Social origins and educational attainment in Canada: 1985 and 1994

Review of Radical Political Economics Vol. 32, 4 (2000) 577-609

Review of RADICAL POLITICAL ECONOMICS

Social Origins and Educational Attainment in Canada: 1985 and 1994 M. Reza Nakhaie* Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor, Win&or, Canada N9B 3P4 Received

5 April 1998; accepted

15 May 1999

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the effects of mothers’ and fathers’ education and occupational positions on the educational attainment of male and female offspring based on the data from two national representative samples of Canadians surveyed in 1985 and 1994. The analyses show that, for offspring of both genders, mothers’ and fathers’ education and occupation have a substantial effect on education, in both surveys. The advantage of social origin for both male and female offspring depends on the measure of social origin with some indication of same-sex effects. Furthermore, social origins have a stronger effect on offspring’s university degree attainment than on postsecondary education in general. Finally, there are signs of increasing inequality in social origin effect on offspring’s educational attainment. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed. JEL classiJication: I28 Keywords:

l

Canada; Educational

attainment;

Social origins

Email: [email protected]

0486-6134/00/$

- see front matter 0 2000 URPE. All rights reserved.

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1. Introduction Much of the previous theoretical and empirical research on the relationship between class origin and education has focused on the role of industrialization and class-based economic resources and/or culture on educational attainment. Such research has rarely paid attention to the role of the state. The state can help reduce class origin inequalities both by expanding the educational system and/or by reducing class barriers to educational attainment. This paper uses Canadian data gathered in 1985 and 1994 to evaluate the effect of shifts in state policies on the relationship between class origin and educational attainment. The paper begins by setting the context for the study through a review of the relevant theoretical models and empirical research on the relationship between class origins and educational attainment. What is the effect of parental class on offspring’s educational attainment? To what extent is this effect amenable to change, or does it remain constant? Writers in the liberal-pluralist tradition rooted in the work of Spencer (see Cameiro 1967) and elaborated by Treiman (1970) and Erickson and Goldthrope (1992), argue that with advanced industrialization there is a tendency for decreasing rigidity of the class structure, accompanied by an increasing likelihood of intergenerational mobility. Industrialization entails technological advancement, more differentiation of the division of labor, and more rational organization of social selection. Traditional authoritarian ascriptive norms are replaced by new norms based on universalism and equality of opportunity, which are more congruent with the expanding division of labor. Expansion of educational systems, establishment of rationalized rules of selection and equality of opportunity, and the decreasing importance of ascriptive statuses for entrance into higher education and for better occupational placement are said to be the consequence of this process (Blau and Duncan 1967). In sum, the liberal-pluralist thesis suggests that a superior status can no longer be directly inherited, but must be legitimized by socially acknowledged achievements (Blau and Duncan 1967: 429-31; Parsons 1951: 76-98, 183-89; 1960, chs. 3 and 4; 1967, ch. 4). Recent empirical research in Canada shows that social origin inequalities in educational attainment did decrease, at least up to the mid-1970s. Guppy (1984), Guppy et al. (1984), Wanner (1986), and Pineo and Goyder (1988) all confirmed, based on cohort analyses, that the relationship between class background and educational attainment weakened during this time. On the surface, this research seems to support the liberal-pluralist thesis. However, use of birth cohorts with

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cross-sectional data is subject to the problems of respondent recall and cohort mortality. In fact, such analysis confounds age and generation effects and therefore cannot be used as support for the liberal-pluralist theory. One solution is to compare two or more cross-sectional sets of data. For this purpose, Guppy and Pendakur (1989) compared 1975 and 1984 survey samples, and showed that the percentage of males with university experience whose parents, on average, had more than 13 years of education each was 76.6 percent in 1974 and 72.8 percent in 1983. In contrast, the percentages of females with a similar background attending university increased from 72.6 percent to 76.7 percent. These findings, at best, provide mixed support for the liberalpluralist thesis. The liberal-pluralist model has also been criticized for ignoring that achieved characteristics such as education are still largely determined by class background and by sex (Robinson and Gamier 1985; Hout 1988; Erickson and Goldthrope 1992). Parents in upper classes are better able to: (a) provide expensive higher education and enroll their children in private schools (Bowles 1972a, 1972b; Bowles and Gintis 1976; Robinson and Gamier 1985); (b) ensure contact with children of similar background, and in similar curricula (Bourdieu and Boltanski 1978: 201; Colclough and Beck 1986); and (c) foster personality traits and “cultural capital” in the family which are congruent with educational curriculums (Bourdieu 1977; Bourdieu and Boltanski 1978).’ Each of these factors is believed to pay off in better educational attainment for children. Consistent with this approach, cross-cultural studies show “no tendency for openness to increase with level of industrial development,” and that there is a basic pattern of mobility invariance across time and place (Erickson and Goldthrope 1992: 388; Shavit and Blossfeld 1993). This view is consistent with that of Sorokin (1959: 152-54) who argued decades ago that there is no definite perpetual trend in mobility. However, the exception to this pattern is observed in Sweden. A multination study (England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Sweden, and Holland) showed that, contrary to the experience of many industrial societies, class decreased educational attainments actually differences in unambiguously in Sweden during this century (Erikson and Jonsson 1996; Shavit and Blossfeld 1993). This exception, however, is mainly a ’ Furthermore, as in the case of the United States, since school funding is proportional to average local income, middle and upper class children tend to acquire better and higher education than those in lower class and ghetto neighborhoods (Checchi 1997). However, the linkage between local property tax and local public education has been undermined, particularly since 1970 when the percentage of public school funds provided by state governments has increased steadily (see Parelius and Parelius 1987: 254-55).

