transition with a “baseline” in the West German part.

Our paper is the first to identify patterns of association between social origin and educational attainment across birth cohorts that were in school long before reunification until long after reunification in both parts of Germany. We will address the following research questions:

  1. Was the Origin-Education (OE) association weaker in the GDR than in the FRG prior to reunification? Were there any changes in the OE link during the existence of the GDR?

 

  1. Did the OE association in East Germany become similar to the OE relationship in West Germany after reunification? Did this adjustment process start right after reunification or with time lag?

 

  1. Were there differences in this adjustment process across the new German federal states depending on how close their education system reproduces the West German system?

 

Method

Data In order to obtain robust estimates on long-term changes of social inequalities in educational attainment in the Eastern and Western part of Germany we use a variety of secondary data sources. The German Life History Study (GHLS) is ideal for identifying differences in inequalities of educational opportunity between the FRG and GDR for birth cohorts with school experiences prior to reunification. It comprises retrospective information on nationally representative birth cohort surveys starting with the oldest cohort born in 1919 and the youngest cohort born in 1971. The total number of cases is 6,403 for West Germany and 2,819 for East Germany. The General Social Survey (Allbus) covers birth cohorts with educational attainment before and after reunification and allows a direct comparison of changes in inequalities of educational opportunity in both parts of Germany. It is a biannual cross-sectional face-to-face survey representative of the German adult population since 1980. The total number of cases is 6,713 for West Germany and 4,064 for East Germany. The German labor force survey (Microcensus) is advantageous for studying social inequalities in educational attainment at and after reunification until most recent school-leaver cohorts. It is a representative survey of the German population and its economic activity covering one per cent of all German households and has been conducted annually in West Germany since 1957 and in East Germany since 1991. The total number of cases is 61,684 for West Germany and 16,757 for East Germany Measures Our dependent variable is a binary variable indicating whether individuals attained the Abitur or did not attain the Abitur. Social inequalities in Abitur attainment are crucial because the Abitur is not only a prerequisite for gaining access to higher education in Germany and, in turn, for advanced labor market returns, but is, further, increasingly demanded for gaining access to prestigious apprenticeships. Our independent variable of social origin is measured with father’s education. In case we have no information on father’s education we use mother’s education. We differentiate between pupils who have a father (mother) with Abitur and pupils who have a father (mother) with a qualification below the Abitur. Analyses Since we are interested in descriptive changes in the association between parental education and Abitur attainment, our method is straightforward: We show attainment/participation rates of the Abitur for pupils with one parent with Abitur vs. pupils with no parents with Abitur across birth cohorts and West and East Germany.

Expected Outcomes

The results provide some support for weaker social inequalities in educational attainment in the GDR than in the FRG. However, three important observations have to be made. First, the GDR was far from being a meritocratic society. Despite endeavors to reduce social inequalities in the GDR children with higher educated parents were still more likely to attain the Abitur than children with lower educated parents. Second, it is the percentage of students with highly educated parents attaining the Abitur that varies across the two political and educational settings. In contrast, Abitur rates have been rather similar among students with lower educated parents in both parts of Germany. It may indicate that children from higher social origin were restricted to exploit their family resources by GDR policies rather than supporting the argument that specific policies targeting at the promotion of working-class students were effectively at work. Third, social inequalities in educational attainment in the GDR substantially vary across periods within the GDR. Only for cohorts deciding on the upper secondary school track between the 1970s and the early 1980s social inequalities were significantly weaker in the GDR than in the FRG. After reunification, social inequalities in educational attainment became more similar between East and West Germany. However, this convergence can be attributed to declining inequalities in West Germany rather than to increasing inequalities in East Germany. A substantial increase in social inequalities in East Germany is only evident for the cohort deciding on the upper secondary school track immediately after reunification. Overall, these results may indicate that the role of education policy and system characteristics for shaping social inequalities in educational attainment is less influential than previously assumed.

References

Blossfeld, Hans-Peter, and Yossi Shavit (Eds.). 1993. Persistent Inequality. Changing Educational Attainment in Thirteen Countries. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Bol, Thijs, and Herman G. Van de Werfhorst. 2013. Educational Systems and the Trade-Off between Labor Market Allocation and Equality of Educational Opportunity. Comparative Education Review 57(2):285-308. Bol, Thijs, Jacqueline Witschge, Herman G. Van de Werfhorst, and Jaap Dronkers. 2014. Curricular Tracking and Central Examinations: Counterbalancing the Impact of Social Background on Student Achievement in 36 Countries. Social Forces 94(4):1545-72. Breen, Richard, Ruud Luijkx, Walter Müller, and Reinhard Pollak. 2009. "Nonpersistent Inequality in Educational Attainment: Evidence from Eight European Countries." American Journal of Sociology 114(5):1475-521. Brunello, Giorgio, and Daniele Checchi. 2007. "Does School Tracking Affect Equality of Opportunity? New International Evidence." Economic Policy 22(52):781-861. Bukodi, Erzsébet, and John H. Goldthorpe. 2009. "Market versus Meritocracy: Hungary as a Critical Case." European Sociological Review 26:655-74. Erikson, Robert, and Jan O. Jonsson. 1996a. Can Education Be Equalized? The Swedish Case in Comparative Perspective. Colorado/Oxford: Westview Press. Hanushek, Eric A., and Ludger Wößmann. 2006. "Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence Across Countries." The Economic Journal 116(March):C63-C76. Köhler, H., and M. Stock. 2004. Bildung nach Plan? Bildungs- und Beschäftigungssystem in der DDR 1949 bis 1989. Opladen: Leske+Budrich. Mayer, Karl Ulrich, and Heike Solga. 1994. Mobilität und Legitimität. Zum Vergleich der Chancenstrukturen in der alten DDR und in der alten BRD oder: Haben Mobilitätschance zu Stabilität und Zusammenbruch der DDR beigetragen. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 46(2):193-208. Pfeffer, Fabian T. 2008. Persistent Inequality in Educational Attainment and its Institutional Context. European Sociological Review:1-23. Solga, Heike. 1995. Auf dem Weg in eine klassenlose Gesellschaft? Klassenlagen und Mobilität zwischen den Generationen in der DDR. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Van de Werfhorst, Herman G., and Jonathan J. B. Mijs. 2010. Achievement Inequality and the Institutional Structure of Educational Systems: A Comparative Perspective. Annual Revue of Sociology 36:407-28.

Author Information

Markus Klein (presenting / submitting)
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Michael Kuehhirt
University of Cologne, Germany
Katherin Barg
University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

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