Germ Janmaat, Institute of Education, g.janmaat@ioe.ac.uk

LLAKES Second International Conference

London, 18-19 October 2012

Educational Differentiation and Inequalities of Civic Engagement

Central question and rationale

Key question:Does educational differentiation exacerbate

inequalities of civic engagement?

Rationale:• Disparities of civic engagement undermine

social cohesion;• Almost no studies looking at the role of

education in mitigating such disparities

Civic engagement (CE)A hazy concept because it is contested

Two schools of thought:- CE as conventional political participation,

institutional trust, law abidance, sense of duty (i.e. the conservative view)

- CE as tolerance, civic equality, alternative participation, critical attitude towards authority (i.e. the left-wing view)

Our approach - take components from both views:• Civic knowledge and skills• Political efficacy• Voting intentions• Institutional trust• Gender equality• Ethnic tolerance

Educational differentiation and the link with civic engagement

Two modes of educational differentiation:• Grouping on the basis of ability• School autonomy

Hypotheses:1. The more grouping by ability, the larger (a) the cross-

classroom gaps in CE and (b) the effect of social background on CE;

2. The more school autonomy, the larger (a) the cross-classroom gaps in CE and (b) the effect of social background on CE;

Why these effects?Curriculum differences across tracks/schools; selection

by ability = selection by social background; peer effects

Data and methods

Data sources:- ICCS 2009 (14 year olds) and Cived 2000 (16 year olds)

for indicators of Civic Engagement (ready made scales)- PISA 2009 and ICCS national context study for indicators

of ability grouping and school autonomy- Ability grouping: age of first selection + within school

ability grouping- School autonomy: curriculum planning + curriculum

delivery + textbooks

Methods:- ICCCs to calculate cross-classroom gaps in CE- Proportions of explained variance to measure social and

ethnic background effect

Descriptive stats: Comprehensivization (inverse of grouping by ability)

Comprehensivization

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

Comprehensivization

Comprehensivization

Descriptive stats: School autonomyE

SP

CZ

E

NLD

BF

L

RU

S

EN

G

SW

E

NO

R

FIN

DN

K

PO

L

SV

K

ITA

SV

N

IRL

LV

A

AU

T

BG

R

LT

U

ES

T

GR

C

SW

I School autonomy

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

School autonomy

School autonomy

Educational differentiation and inequalities of CE (14 year olds) (correlations; N=22)

Comprehensivization School autonomy

Between classroom differences in:

Civic knowledge -.46* -.16

Civic efficacy .01 .19

Intention to vote -.50* -.26

Institutional trust -.19 -.43*

Gender equality -.35 -.21

Ethnic tolerance .07 .19

The effect of social background on:

Civic knowledge -.24 -.02

Civic efficacy .47* .29

Intention to vote -.31 .12

Institutional trust .09 .08

Gender equality -.06 .16

Ethnic tolerance .09 .13

Educational differentiation and inequalities of CE (16-19 year olds) (correlations; N=11)

Comprehensivization School autonomy

Between classroom differences in:

Civic knowledge -.50 -.03

Expected political participation -.20 .26

Institutional trust -.20 .25

Gender equality -.25 -.11

Ethnic tolerance -.13 -.18

The effect of social background on:

Civic knowledge .15 .89**

Expected political participation -.16 .50

Institutional trust -.13 .13

Gender equality -.09 .46

Ethnic tolerance -.17 .18

Conclusions• Only Hypothesis 1a is supported: smaller classroom

disparities in CE in states with comprehensive systems;• The two modes of educational differentiation are not

related to the strength of the social background effect;

Why is educational differentiation not related in the same way to CE as to achievement?

• Low status of citizenship education;• Youngsters only gain an interest in CE in late

adolescence;• Civic engagement only takes on a definite shape when

youngsters enter the labour market and become aware of inequalities and exclusion;

• CE has become an identity marker for different education groups