The Segregation Effects of Market-Based Education Policies: A Social Mechanisms–Based Explanation

• In Event: Situating the Paradoxes of Market-Driven Education Policies Within a Human Right to Education Framework

Abstract

Objectives
This paper analyzes the main global trends in the relationship between market-oriented policies and school segregation. Based on a large body of research that connects privatization, market reforms and school segregation, the paper identifies three main social mechanisms: 1) white flight, 2) social closure and 3) student selection.
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Mechanism-based explanations, currently widely discussed in the social sciences, is a useful approach to open the black box between education markets and school segregation. Social-mechanisms explanations search for regularities that connect structural elements and circumstances to actors’ responses. In the field of pro-market policies in education, the mechanism-based explanations can contribute decisively to understanding how these policies work. In this article, we make use of James Coleman’s theory of social action and his typology of social mechanism to show how this connection operates in the field of education markets and school segregation (Coleman 1986).
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Coleman’s theory of social action, and his macro-micro-macro model, proposes three types of mechanisms that occur between macro states. First, structural or macro elements set the conditions for the emergence of ‘individual desires, beliefs, and action opportunities’ (Hedström & Swedberg, 1996). Second, specific actions that are inspired by these values and opportunities generated at the micro level. Third, the aggregate of individual actions that produce a collective action, sometimes unintended or unexpected, that is transformed into a collective outcome at the macro level. These three steps are situational, individual action and transformational mechanisms. This model is applied to the three mechanisms by which market reforms produce school segregation.
Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
An extensive literature was reviewed and analyzed with the lens of the social mechanism approach. ERIC and Scopus databases are the main sources of information. Studies from the US and Europe are the dominant ones and are systematized based on studies that focus on supply, demand or the interaction between both dimensions. In a second step, key causal relationships identified in these studies are selected and classified according to the three main social mechanisms.
Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
The three social mechanisms (white flight, social closure and student selection) can be identified in the existing literature. Examples of these mechanisms are provided in the paper. Two main conclusions can be drawn. First, the relationship between education markets and school segregation is complex, multidimensional and frequently overcomes what the ontology of these policies expects. Second, market-oriented policies are prone to exacerbate social class differences in the education field.
Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Mechanism-based analytical approaches can contribute not just to understanding the impact that education market reforms can have on school segregation, but also to understanding the causality of this relationship in different social contexts. The findings of this type of research may provide policymakers with a solid base to know how specific policies operate in real contexts and how the expected effects may be confirmed or altered by actors’ enactment.

Authors

• Xavier Bonal

• Adrian Zancajo, University of Manchester