Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 I, Communities, Families, and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper Session
Contribution
This study addresses socially-induced inequalities in educational attainment, highlighting how higher education and associated life opportunities are not equally accessible to all societal groups. Parental freedom in educational decision-making plays a crucial role in determining their children’s educational outcomes. These decisions are influenced by educational aspirations, which are strongly correlated with the actual educational achievements of children. In Germany's highly stratified education system, research has underscored the immense importance of parental aspirations during the transition from primary to secondary schools, with early selection processes impacting variously across social classes. While numerous studies, predominantly quantitative, have shown a strong correlation between parental education and aspirations, with a historical focus on the father's occupational status, recent interest has shifted towards exploring the impact of maternal education on educational inequalities. This shift is partly due to mothers – despite egalitarian role models in Germany – still assuming the majority of caregiving and educational responsibilities, but it is also closely linked to social advancements in women's rights to education and employment. Therefore, this study focuses on maternal educational aspirations for their children during the transition to secondary education. An additional crucial factor is the family's migration background. Germany, faced with multiple migration waves, serves as a pertinent context for this study. There are significant educational inequalities between migrants and natives and the European Union plays a pivotal role due to its legal provisions and agreements in migration and free movement. Two EU decisions are particularly relevant for this study: first, the freedom of movement for workers, enabling EU citizens to work and live in other EU countries without needing work or residence permits. According to Eurostat data, 10.2 million EU citizens of working age (3.9%) live in a member state other than that of their nationality, a significant increase from 2.4% in 2009. Second, EU programs fostering education and research mobility, enhancing the diversity of residence rights and conditions for mothers in Germany, thus creating a heterogeneous group of migrant women. Considering migrant experiences is therefore essential in researching educational inequalities and informing targeted educational policies beyond Germany. While the influence of parental educational aspirations on children's actual educational attainment is undisputed, the processes and mechanisms underlying this connection remain unclear. Of high interest is how these aspirations are successfully implemented and why some social groups are better at translating high aspirations into reality than others. This study investigates maternal biographies to holistically capture and qualitatively locate maternal educational aspirations. The study's theoretical framework follows two key implications: rational decision-making and implicit capital transmission. Rational choice approaches center on the idea that individuals consciously make decisions to maximize their utilities, as proposed by G. S. Becker, and invest in human capital to promote long-term household economic success. However, migrants often face lower educational levels, work experience, and language barriers, suggesting a lower human capital as a plausible explanation for disparities between immigrant and native populations. Extending monetary approaches, Pierre Bourdieu's concept of capitals considers various resources, including economic, social, and cultural capital. Bourdieu highlights a crucial oversight in economic theories: the transmission of capital within families and social groups, arguing that cultural capital, encompassing knowledge, skills, and cultural competence, is acquired and passed down within the family through informal processes such as social interactions, upbringing, and cultural practices. In the context of the diverse socioeconomic and migration backgrounds of the mothers in the present study, this theoretical combination establishes a framework for analyzing the interplay between individual choices and societal structures offering significant explanatory potential.
Method
The study's research question necessitates an open, biographically oriented approach. Biographical research, through the reconstruction of individuals' perceptions and interpretations, provides authentic data on the topic of interest. Therefore, biographical narrative interviews with mothers in Germany were conducted between 2020 and 2023. The data collection adhered to the Grounded Theory tradition. The primary sampling criterion was having at least one underage child, preferably at the transition from primary to secondary school. The final sample included 17 mothers aged 26 to 50, with eight born in Germany and nine abroad, including Russia and Romania (among them, 4 Romani mothers). The European Qualifications Framework was used to account for educational levels, covering levels one to eight. Mothers' educational levels were acquired either abroad, in Germany, or through a combination of training and recognition procedures. Three mothers lacked professional qualifications, seven underwent vocational training, and eight held university degrees (Master of Arts), with one possessing a doctorate (PhD). A brief questionnaire was presented to the participants after the interview, in which they were asked to specify the type of school they intend to send their child to and the ideal educational qualification they wish their child to achieve (educational aspirations). One year later, the mothers were contacted again to inquire about the actual school they sent their child to, in order to compare whether the educational aspirations were indeed realized. After conducting and transcribing the 17 interviews verbatim, a six-step narrative-analytical approach was employed for analysis. This approach allows systematic segmentation of the life narrative into phases, each with a specific function, referred to as process structures by Schütze. This methodology enables the reconstruction of recurring patterns, attitudes, and the entire educational trajectory beyond attained qualifications. Insights into migrant biographies also reveal how educational processes occur across national borders and how discontinuities and institutional barriers affect the recognition of foreign qualifications. Overall, the analysis uncovers mothers' efforts, investments, and concerns for their children's education. It also brings to light educational decisions and aspirations made against a backdrop of rational decisions and the invisible transmission of cultural capital within the family through hidden mechanisms, accessible mainly through qualitative approaches.