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reflection of equalization in living conditions as well as educational reforms and not of industrialization and expansion of division of labor (Erickson and Jonsson 1996). As was suggested earlier, in addition to economic resources, class culture could have a profound effect on offspring’s educational attainment. Bourdieu and his colleagues are among those who argue that while money still matters substantially, the possession and reproduction of cultural capital is an important mediating force between class background and educational attainment (see DiMaggio 1982; DiMaggio and Mohr 1985). The concept “cultural capital” refers to the ensemble of high status culture and cultivated dispositions which manifest themselves in such things as appreciation of higher education and the best schools; attendance at museums, art galleries, theaters and concerts; appreciation of classical music and knowledge of composers; and strong language and literary skills. According to Bourdieu (1977: 497), the upper classes have at their disposal a much larger share of cultural capital than other classes, and thus are better able to cultivate this type of capital in their children. The habitus inculcated by upper class families and those sections which are rich in cultural capital will make the acquisition of the maximum level of education by their offspring possible, because possession of cultural capital is compatible with the curriculums of schools (Bourdieu 1977: 506). From this observation, Bourdieu and Passeron (1979: 27) conclude that, by its own logic, the educational system of privilege. ensures the perpetuation “The education system reproduces all the more perfectly the structure of distribution of cultural capital among classes (and sections of classes) in that the culture which it transmits is closer to the dominant culture and that the mode of inculcation to which it has recourse is less removed from the mode of inculcation practiced by the family” (Bourdieu 1977: 493; 1984: 80). In fact, the match between educational attainment and possession of cultural capital is so strong that Bourdieu and his colleagues refer to the attained level of education as “certified” or cultural capital (Bourdieu 1977, 1984: 80; Bourdieu “guaranteed” and Pesseron 1979; Bourdieu and Boltanski 1978: 209). Research in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere continues to reveal strong class differences in educational attainment, and seems to support the reproduction theory (for Canada see Pike 1981, 1987: 14; Boyd 1982; Guppy and Arai 1993; and for the United States see Mare 1981; Robinson 1986; Robinson and Garnier 1985; Colclough and Beck 1986; Shavit and Blossfeld 1993). Despite the substantial differences between Canada and the United States in the way in which education is organized, there is considerable similarity in both the effect of class background on educational attainment as well as in the trend across time. For example, Wanner’s (1986) research, based on a cohort analysis using 1973 data, showed a remarkable similarity

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581

between Canada and the United States in the way fathers’ education, fathers’ occupation, farm background, growing up in a broken family, and number of siblings influenced years of schooling. In evaluating fathers’ education and occupation on years of schooling, he observed that for both Canada and the United States there is only a “slight tendency” for these effects to moderate over time. However, the said “slight tendency” mostly rested “on the results for the most recent cohort which we warned probably does not provide a reliable basis for drawing such a conclusion” (Wanner 1986: 61). How does the reproduction theory account for the observed changes in the effect of class background on offspring’s educational attainment, as seen in Sweden and perhaps in Canada and the United States? Change is accounted for in reproduction theory by noting that the widespread substitution of managers for owners in positions of power in the economy, establishment of rationalized rules of recruitment, and demand for more equality of opportunities necessitated a shift in the reproductive strategy of the upper classes. Previously, reproduction was ensured through direct transmission of wealth. Today it is by guaranteeing children higher education (or certified cultural capital) which enables them to better place themselves in higher occupations. As can be seen, this theorized change is not in the direction of less class rigidity and more mobility. It is simply a shift in the reproduction strategy of upper classes. Cultural capital is essential for reproduction of existing class relations, but cannot undermine them. In general, reproduction theorists present a model of domination that appears so stark that it fails to account for change. Whether we use the “correspondence principle” of social production theorists (Bowles and Gintis) or “habitus” and “cultural capital” formulated by cultural reproduction theorists (Bourdieu and his colleagues), there is little room for change and reform. The cycle of reproduction appears unbreakable in these theories. In addition, both liberal-pluralist and reproduction theorists pay little attention to the role of the state in mediating the effect of both parental class and industrial development on mobility in general, and educational attainment of offspring in particular. In modem capitalist economies, state involvement, intervention, and regulation are essential ingredients in the relationship between the economy and agents of production. Most Marxists conceptualize the state as a committee which manages the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie (Marx and Engles 1969). This conceptualization grants the state “relative autonomy” from the bourgeousie, and sees its role as that of acting on “behalf’ and not just at the “behest” of that class. Following Poulantzas (1973) and O’Connor (1973), Panitch (1977) views the three main functions of the state as capital accumulation, legitimation, and coercion. With regard to capital accumulation in Canada, the state has historically provided a favorable fiscal and monetary climate for

