scholarly journals Trait-specific testing of the equal environment assumption: The case of school grades and upper secondary school attendance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Mönkediek
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Twin Design ◽  
School Grades ◽  
Trait Variance ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Classical Twin Design ◽  
Using Data

Objective: This paper tests the equal environment assumption for school grades and upper secondary school attendance and describes the conditions under which violations are problematic. Background: A growing number of sociologists use twin-based research designs, particularly the Classical Twin Design (CTD), to differentiate between genetic and social causes of social inequalities. One key assumption of CTD is that environmental influences are shared by monozygotic and dizygotic twins to the same extent; called the equal environment assumption (EEA). This assumption is frequently contested and the target of concern, because violation can result in an overestimation of heritability and an underestimation of the role of the social environment. Method: Using data from the first wave of the German TwinLife study, the paper illustrates two approaches to test EEA for school grades and enrolment in upper secondary school (Gymnasium). The analysis is based on a sample of twins (N = 1,576) aged ten to twelve years. Results: The results show that the approaches are able to detect violations of EEA (though in different ways), depending on the environmental variables that might causally be involved in trait variance. Only in one case was a violation was observed; it had no effect on heritability estimates. Conclusion: While EEA holds for school grades, violations do not automatically invalidate CTD in case of upper secondary school attendance.

scholarly journals Young People’s Attitudes to Attractive Work, During and After Upper Secondary School

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ing-Marie Andersson ◽  
Kristina Gunnarsson ◽  
Ann Hedlund ◽  
Gunnar Rosén
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
School To Work ◽  
After School ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Job Stability ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Employee Identification ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">Attractive work has been defined as a job position which an individual wants, where the employee experiences job stability and where employee identification and dedication are fostered. The present study is aimed at increasing knowledge about attitude changes to work during young people’s transition from school to work-life. A closed cohort, consisting of 225 pupils from graduating classes in 10 upper secondary schools in Sweden, was studied. The most significant result was found in the pupils’ expectations regarding work attractiveness while they were still attending school and in the subsequent year, after they had finished school. During school attendance, there were no differences between the groups, while those who did not find employment after school greatly reduced their demands regarding attractive work.Those who managed to get a job maintained the same level of expectation as during their school years, in terms of requirements for an attractive job. </div></div></div>

Social inequalities in the allocation of learning support in a Swedish upper secondary school

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
Almost All

The upper secondary school is in Sweden practically mandatory even though attendance is voluntary and today almost all students in Sweden continue their studies at upper secondary school. But not all of them leave this school with a complete certificate of schooling as a result of experiencing a range of difficulties which may be due to cognitive, physical, sensory or social factors. This article uses ethnographic data from a case study to explore how one municipal upper secondary school allocates additional support to students with different social characteristics. The study focussed on students in the following three upper secondary schools programme all in the same school: (1) Individual, (2) Health and Social Care, and (3) Technology. The results show that existing social inequalities are reinforced through everyday activities and interactions. The prevalence and type of additional support that the students are offered is one of the factors reinforcing existing social differentiation, and is closely linked to the type of programme they are studying. Successful support services appear to be focused on Swedish male pupils from higher socio-economic backgrounds on the Technology Programme. Students from lower social backgrounds enrolled in either the Individual or Health and Social Care Programmes receive much less appropriate support. The social justice implications of these priorities for resource allocation are discussed.

scholarly journals Being Able to Stay or Learning to Stay: a Study of Rural Boys’ Educational Orientations and Transitions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Stenseth ◽  
Unn-Doris K. Bæck
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Upper Secondary Education ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Educational Orientations

AbstractThis study explores the influence of geographical location on young pupils’ educational orientations and their transition from lower to upper secondary school; it pays particular attention to the voices of male youths from a rural area. More specifically, it investigates the interplay between gender and geographical contexts and the significance of these factors in understanding the processes associated with educational orientations. Margaret Archer’s framework is used to analyse how pupils’ agency is constrained and/or enabled by objective structures. The data material consists of qualitative interviews with 18 pupils transitioning from lower to upper secondary school in Norway. Each of the pupils was interviewed twice: first when they were in their last year of lower secondary education, and then during their first year of upper secondary education. The findings show that pupils consider geographical locations when making decisions about further education and work. In addition, they believe that education beyond compulsory schooling benefits their life in the rural areas. However, unlike their urban counterparts, pupils from rural areas appear to have a more constraining transition to upper secondary education. Through the analyses in this article, it becomes clear that both geographical location and gender are key factors for understanding processes connected to education.

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