Recent research has shown a strong impact of institutional settings of educational systems on educational inequalities. When we speak of education system, we refer to institutional settings in which processes of education are embedded. Such institutional settings include the schooling systems at different levels (pre-schooling, primary and secondary schooling), but also the vocational training and higher education systems. Crucial for the analysis of inequalities is the structure of the education system, in particular the available education institutions, how they can be accessed and how people can transit from one to another educational stage, and how they can move between parallel institutions (e.g. upper-secondary general versus upper-secondary vocational education). Thus, institutional settings also structure educational pathways and imply ‘normal’ pathways. The main characteristics which have been determined as driving forces are stratification (external differentiation/tracking), standardisation and vocational specificity.
The analysis of education systems and educational inequalities – in terms of systematic variations in several aspects of educational attainment structured by ascriptive characteristics such as gender, social origin and migration background – as well as inequalities in status attainment and life chances requires a multi-level perspective that takes into account the links between certain levels, as education system characteristics are situated on a higher level than the individual disadvantages and advantages. Such a perspective is implied by the structural-individualistic explanatory schema by Coleman (1990) which is based on previous models by McClelland (1966). Based on these models, we developed a Macro-Meso-Micro Model of education systems and inequalities where we situate the general education system characteristics and inequalities at the macro-level (Gross, Meyer & Hajar 2016). The meso-level refers to school characteristics and how the schools or other educational institutions enact policies and regulations. The educational system (linked to educational policies) affects via the meso-level each individual’s situation. Institutional settings frame resources that facilitate the acquisition of education, determines available educational pathways and institutions, and, thus, also impacts cost-benefit calculations and educational decisions. How the individual educational level affects the socio-structural placement (such as chances of employment, income, marriage and position of social class) or cultural aspects (view of the world, social values, lifestyle etc.) is also influenced by higher level factors. According to the logics of aggregation, the sum of individual consequences eventually affects social structure (i.e., change of occupational patterns) and culture (i.e., change of values) on the level of society. In regard to our research issue, a major outcome at the macro-level is the prevalence of social inequality in a society (Gross, Meyer & Hajar 2016).
The presentation is structured in three parts: Part A will show how to theorize the impact of education systems on educational outcomes such as competencies and credentials; Part B will provide methodological strategies of how to model the effects of education systems on educational outcomes in an quantitative framework, and Part C includes the presentation of own results of multilevel analysis.
