Social Sciences Lecture Series | Prof. Dr. Simone Schneider › view all

Fairness Assessments of Educational Opportunities: Do Institutions Matter?

Prof. Dr. Simone Schneider (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) on "Fairness Assessments of Educational Opportunities: Do Institutions Matter?".

Abstract

In this presentation, Simone Schneider will present ongoing work of the PERGAP project which aims to advance knowledge on the institutional drivers that shape people’s perceptions of inequality and justice. This presentation will focus on the relationship between institutional forces and people´s fairness assessments of educational opportunities across European societies. It explores if the institutional design of educational systems, most importantly educational tracking, is related to how Europeans assess their own educational opportunities and those of others in society. Building on neoinstitutional theory, this study proposes two potentially opposing institutional functions: establishing educational tracking either as an ‘institutional barrier’ or ‘ideational source’ for the formation of fairness perceptions within the institutional context. The empirical analysis is based on data from the European Social Survey 2018/19 and applies multi-level modelling techniques. Results show that fairness assessments of educational opportunities vary systematically between European societies and social groups within society. Results support both institutional arguments: (1) Educational tracking acts as ‘institutional barrier’ when respondents assess their own educational opportunities with lower fairness assessments being observed in countries with stronger educational tracking. (2) If self-related assessments are accounted for, educational tracking also seems to function as ‘ideational source’ when assessing educational opportunities of others in society, showing respondents are slightly more positive in their judgements on the equality of opportunities when growing up in more differentiated educational systems. These findings demonstrate that institutions are systematically interrelated with people’s fairness assessments. ‘Ideological cues’ that function as system legitimizing mechanisms interact with ‘experiential and informational knowledge’ that shed a critical light on the stratifying impact of institutions. The interrelatedness of these two mechanisms seems crucial for understanding the institution-perception link and demands more attention in future research.

This lecture is organized by the CRC 1342 "Global Dynamics of Social Policy" and part of the CRC Jour Fixe event series.