The Role of Parents, Teachers, and Schools in Overcoming Inequalities in Access to Educational Activities

• In Event: Partnering With Families to Promote College Access and Career Readiness

Abstract

Adolescents from disadvantaged families experience educational careers differently from their advantaged peers who have access to a broader set of educational opportunities. A main driver of these inequalities are heterogeneities in financial and cultural capital as well as parental investments. To overcome these inequalities schools are considered key actors. Here, we take a life-course perspective and assess the role of schools and parental and teacher support in creating access to non-curricular educational activities. We analyze a cohort of young Swiss men. We find substantial SES-differences in access to educational opportunities, which are reduced if schools broaden their involvement. Parental support is more important than teacher support for high-SES adolescents; the opposite holds for low-SES adolescents. The findings are highly policy-relevant.

Author

• Marieke Heers, University of Lausanne