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economic growth, has given grants and subsidies to the private sector, has provided the technical infrastructure for capitalist development when it was costly and risky for private capital, and more importantly, has created a capitalist labor market via its immigration and education policies (see Panitch 1977: 14). This last function is important for our purpose. Often corporations find it difficult to guarantee a steady flow of technical and skilled personnel. The state, through its assumption of the social costs of private capital such as scientific research, education, unemployment insurance, medicare, and other labor power policies guarantees this steady flow. Apple (1982: 54) refers to this process as “the socialization of costs and the privatization of profits" (italics in original). The state’s role in capital accumulation in the United States and Canada is also evident in its subsidization of the production of technical and/or administrative knowledge.’ State intervention into education, for example, helps with the ideological legitimation of capitalism, and ensures a steady supply of technical, professional, and skilled or semiskilled personnel-all of which are important for capital accumulation. This dual role of state involvement in education both increases the legitimacy of education in the eyes of the new class of “experts,” and allows this class to use the educational apparatus to reproduce itself.3 We should also note that, at the ideological level, the school curriculum can help with reproduction of the capitalist class by either excluding unwanted, or including desired, materials. In this sense, school as a “state apparatus” is a site where the state, economy, and culture are interrelated. The state’s involvement in education varies depending on the level of economic crisis, the need for legitimation, and/or the existing supply of skilled labor. The Canadian state, for example, has responded to labor shortages in two distinct ways. Prior to the 196Os, it used immigration policies. Since then it has used a combination of immigration and educational policies. Faced with a decline in immigration of skilled labor from Europe, the Canadian state reformed its immigration policy in the late 1960s and 1970s (Immigration Acts of 1967 and 1976), and introduced what has been referred to as the “point system,” where individuals with a higher education and/or skills are given preference over others without regard to country of origin. This shift in policy resulted in an increase in immigration of skilled, ’ In 1991, compared to other OECD countries, Canada and Sweden recorded the highest public spending in education followed by Finland and the United States (Gendron 1994: 11). 3 “Middle-level managers, semi-autonomous employees, and so on can both see the school positively.. .and use it for the reproduction of their own credentials, positions, and privilege for their ultimate employment in the state and industry” (Apple 1982: 55).

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583

educated, and technical labor, particularly from the developing countries. With respect to educational policies, the Canadian government initiatives of the 1950s to 1970s included: increased funding for education, absorption of the cost of education through general taxation, provision of funded preschool education, affording children free access to all schools in their localities, elimination of terminal institutions and programs which blocked the further education of of student financial aid and open learning students, provision environment, and expansion of inexpensive colleges and universities (see Pike 1988a, 1988b). It is important to emphasize that such policies were supported by both business and the general public. The Canadian public had accepted the importance of education as an avenue to job placement, and thus put pressure on the schools to be more open to children of all classes and to provide necessary working skills to students (see Liston 1988: 115; Livingstone 1985). Overall, the Canadian state’s education policies resulted in the expansion of technical, professional, and skilled labor. More importantly, such policies also had a positive result in reducing the effect of inequality of conditions by producing more equality of opportunities, thus reducing social origin disparities on educational attainment (see earlier noted research by Guppy 1984; Guppy et al. 1984; Pineo and Goyder 1988; Guppy and Pendakur 1989). Educational expansion tends to decrease class differences in educational attainment in at least three ways. First, given the limitation in the availability of an absolute number of upper class children and youth, lower and middle class children enter the educational institutions in order to fill the void. Second, state grants and subsidies for the education of lower class children help increase the number of educated individuals from among this class. Finally, state intervention in the school curriculum makes it easier for lower class children to excel in schooling. Thus, the state can help reduce the effect of class origins on educational attainment by either expanding the educational system or by reducing class barriers. Hout and Dohan (1996) suggest that Sweden and the United States have approached equality of educational opportunity along different pathways. The Swedish path was to reduce existing class barriers. The American path went around class inequalities by expanding the educational system between 1950 and 1975. Such a policy counteracted a relatively high level of inequality of conditions prevalent in the United States. As shown

4 However, Robinson (1986) argues that in the United States where both the state and social classes were historically weak, educational expansion was driven primarily by the market. In Europe, in contrast, strong states were able to control the expansion of schools. For example, the French state has been effective in building a differentiated

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earlier, the Canadian state implemented both policies from the early 1960s to 1970s. The Canadian state initiatives of the 1960s have come under attack more recently because of a desire to control public spending (with the consequent financial cutbacks, increasing tuition fees, and decreasing student financial aid) due to the social and economic climate of the 1970s to 1990s (Decore and Pannu 1986; Pike 1988b; for a similar trend in the United States see Hossler et al. 1997: 161). According to Johnson (1985), in the 1980s the proportion of the GNP made available by government to Canada’s universities and colleges declined, enrollment in these institutions increased, the real expenditures per student dropped, and university tuition fees increased. The rate of growth of grants to Ontario universities relative to GDP declined from a ratio of 100 in 1977-78 to 79.2 in 1993-94 (Council of Ontario Universities 1994: table 10). The recession of the 1980s and early 1990s also limited the expansion of average family income which was enjoyed in the 195Os, 1960s and 1970s. The conclusion is that educational institutions in recent decades have experienced an increased level of financial constraint. The recent decline in government spending on higher education and the lower financial resources available to families to ensure higher education for their offspring ought to slow down or even halt the minimal decline in social origin effects on educational attainment of Canadian cohorts found in earlier years. Earlier studies, based on cohort analysis, focused on the Canadian population categories that entered, or completed, postsecondary education during the educational expansion, economic prosperity, and a positive expectation of career advancement. This research showed some decline in social origin effects on educational attainment. In contrast, the 1980s were a time of government educational cutbacks, unemployment, and low occupational and career expectations and opportunities. Recent empirical evidence may suggest that the importance of class background for offspring’s educational attainment has remained stable if not become stronger. It is this hypothesis that guides this research. We will focus on the effects of cultural capital (parental education) and economic resources (parental occupation) on offspring’s educational attainment, as well as on the pattern of change on these effects from 1985 to 1994.

educational system, helping the expansion of mass-track schooling while controlling the growth of elite schooling (Gamer et al. 1989: 297; Hage and Garnier 1992).

