Transitions to Postsecondary Education: An Intersectional Analysis of Youth in Toronto and London

• In Event: 63.038 - Global Perspectives on Access to Postsecondary Education for Underserved Students

Abstract

International comparisons of post-secondary transitions can help identify the correlates of and barriers to university participation for under-represented groups. In this paper, we examine cohorts of students from two ‘gateway cities’ – London, UK, and Toronto, Canada – to explore the differences in their ability to transition from secondary education into university. Using an intersectional framework, we employ a multilevel binary logistic regression model to analyze the datasets and the interactions between key variables, such as gender, race, and class. We focus our discussion on the starkest contrast present in the results, i.e. that Black boys in London are more than twice as likely to transition to university than Black boys in Toronto, and offer possible explanations for this finding.

Authors

• Reana Gail Maier, McMaster University

• Karen Robson, McMaster University

• Sean Demack, Sheffield Hallam University

• Robert S. Brown, Toronto District School Board