Expected Outcomes
Biographical analyses revealed two opposing trends in mothers' life courses. Some mothers actively guide their academic and personal self-fulfillment, while others passively experience their circumstances, confronting extensive institutional barriers. Migration experience and educational level crucially influence these trajectories. Depending on migration status, mothers may face limitations impacting their academic paths and lowering educational aspirations for their children. Work permits and residency status of their spouses can compel them to accept precarious work conditions, leaving little time for their children. Some migrant mothers, denied education in their childhood, express no educational aspirations for their children, partly due to varying awareness about the German education system. The study also uncovers trends beyond educational aspirations, highlighting the realities of mothers' lives and suggesting areas for further research. Parents experience intense educational pressure from narratives of an 'educational crisis' and inadequate institutional infrastructures. Many doubt the ability of schools and kindergartens to provide sufficient personal and professional development for their children, leading them to undertake independent support efforts from an early stage. This situation demands significant monetary and time investments from mothers, who often feel solely responsible for their children's 'successful' upbringing. In 2022, 63 percent of mothers with children over six opted for part-time work, one of the highest rates in the EU-27. Although part-time employment can adversely affect career progression and pension contributions, mothers often reduce their working hours for 'family and child management', sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice. A comparative analysis across European countries could shed light on labor market incentives and conditions for policies that better support mothers in balancing work and family life.
References
Becker, B. (2010): Bildungsaspirationen von Migranten – Determinanten und Umsetzung in Bildungsergebnisse. Becker, B., and Gresch, C. (2016): Bildungsaspirationen in Familien mit Migrationshintergrund. In: Diehl, C.; Hunkler, C., and Kristen, C. (Eds.): Ethnische Ungleichheiten im Bildungsverlauf. Mechanismen, Befunde, Debatten. Wiesbaden: Springer SV, 73–115. Becker, G. S. (1964): Human capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Bourdieu, P. (1983): Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital. In: Soziale Welt, Sonderband 2, 183–198. Europäisches Parlament (2024): Kurzdarstellungen zur Europäischen Union. Freizügigkeit der Arbeitnehmer. : Europäisches Parlament. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/de/sheet/41/freizugigkeit-der-arbeitnehmer (Retrieved January 29, 2024). Eurostat Statistics (2024). Erwerbstätigenquoten nach Geschlecht, Alter und Staatsangehörigkeit (%). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/LFSA_ERGAN__custom_107085/bookmark/table?lang=de&bookmarkId=eb11a019-2016-46bc-b9ef-0f958228f70e (Retrieved January 26, 2024). Glaser, B. G., and Strauss, A. L. (1967): The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New Brunswick: Aldine. Gresch, C. (2012): Der Übergang in die Sekundarstufe I. Leistungsbeurteilung, Bildungsaspiration und rechtlicher Kontext bei Kindern mit Migrationshintergrund. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Klapproth, F. (2020): Familie und Bildungsaspirationen. In: Ecarius, J., and Schierbaum, A. (Eds.): Handbuch Familie. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 1–20. Kurz, K., and Paulus, W. (2008): Übergänge im Grundschulalter: die Formation elterlicher Bildungsaspirationen. In: Die Natur der Gesellschaft: Verhandlungen des 33. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, 5489–5503. Relikowski, Ilona; Yilmaz, Erbil, and Blossfeld, Hans-Peter (2012): Wie lassen sich die hohen Bildungsaspirationen von Migranten erklären? Eine Mixed-Methods-Studie zur Rolle von strukturellen Aufstiegschancen und individueller. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 52, Vol. 52, Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 111–136. Schütze, F. (1984): Kognitive Figuren autobiographischen Stegreiferzählens. In: Kohli, M., and Robert, G. (Eds.): Biographie und soziale Wirklichkeit: Neue Beiträge und Forschungsperspektiven. Stuttgart: Metzler, 78–117. Stocké, V. (2013): Bildungsaspirationen, soziale Netzwerke und Rationalität. In: Becker, R., and Schulze, A. (Eds.), Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 269–298 Trubeta, S. (2022): Diskurse um EU-Binnenmigration aus Süd- und Südosteuropa. In: Zeitschrift für Migrationsforschung 2 (1), 61–94.
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