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2. Data Sources and Procedures 2.1 Data Sources Our data sources are the 1986 and 1995 General Social Surveys (GSS) of Statistics Canada. These studies involved telephone interviews with a national sample of 16,390 adults in 1985 and 11,876 adults in 1994. The analyses here are based on a subsample of 4,912 males and 6,128 females in 1985, and 3,362 males and 4,175 females in 1994 who were Canadian-born and 25 years of age and older at the time of the interview. Canadian-born were selected because there are different patterns of educational attainment for the native-born compared to the foreign-born, and because characteristics of the education of the foreign-born will vary across countries of origin and periods of immigration (cf., e.g., Porter 1965; Boyd 1990; Beaujot and Rappak 1990). Respondents aged 25 and older were selected to help assure that the vast majority of respondents would have completed their formal schooling by the time of the interview. 2.2 Measurement There is little agreement among scholars as to how to measure class. Some prefer measures based on education, occupation, and/or income, while others use indicators of prestige. These measures essentially tap hierarchical aspects of the class structure rooted in the technical division of labor. They tend to obfuscate the intrinsically relational and exploitative relationships between classes rooted in the social division of labor. However, there is, as well, little agreement among the variety of Marxist conceptualizations of class (see Poulantzas 1975; Carchedi 1975; Wright 1985). The disagreement is mainly on conceptualization of the “new middle classes” resulting from the recent historical of production (see Gouldner 1979; changes in the organization Wuthnow and Shrum 1983; Heuberger 1992). One solution is to consider these new classes as “contradictory locations” ( Wright 1976) or “subsumed classes” (Resnick and Wolff 1982; 1987): Unfortunately, the 1994 survey does not allow us to develop a Marxian measure of class. However, a separate analysis for the 1986 ’ Recently, Wright (1985) has distinguished between managers and professional/ experts, both standing between capital and labor. Managers have control over the organizational assets, under constraints imposed by capitalists, and thus their claim on social surplus ensures them extra income over and above their skill by virtue of their position. Experts have control over their immediate labor process (unity of conception and execution), and by virtue of their control over skill/knowledge they are able to “receive incomes above the costs of producing those skills, a ‘rent’ component to their income; it is this element that constitutes exploitation” (Wright 1985: 70).

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survey showed that the effect of class background on offspring’s educational attainment is almost identical, whether we use Wright’s neo-Marxian class concept, occupational status, or some other index of class based on prestige (see Nakhaie and Curtis 1998). Another difficulty is in assessing the importance of cultural capital, as against economic resources, for educational attainment. Survey research fails to evaluate directly such subtle cultural factors as suggested by Bourdieu and his colleagues. In this paper, it is believed that parental education, controlling for parental class (measured by occupation), is a good indicator of cultural resources of the family of origin. In other words, parental occupation can be viewed as a proxy for class-based economic resources, while parental education serves as an indication of class culture (see Erikson and Jonsson 1996: 24). In both surveys, respondents were asked to report the occupation of their fathers and their mothers when they were 16 years of age as well as the highest education of their fathers and mothers. Fathers’ and mothers’ occupational statuses were divided into five categories: upper white-collar (managers and professionals); white collar (mid-management, semi-professionals and technicians, supervisors, foremen/women, clerical, and sales); blue-collar (skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled laborers); farmers; and others (see Greese et al. 1991: 36 for use of this measure). Mothers’ and fathers’ educational levels were recoded into four categories: elementary or less, some secondary or secondary completed, some postsecondary, and university degree. Because we were concerned with access to postsecondary education, respondents’ educational attainment is measured in three categories: high school diploma or less, postsecondary education but not university degree, and university degree. We know from other research that the relationship between parents’ occupational status and educational attainment of offspring is often confounded with the effects of age, region, and ethnicity. Thus, it is important to control for these variables in any proper study of our research question. Research has shown that older individuals are, on average, less educated (Porter 1965: 155; Guppy et al. 1984; Pineo and Goyder 1988; Guppy and Arai 1993). The residents of the Eastern provinces (particularly Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) and Quebec have lower educational attainment than those from Ontario and the West, while the residents of British Columbia have the highest level of educational attainment (Porter 1965: 158; Robb and Spence 1976: 76, 88). Also, the distribution of class backgrounds of parents will be related to region and age. In the present analyses, region is divided into five categories: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, and British Columbia (Ontario served as the reference category). Age is recorded into eleven five-year categories beginning at age 25 and truncated at 80. We do not control

M. Reza Nakhaie /Review

for ethnicity identical.

