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A distance; International audience; In this paper we compare the longitudinal labour market activity of Canadian women and men across the spans of the 2008 ‘great’ recession and the 2020 pandemic recession to determine differential impacts by gender and education on labour market engagement, income, and family household tasks in these two time periods.

International audience

International audience

In the last decade, doctoral education has undergone a sea change with several global trends increasingly apparent. Drivers of change include massification and professionalization of doctoral education and the introduction of quality assurance systems. The impact of these drivers, and the forms that they take, however, are dependent on doctoral education within a given national context. This paper is frontline in that it contributes to the literature on doctoral education by examining the ways in which these global trends and drivers are being taken up in policies and practices by various countries. We do so by comparing recent changes in each of the following countries: Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, the UK, and the USA. Each country case is based on national education policies, policy reports on doctoral education (e.g., OECD and EU policy texts), and related materials. We use the same global drivers to examine educational policies of each country. However, depending each national context, these drivers are framed in considerably different ways. This raises questions about (1) their comparability at a global level and (2) the universality of the PhD. Also we find that this global-local nexus reveals unresolved tensions within the national doctoral educational frameworks.

International audience; This symposium brings together scholars from across Canada, Europe, and the United States to explore how longitudinal and life course research can be used to study higher education. Highlighting both qualitative and quantitative research, we will explore aspects of social reproduction, inequality, stratification, wellbeing, and school-to-work transitions.

This session took place on October 25, 2011 in the Lillooet Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia.

This study investigated how and why individuals chose various post-high school destinations. Theoretical frameworks based on Härnqvists (1978) conceptualization of the determinants of educational choice, rational choice theory as depicted by Elster (1986, 1989a, 1989b), and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice (1977c, 1979, 1986, 1990b) were used to examine 1) the complex of individual and institutional influences of educational choice, 2) the processes underlying the decisions people made in choosing whether or not to pursue a post-secondary education, and 3) how students in the midst of the transition from high school to various post-high school destinations perceived these processes. Central to these analyses are the concepts of cultural capital, primary and secondary social capital, beliefs about and dispositions toward post-secondary education, academic capital, and enabling capital in relation to post-high school status. This research, conducted in British Columbia, has undertaken two kinds of examination: 1) the exploration of choices made by a large sample of recent high school graduates (n5345), as reported on a survey questionnaire and enriched by corresponding Ministry of Education linked data and 2) two sets of intensive, focused interviews conducted with a sample of Grade 12 students (n51) who were in the process of making choices about post-high school destinations. Three different types of analyses were conducted to explore the choice process. First, discrirninant function analyses were carried out to determine which individual and institutional determinants of educational choice, as depicted by Härnqvist, best predicted post-high school group membership (non-participant, non-university participant, university participant). Second, structural equation modelling using LISREL VI was employed to unravel the processes, as depicted in a model of Post-high School Status, that led to differential group membership. Finally, interviews with Grade 12 students were carried out to explore students perceptions of these processes. In the first discrirninant analysis, non-participants and participants in postsecondary education comprised the dichotomous grouping variable. Employing the variables included in Härnqvists framework, 74% of the non-participants and 79% of the participants could be correctly classified into their respective groups. The most powerful predictor was curricular differentiation, followed by level of education expected, total number of awards received, and primary social capital (parental influence variables). In a second discriminant analysis with non- university and university participants as the grouping variable, and based on the same set of predictors, the type of post-secondary institution attended was correctly predicted for 81% of university participants and 75% of non-university participants. High school grade point average most strongly predicted group membership, followed by curricular differentiation and level of education expected. Primary social capital (parental influence variables) or secondary social capital (influence of school personnel and peers) were not useful predictors in this analysis. In a three group discriminant analysis (non-participant, non-university participant, and university participant), the first function distinguished among these three groups on academic capital variables, disposition variables, and parents as sources of cultural capital, and the second discriminant function distinguished among the groups on primary and secondary social capital variables and number of academic awards received. Based on Härnqvist’s schema, 81% of university participants, 50% of non-university participants, and 67% of non-participants were correctly classified. Analyses by gender were also reported for each discriminant analysis. In the second type of analysis, a theoretical model of Post-high School Status was tested using LISREL VI. Strong positive relationships were demonstrated to exist between academic capital and post-high school status, and between dispositions toward post-secondary education and academic capital, for both males and females. The effect of parents as sources of cultural capital on dispositions toward post-secondary education was moderate, for both males and females. The total effects of parental transmission of cultural and social capital on post-high school destinations was significant. In these analyses, 58% of the variance in post- high school destination for the male sample and 54% of the variance for the female sample was explained. In the third analysis, the processes of educational choice were further explored through interviews with Grade 12 students. Of particular theoretical interest were differences in students’ long term dispositions toward post-secondary education, beliefs about post-secondary education, and how parents as sources of primary social capital enabled their children to pursue higher education. It was concluded that the treatment of two disparate strands of thinking (rational choice theory and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice) as complementary rather than competing provide a coherent account of how students made choices about post-high school destinations. The theoretical frameworks developed for this study hold potential as a first step in revitalizing the investigation of equality of educational opportunity. Implications for further research, theory development, and policy directions are offered.

Further training is understood as any professionally-oriented course or formalized work-related learning activity; it takes place after leaving formal education and entering the labor market. A large body of literature mainly based on cross-sectional research shows that access to and participation in further training is predominantly determined by two factors, individual level of education and occupational status. This research departs from previous work and its cross-sectional focus on socio-economic stratifiers by adopting a longitudinal modelling strategy and incorporating psychological and social psychological factors into sociological research. I focus on the case of Germany and employ data drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel study. There are two main theoretical and empirical contributions of this dissertation. (1) Further training is viewed from the perspective of life course sociology; recurrent engagement across adulthood is phrased as prolonged educational careers which extend beyond formal schooling. Sequence and cluster analyses show that participation in training varies by educational background and previous training experience, underlining a two-fold path-dependency. Additionally, results align with the life course concept of cumulative advantage/disadvantage. Frequent and continuous participation in training is associated with higher occupational status and more favorable labor market positioning in terms of stable full-time employment; whereas training abstainers and irregular participants are over-represented among marginally and unemployed. (2) Further training is conceptualized as a function of demographics, socio-economic and work-related factors. However, this is extended by incorporating two more subjective mechanisms which subtly are at play in determining participation in training: attitudes and personality. (a) Framed in terms of rational choice theory, training attitudes represent subjective evaluations of the perceived training utility (qualification or adaptation); a general career orientation and different forms of perceived training constraints are also taken into account. Findings from random-effects panel regressions reveal that adaptation utility and career orientation facilitate training, while perceived constraints reduce the training likelihood, everything else equal. For low educated individuals, positive evaluations of the adaptive capacities of training and strong career orientation can be interpreted as an equalizer in access to training; their training propensity is no longer significantly different from similar highly qualified individuals. (b) Personality traits are understood as a productive set of non-cognitive skills which drive behaviors and determine socio-economic life outcomes like educational performance, labor market participation and status attainment. In the context of further training, specifically two traits matter in increasing training participation: openness to new experiences and internal control beliefs. In light of these findings this dissertation concludes that further training is an extension of previous educational and occupational stratification. However, there are exceptions; low educated individuals with positive assessments of the utility of training seem to overcome the educational barrier in access to further training. Also, attitudes and personality should be systematically considered in training research as this research shows that these softer qualities may prove more effective in reducing unequal training chances over the life course.