An analysis of detailed parental occupational differences and their effects on children’s school attainment in Britain.

(2011) - Vernon Gayle, Paul Lambert

Journal: ISA Research Committee
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Tags:: #paper #SocialClass #Attainment #Education
Cite Key:: [@Gayle2011]

Abstract

It is often argued that detailed differences between occupational positions have important empirical effects upon socio-economic outcomes (e.g. Weeden and Grusky, 2005). In this paper we investigate the extent to which fine-grained measures of parental occupational positions, as are available in a major longitudinal UK social survey (Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales), add value to an analysis of children’s educational attainment. The focus of the presentation is school attainment measured by General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination. GCSEs are public examinations and mark the first major educational branching point, and poor GCSE attainment is a considerable obstacle which precludes young people from pursuing more advanced educational courses. Young people with low levels of GCSE attainment are frequently disadvantaged in the labour market, and are also likely to have a less favourable longer term experiences in the adult labour market.

Notes

“We conclude that there is a relatively strong, and persistent, association between parental occupations and filial GCSE attainment. This is greater than the effect of both gender and ethnicity. This relationship is observed irrespective of however GCSE attainment and parental occupations are measured, however, the relationship is empirically stronger when the data on parental occupations recognises specific and detailed differences between jobs” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 2)

“The empirical properties of occupational measures are intrinsically of interest since measures based on occupations are widely employed across the social sciences, and are extensively exploited within stratification research. Occupations are demonstrated to be central defining features of individual’s lives, identities and material circumstances” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 3)

“We regard occupations as a preferable means to measure social circumstances due to the relative stability of occupational positions over the life-course when compared with income and wealth measures” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 3)

“We argue that studying GCSE attainment is sociologically important because GCSEs are public examinations and mark the first major branching point in a young person’s educational career. In Britain poor GCSE attainment is a considerable obstacle which precludes young people from pursuing more advanced educational courses” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 6)

“However with expanding microdata, metadata and software resources, it is plausible that much more can be achieved with complex occupational records (Lambert et al., 2007).” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 7)

“In seeking to identify a sociologically informed fine-grained measure of occupational positions, we also operationalised a version of the 82 category ‘microclass’ scheme described by Jonsson et al. (2009).” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 9)

“The mircoclass scheme is intended to differentiate detailed differences between occupations according to criteria of shared occupational cultures, associations and labour organisations. Nevertheless the scheme used by Jonsson et al. (2009) has acknowledged, pragmatic limits and features several heterogeneous categories, as well as being vulnerable to ambiguities in translation.” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 9)

“They assert that ‘the microclass approach shares with the big-class model the presumption that contemporary labor markets are balkanized into discrete categories, but such balkanization is assumed to take principally the form of institutionalized occupations (e.g., doctor, plumber, postal clerk) rather than institutionalized big classes (e.g., routine nonmanuals, proprietors)’ (Jonsson et al. 2009, pp.982-983)” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 12)

“We also tentatively speculate that a microclass approach might have applications in other research areas such as the study of youth transitions.” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 13) Super important for my PhD

“We conclude that there is a relatively strong, and persistent, association between parental occupations and filial GCSE attainment” (Gayle and Lambert, 2011, p. 16)