because

of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577-609

the ethnic

measure

in the two surveys

587

was not

3. Findings 3.1 Analyses

Without Controls

Tables 1 and 2 present the percentage of fathers and mothers in different occupational and educational categories, with categories of respondents in each of diploma or less, some postsecondary (nonuniversity degree), and university degree for both males and females in 1985 and 1994. The tables show an educational advantage of having fathers and mothers in higher education and in white collar occupations for both men and women respondents in both 1985 and 1994. The social origin measures influence university educational attianment more than they influence postsecondary attainment in both years for both genders. These tables also show that parents in upper educational and occupational positions were more likely to ensure a university degree for their offspring in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to parents in lower educational and occupational positions. For example, 36.4 percent of mothers with a university degree in 1985 had sons with a university degree. This percentage increased to 54.3 percent in 1994 (an increase of 17.9 percent). In contrast, the percentage of mothers with an elementary education or less whose sons acquired a university degree was 10.1 percent in 1985 and 12.8 percent in 1994 (an increase of only 2.7 percent). As another example, in 1985, 43.0 percent of professional and managerial fathers had sons and 30.5 percent had daughters who possessed a university degree. By 1994 these figures had increased to 52.3 percent and 43.9 percent respectively. The comparative figures for offspring of the blue collar fathers were 8.5 percent, 6.5 percent, 12.6 percent, and 8.3 percent respectively. University degree attainment of respondents from all class origins has increased from 1985 to 1994, but that of offspring of the more educated, professional and managerial, and to some extent lower white collar parents, has increased more than that of the offspring of less educated, blue collar, farmers, and the “other” categories. If we compare the findings on parental educational effects with those of Guppy and Pendakur (1989) based on 1974 and 1983 surveys, we notice that social origin disparities have increased for both males and females in the most recent years, while Guppy and Pendakur showed

588

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that such disparities increased only for females and decreased for males in the earlier years6 Comparisons between tables 1 and 2 reveal that having a father or a mother in higher occupations has become more important in recent years for females’ than for males’ changes of university attainment, but less important for postsecondary (nonuniversity degree) attainment of females than males. As an example, these tables show that the

increase in the percentage of daughters of professional and managerial fathers who achieved university degrees from 1985 to 1994 is greater than that of their male counterparts. Moreover, the effect of fathers’ education has increased more for daughters’ chance of a university degree or postsecondary education than for sons’. On the other hand, the effect of mothers’ education on the chance of attaining a university degree between the two surveys increased for sons more than for daughters. Such an effect was in the opposite direction for mothers’ occupation, increasing more for daughters than sons. In other words, except for mothers’ education, in recent years upper class parents have ensured more university education for their daughters than for their sons. There are, as well, some indications of a same-sex effect. For example, fathers’ education and occupation are more important for sons’ than daughters’ chance of attaining a university degree in both surveys. Except for mothers’ education in 1985, however, maternal class is not more important for daughters’ than for sons’ likelihood of attaining a university degree (see also Boyd 1982; Stevens 1986). 3.2 Analyses

With Controls

We analyzed the probabilities of offspring of different educational and occupational backgrounds having postsecondary (not university degrees) or university credentials as against having secondary or less schooling. Logit estimates are similar to unstandardized coefficients, except that they represent the change in the natural log of the odds of being in a particular education category that is associated with a unit change in an independent variable (for further details, see Aldrich and Nelson 1984). Since log odds have little intuitive meaning, we exponentiate them in our discussion of results. The exponential of a coefficient is the factor by which the unlogged odds on educational attainment is multiplied for one unit change in the independent variable (e.g., parental education or occupation).

6 We should caution about this generalization. Our measures of class origin and offspring’s educational attainment are not comparable to those of Guppy and Pendukar and, given our data source, we are unable to reproduce their methodology.

10.1

22.4 946

65.7 2,046

Elementary

604

21.0

30.8

48.1

Secondary

N

29.4

30.1

40.5

Some Postsecondary

3,596

1,848

1,288

309

Occupation for Native-born Males 25 Years of Age and Over (1985 and 1994)

1,283

65.7

38.0

29.1

794

21.5

36.0

36.6

1,164 2,679

602

1,021

26.0 12.8

402

34.3

Table 1. Percentage of Respondents in Three Educational Categories by Fathers’ and Mothers’ Education and

8. E: x Q

3”

: 8 W’ 2 w. z 2% h $-. =:& Bz \o-P ii Q Ffl

% k 2

Table 1 cont.

of Respondents

2,805

578

1,682

4,805 579 1,421

72.5

Elementary

1,117

8.3

23.6 6.4

21.1

N

20.1

40.8

39.2 68.1

1,651 2,525

14.0

37.6

48.4

Secondary

3,377

1,617

1,126

in Three Educational Categories by Fathers’ and Mothers’ Education and

Occupation for Native-born Females 25 Years of Age and Over (1985 and 1994)

Table 2. Percentage

Blue Collar

Table 2 cont.

1 -Dip.

1 PS.

1 Univ.

1985

(

N

1 -Dip.

1 PS.

( Univ.

