How middle schools view students’ prospects and shape students’ trajectories

• In Event: How school in Russia’s mass education system reproduce inequality

Proposal

School climate plays an important role in shaping students’ postsecondary trajectories. It predisposes schools to adopt particular advisement and “encouragement” or “discouragement” practices. For example, research shows that the share of students enrolled in universities is higher in schools with a college-oriented culture (Donnelly, 2015; Roksa, Robinson, 2017). Or school can play a gate-keeper' role, shaping low aspirations and preventing students from "risky" higher education choice (Cuconato, Bois-Reymond du, Lunabba, 2015).

In an in-depth study of 30 Russian middle schools, we analyzed the role of school climate in in shaping the decisions of 9th graders regarding their academic trajectories—specifically, we analyze the career advising practices for students regarding their choice of vocational school or going on to academic secondary school (two years) and then to university. In Russia, middle schools are generally situated in educational institutions that encompass all grades, from kindergarten to 11th grade (complete academic high school). Vocational schools are separate institutions. Schools advise students either to continue on to academic secondary school—that is, to stay in the same institution, entering 10th grade—or to go elsewhere. In the latter case, a student chooses to go to vocational school or a different academic secondary school. Academic career counseling is situated in the context of school climate: we found that schools vary greatly in how they advise students, and advisement is affected by how the school administration and teachers consider the role of achievement and social class in the selection process of students for future economic and social roles.

We identified four types of school climate which shape differently the trajectories of students with similar SES and academic performance, either orienting them to higher (university education) or vocational school. The first type is that every student should have his or her own trajectory. The important thing here that advisors’ recommendations to students are based more on the students’ performance than on their family background. The second type of school climate, typical of lower SES schools, is one where advisors are prone to recommend vocational education to their (mostly low SES) students as a good educational choice, often regardless of their academic achievement. School personnel argue that vocational education is probably not that prestigious, but it is a good way to attain a stable profession and sustainable life. The third type of climate, typical of higher SES schools but one we also observed in some lower and middle SES schools is one in which going on to higher education is considered always better than any other trajectory for all students. In this type of school climate, we found that schools often promote everyone in their 9th grades to academic secondary school, and then urge them on to attend university. In the fourth type of school climate we observed, the school considers its main goal to be to produce good citizens. School advisors do not feel responsible for how students make their choices of academic trajectories.
Thus, some of these types of school climate promote student academic mobility regardless of students’ family background, while other types reproduce the existing social structure, discouraging even capable students from breaking with socially defined academic choices.

Author

• Tatiana Khavenson, National Research University Higher School of Economics