1994

1

N

A4 Reza Nakhaie /Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577-609

593

In table 3, dummy variables representing mothers’ and fathers’ education and occupation show significant and strong relationships with attaining a university degree or postsecondary education for both male and female offspring in both years. Moreover, social origins have a stronger effect for possessing a university degree than for having a postsecondary education. For example, when the effects of other variables are controlled, the odds of the fathers with a university degree having sons with a university degree or postsecondary diploma in 1985 are 6.68 and 2.29 times higher, respectively, than those of fathers with elementary school or less ( e’.90 = 6.68; e.83 = 2.29). For daughters, these figures are 5.81 and 1.90, respectively ( e1.76= 5.81; e.@ =1.90). Parallel findings for 1994 are 5.53, 2.16, 5.81, and 2.74 respectively ( cl.” = 5.53; e.77 = 2.16 for males; e1.76= 5.81; e’.” = 2.74 for females). Thus, fathers’ education has a substantial effect on offspring’s educational attainment, and the paternal effect is stronger at the university level than at the postsecondary level. A similar pattern is observed for mothers’ education effect, except that mothers’ education effect is stronger for the daughters’ than for of university and postsecondary attainment. the sons’ chances However, the effect of the mothers’ education on daughters’ education seem to have decreased while its effect on sons’ education increased from 1985 to 1994. Fathers’ education effect, on the other hand, seems to have slightly decreased for both offspring, though more for sons than for daughters. also significantly influence offsprings’ Parental occupations educational attainment, more for university than for postsecondary, and with a stronger paternal than maternal effect, particularly on daughters in 1994. Specifically, the odds of the managerial/professional fathers having sons with a university degree or postsecondary education is 2.97 and 1.49 times higher, respectively, than those for the blue collar fathers in 1985 ( e1.09= 2.97; e.40 = 1.49). For females, these figures are 2.58 and 1.95, respectively (e’.” = 2.97 ; e.40 = 1.49). For females, these figures are 2.58 and 1.95, respectively ( e.95 = 2.58; e6’ = 1.95). Parallel findings for 1994 are 2.72, 1.24, 2.25, and 1.51 respectively ( J.OO = 2.72; e.22 = 1.24 for males; e.*’ = 2.25; e.41 = 1.51 for females). The paternal occupational effects thus have slightly decreased for both sexes from 1985 to 1994. Note that the differences in postsecondary education between blue collar and high white collar offspring are not statistically significant in 1994 for both males and females. These differences are, however, statistically significant between low white collar and blue collar offspring.

.61 c -.21 -.21

Blue Collar = Reference

1.09 c

Prof~ion~M~age~~ .63 c -.39 c -.lI

1.00 c

1.47 c 1.19 c .81 c

.65 c

.84 c

1.26 c 1.09 c .68 c

1.71 c 1.03 c

1.90 c 1.32 c

I

.I9 c .50 c -.43 ,

.95 c

2.36 c 1.64 c .80 c

.76 c

1.76 c 1.18 c

-.oo

.67 c .24

.81 c

1.86 c 1.60 c .81 c

.56 c

1.76 c 1.12 c

.40 a

I

.30 c -.43 c -.27 ,

.24 a -.28 a .24

.22

.I%’

.83 a .78c*

.26 a

.45 c

.39 .I6 .25 b

.77 b .79 c

.83 c 1.05 c

Postsecondary Maies 1985 1994

.36 c

.64 b .83 c

.38 c

1.01 c .63 c

vs. HS Diploma Females 1985 1994

3

Educational Attainment Versus High School and Less by

University vs. HS Diploma Females Males 1985. 1994 1985 1994

Lower White Collar Farm Other

Fathers’ Occupation:

Mothers’ Education: University Degree Some Postsecondary Secondary Elementary = reference

~ Elementary = reference

Secondary

Fathers’ Education: University Degree Some Postsecondary

Predictors

Table 3. Log Odd Ratios of University and Postsecondary

M Reza Nakhaie /Review

of Radical Political Economics 32,4 (2000) 577-609

I P L

595

596

M. Reza Nakhaie /Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577-609

The mothers’ occupation effect is less straightforward than that of fathers’ occupation. There are fewer significant relationships between the mothers’ occupational status and the male or female offsprings’ chances of achieving higher education than there are for the fathers’ occupational status. Nevertheless, mothers in professional and managerial occupations have maintained their significant influence in ensuring a university education for their sons and daughters in both years when compared to blue collar working mothers. Mothers’ occupation effect, while statistically significant for postsecondary educational attainment of sons in 1985, is insignificant for sons in 1994 or for daughters in both years (see table 3). However, many of these changes across two surveys are not statistically significant. In fact, interaction analyses show that there are only four statistically significant changes in the effect of social origins on educational attainment from 1985 to 1994, all of which are due to mothers’ characteristics (see asterisk in table 3). Mothers with postsecondary and secondary education are significantly more likely to have sons with postsecondary education in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to mothers with an elementary education or less, Mothers in lower white collar occupations are more likely, and those in “0 ther” occupations are less likely, to have daughters with a university degree in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to mothers in blue collar occupations. These interactions point to an increasing rigidification of the class structures for these groups. In general, table 3 shows that the further one goes in educational levels, the more important the father’s and mother’s education and occupation become. The effects of social origins remain strong in both years for the offspring’s university and postsecondary attainment. There is little indication of a significant decline in social origin effect on educational attainment of offspring. The evidence seems to point to an increasing social origin effect for some groups from 1985 to 1994. Moreover, the parental occupational effects appear to operate through parental differences in educational attainment, though not entirely. There are direct effects of occupational positions as well. Table 3 also shows the expected patterns of educational attainment in relation to region and age for males and females. Older respondents are at a disadvantage for university or postsecondary attainment, significantly less so for males in 1994 than in 1985. Male and female residents of the Eastern provinces have become significantly more disadvantaged in recent years compared to Ontario in attaining a university degree. Similarly, female residents of the Eastern and Western provinces have become significantly more disadvantaged compared to Ontario residents in attaining a postsecondary (not university degree) education in 1994 compared to 1985. Future research may do well to explore regional differences.

M. Reza Nakhaie /Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577409

597

The findings in table 3 also suggest that the advantage of social origin for both male and female offspring depends on the measure of social origin. Fathers and mothers in professional and managerial positions are better able to secure university education for their sons than for their daughters. Highly educated fathers are able to ensure university education for their male and female offspring about equally. On the other hand, daughters of highly educated mothers are better able to obtain university education than their brothers, particularly the younger cohort. Overall, parental education seems to have a stronger effect than parental occupation on offspring’s educational attainment (see table 3). Finally, we evaluated the effects of parental societal origins on educational attainment of those respondents who were 25 to 34 years of age at the time of each of the two surveys. Restricting the analysis to the 25-34 cohort will enable us to detect more accurately the effect of changes in Canadian society and the educational system during 1985-94 as they translate into educational inequality. Table 4 shows that for the younger cohort, as for all respondents in table 3, social origins, particularly parental education, significantly affect university and postsecondary educational attainment of both males and females. Analysis of interactions shows that few of the social origin effects changed significantly from 1985 to 1994. In fact, there were only four significant interactions between social origins and year. Male respondents whose mothers had attained postsecondary education were significantly more likely to attain a university degree and/or postsecondary education in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to male respondents whose mothers had an elementary education or less %+.% = 4.26 and e1.08+0 = 2.80, respectively). Female respondents (e whose mothers were not in the paid labor force were significantly less likely to attain a university degree in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to female respondents whose mothers had a blue collar occupation. These three interactions suggest that the relationship attainment has between class background and educational strengthened. In contrast, female respondents whose fathers were in upper white collar occupations were significantly less likely to attain postsecondary education in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to female respondents whose fathers had a blue collar occupation, pointing to a weakening of social class effect for females.

598

M. Reza Nakhaie /Review of Radical Political Economics 32,4 (2000) 577-609

Table 4. Log Odds Ratios of University and Postsecondary Educational Attainment Versus High School and Less by Predictors and Interactions (25-34 Years of Age)

M. Reza Nakhaie /Review

of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577-609

599

Table 4 cont.

-ii

-.Ol .49

-.19

-.08

1.01 -.97I

.23 .28 -.97

-.19 .29

-1.03

-.34

-.28

-1.21

4.39

1.20

rer Farm* Year 1 Father Others* Year 1 Mother Prof.lManag.* Year

_

Mother L.W. Collar* Year Mother Farm* Year M

Constant Model Chi-Sq. Df N

I I

.49 .78 .83 -

I 1 1

,ll

-2.52 458.7 c 38 1,773

-4.12~ 602.2 c 38 1,990

-.96c 213.0 c 38 2,219

-.72

-nz

-1.07c 342.9 c 38 2,777

a Pc.05; b PC.01; c PC.001. * The differences between 2 years are significant at Pc.05 level. References for the region=Ontario, for age-old, for year=1985, for fathers’ or mothers’ education= elementary education or less, and for fathers’ or mothers’ occupation=blue collar.

600

M. Reza Nakhaie /Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577-609

Region-year interactions show improvements for males’ university attainment in British Columbia and deterioration for females’ university attainment in the East, West, and British Columbia in recent years when compared to their counterparts in Ontario. Similarly, female respondents in the Eastern provinces are significantly disadvantaged for postsecondary attainment in recent years compared to Ontario. It is perhaps of little surprise that males and females in the Atlantic provinces are under-represented in higher education. On average, tuition fees and unemployment rates are the highest in Atlantic Canada, while average family income is lowest compared to other provinces.

4. Summary and Discussion The results of these analyses show that parental education and occupation had significant consequences for offspring’s educational attainment in both 1985 and 1994. It is evident that social origins do substantially influence patterns of educational choice and attainment of both genders. Bivariate analyses show that the upper social origin respondents are more likely to have a university degree in 1994 than in 1985 when compared to the lower social origin respondents. The findings do not lend any support to the liberal-pluralist thesis. Although educational attainment of lower social origin respondents has increased, it has increased more for the offspring of higher social classes. As Katz (1975: 284; Pike 1980: 115) said decades ago, lower class children have to “run harder than ever just to keep from falling The findings seem to confirm our fear that curtailed behind.” government funding to postsecondary education has aided in halting the decline in class inequalities in educational attainment (see Guppy et al. 1984: 329; Pike 1988a, 1988b, 1993a). The log odds ratios show that while the relationships between social origins and postsecondary and/or university education are essentially stable from 1985 to 1994 (for Canada and the United States see Wanner 1986; and Shavit and Blossfeld’s mutlination study 1993), they have become more rigidified for some groups. For example, the most easily interpretable social origin effect change is the lower chance for female offspring of mothers who are outside the labor force, compared to blue collar mothers, to achieve university credentials in 1994 than in 1985. This is not a surprising finding given the increase in the cost of education and the fact that one person’s income is not sufficient to meet a family’s needs or to ensure a better education for children.

M Reza Nakhaie 1 Review of Radical Political Economics 32, 4 (2000) 577409

601

Consistent with the previous research in Canada and the United States, a relatively high proportion of lower class students who now enter the postsecondary system appear to be destined for community colleges, whereas the universities continue to draw from predominantly middle and upper class populations (Dennison 1975; Anisef 1982; Russell 1977-78; Hum 1978: 98; Pike 1981; Guppy 1984). This pattern can be explained by a lower expectation of educational continuation (and cultural capital) of the low SES (socio-economic status) than the high SES students (Buttrick 1977 for Toronto; Porter et al. 1973, 1982 for Ontario) as well as by the differences in economic resources of social classes. Included in the cultural capital of a class is what Bourdieu calls “causality of the probable.” Accordingly, “the propensity for a student from a given class to abandon his [sic] studies increases as the probability of access to higher levels of the educational system, calculated for the average number of this class, decreases” (Brubaker 1985: 737). For Bourdieu, this negative predisposition towards school, self-depreciation, and a resigned attitude to failure (or what is generally known as aspiration and achievement orientation) must be understood as the unconscious estimation of the objective probabilities of success or failure for the whole class (Bourdieu 1977: 495; Bourdieu and Boltanski 1979: 27). Thus, the tendency for members of dominant classes to reproduce themselves is determined, among other things, by their evaluation and perception of the present and future position of their class in the social structure. This hypothesis is supported by empirical realities. Although somewhat dated, Porter et al.‘s (1973: 110) study of 9,000 Ontarian students showed that 82 percent of grade 12 high mental ability and 77 percent of grade 12 low mental ability students from high socio-economic status expected to continue to grade 13 (and in most cases on to university). In contrast, only 59 percent of high mental ability students from lower classes expected to continue to grade 13. In a more recent study of U.S. youths, Hanson (1994: 180) showed that social class had the stronger and more consistent effect on lost talent than any other predictor. Specifically, “lower SES youths were more than twice as likely as were upper SES youths to have educational expectations that fell short of their educational aspirations.” Furthermore, if we conceptualize parental education as a proxy of class culture, distinct from class-based resources, the present study also provides support for Bourdieu’s thesis. The occupational positions of parents matter for the educational attainment of offspring, not just because of occupational resources and rewards, but because of associated differences in the parents’ accumulation of cultural capital and their effects. Parents with more “certified cultural capital” are better able to reproduce themselves than parents with less of this type

602

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of asset, regardless of their occupational position or the gender of the child. We should immediately add that although parental educational effects seem to be stronger than occupational effects for offspring’s educational attainment, it is likely that both economic and cultural capital operate simultaneously to produce the observed results. In fact, prolonged economic deprivation for members of the lower classes is likely to have a profound effect on their attitudes and values. Therefore, it is “a false distinction to separate ‘culture’ from ‘economics”’ (Pike 1975: 98). 5. Policy Implications

Given the scope of economic conditions of the 1980s and early 199Os, as well as the recent drastic educational cutbacks, one is forced to expect an increasing pattern of educational inequality among social classes and regions throughout Canada by the new millennium. Governmental policies should give serious consideration to these inequalities. There are three important and inter-related mechanisms that policy makers should take into consideration: inequalities based on economic resources and cultural capitals as well as those related to the school curricula. The analyses in this paper dealt directly with the first two mechanisms and indirectly with the third. Checchi’s (1997: 342) study of the role of parental education in income attainment in the United States estimated that granting equality of opportunity in educational attainments reduces observed immobility by about 40 to 50 percent. However, she argues that, paradoxically, policies geared towards equality of educational opportunities may help increase income inequalities. Such policies will result in increasing the supply of educated labor which, in turn, diminishes the importance of educational signals for job placement. In order to produce effective market signals, schools will have to use alternative selection mechanisms (e.g., marks, test scores). She insisted that these mechanisms tend to be a measure of “natural” ability which are then used as a justification of inequality of rewards. Although this may be the case, such policies will equalize the playing field between the classes. Moreover, there is little reason to believe that “natural” ability differs by social classes (Et-&son and Jonsson 1996: 11). True, research does show that social class is positively correlated with scores on reading, inductive reasoning, associative memory, vocabulary, mathematical skills, and perceptual speeds (Parelius and Parelius 1987: 266). However, given the middle and upper class curriculums of schools, there is little wonder that these test scores and marks are classbased. These tests have a tendency to favor the cultural capitals of the

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603

middle and upper classes-not their “natural” ability-at the expense of lower and working classes. Of course, the equalization of class conditions also needs to be addressed. The affluent parents are better able to provide financial support in order to cover the cost of their offspring’s higher education than are poorer parents. The economic resources and job security of middle and upper classes are also important in that they ensure better childhood conditions and patterns of parent-child interactions. Crosscountry time series analyses show that the more equal the distribution of resources among families of origin, the lower the level of educational inequality (Erikson and Jonsson 1996: 18). Hossler and Vesper’s (1993) study revealed that higher income and more educated parents were more equipped to counteract recent rise in the cost of education because they had more savings for their children’s postsecondary education. Therefore, educational policies should not only eliminate middle and upper class bias in the school curriculums, but should also ensure access of lower class youth to higher education through income contingent loans and grants, as an attempt to equalize class conditions. Finally, there is also a need for a shift from accumulation driven curricula-focus on numeracy, responsibility, flexibility, future orientation, etc .-to one of job specific training for advanced technical skills congruent to the aspirations of workers. Unfortunately, organized labor has not been able to articulate an alternative to the existing capitalist-oriented curricula of the schools (Livingstone 1985: 93). This is in part due to the fact that policy makers have rarely included the individuals who are the focus of their studies in the development of solutions to their own problems (see Freeman 1997: 523). In the case of Sweden, a traditionally strong organized labor movement ensured egalitarian reforms which were partly responsible for the substantial reduction of inequalities in education and income (see Erikson and Jonsson 1996). Canada and the United States lack such powerful organized labor with a clear educational reform policy. There are needs for a massive democratization of schools, development of critical pedagogies, and creation of political networks which would enable parents, students, and teachers to reflect collectively on their experiences, and implement alternative and effective ways of dealing with the alienating ensemble of capitalist educational curricula. Such a transformation requires a coalition of teachers, parents, organized labor, and other community activists. The potential for such alliances became a realization when recently organized labor and other activists in Canada joined the Ontario teachers’ strike in order to confront the provincial government’s intrusion into schools’ curriculums.

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Acknowledgments I thank Robert Pike, Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, and the reviewers of the Review of Radical Political Economics for critical and helpful suggestions.

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