Capability approach, equalisation of educational opportunities and sustainable development

• In Event: Learning outcome for marginalized students

Proposal

gill@60

davidnongrum
 
Within the theoretical framework of Capability approach, this research focuses on understanding role of schools in creating sustainable ways for human freedom. Capability approach is an important tool to conceptualize and evaluate individual well-being and social arrangements from a sustainable development perspective. It is essential to devise strategies for capability expansion mostly because of the fact that learning is a social process. This research draws on survey conducted in three States of India under the Department for International Development (DfID) funded research project. The survey covered 8500 households with around 15000 children in the age group of 6-17 years in three distinct geographical regions.
Database and sample selection
We use mixed method approach for understanding the effect of teacher accountability, school quality and capability expansion on learning outcomes. In many cases, robust analysis tends to focus on data and the change in indicators take dominance. While quantitative analysis gives the average effect on learning outcome and control and calculates the change, it may not give the spread of the effect or distribution of the change. The impact of accountability may be higher in one education system; which values say educational outcomes of disadvantaged section and has clearly defined pathways of implementing accountability system. In another education system, despite clearly defined path ways of implementing accountability, the social dynamics and the context may play crucial role in determining whether disadvantaged background students have adequate learning opportunities. We use text booklet developed under National Achievement Survey to capture the math score of secondary students. However, NAS does not offer greater insight pertaining to the effect of school quality. Further, the NAS data does not include indicators of teacher accountability and capability expansion of students. With these limitations, a separate survey of schools using the questionnaires for teachers, schools and students were conducted in 49 schools sampled under NAS and 1750 students in Bihar State of India. This survey allowed us to capture in detail about indicators of accountability and capability expansion of students at secondary level.
Multilevel regression
The analysis of inequalities in learning outcome must be seen against the contextual back drop which frames some of causes of under achievement linked to inequalities. The key research question is what levels of achievement are being reached, how do these differ for different populations of children, and to what extent do patterns of inequalities in learning outcomes mirror or differ from patterns of physical access to education as indicated by enrolments. Students who are still in school at grade 9 or grade 10 are more likely to be drawn from middle and high income households with the most cultural capital, and tend to have better learning outcomes than the general population. Independently of socio economic effects more capable children are also more likely to persist in school than those with very poor achievement.
In hierarchical nature of data, some of the assumptions of single level model are not satisfied. For example a) observations are not independent; b) errors are not independent; c) different observations may have different errors. Ordinary least squares regression may produce inflated standard errors of the regression coefficients and is associated with increased chances of Type II error. Therefore, research questions in this paper will be answered using the multilevel modeling technique. Data in the present study is at two levels, J schools, with different number of individuals nj in each school. To analyze the data regression equation in each school can be setup to predict the outcome variable Y using the explanatory variables X as follows:
Y_ij=β_0j+ε_ij Null model ……………………1
Y_ij=β_0j+β_1j X_1j+β_2j X_2j+ε_ij………………..2
In this regression equation, β_0j is the intercept, β_1j (regression coefficient) is the vector of explanatory variables at the individual level, ε_ij is the residual error term. Since the intercept and slope coefficient are random variables that vary across the schools, they are often referred to as random coefficient. The next step in hierarchical regression model is to explain variation in the regression coefficient β_j introducing explanatory variables at the school level
β_0j=Y_00+Y_01 Z_j+ε_0j……………………………. 3
And β_1j=Y_10+Y_11 Z_j+ε_1j
β_2j=Y_20+Y_21 Z_j+ε_2j
Equation 3 predicts the average math core in schools (the interceptβ_0j) by the vector of school factors (Z). Thus, if, Y_01 is positive, the average math score is higher in schools with more qualified teachers (for example) and vice versa. Full model with individual and school level explanatory variable can be written as a single regression equation by substituting 2 and 3 in equation 4 and rearranging terms gives:
Y_ij=Y_00+Y_10 X_1ij+Y_20 X_2ij+Y_01 Z_j+Y_11 X_1ij Z_j+ε_ij X_1ij+ε_2ij X_2ij……………..4
The segment (Y_00+Y_10 X_1ij+Y_20 X_2ij+Y_01 Z_j+Y_11 X_1ij Z_j) in equation 4 contains the fixed coefficient, called as fixed part of the model. The segment (ε_ij X_1ij+ε_2ij X_2ij) contains the random error term, and is often called the random part of the model.
Evidence and arguments presented in this paper indicates two important aspects; first, initial inequalities caused by embodied and objectified cultural capital are further accentuated by institutionalized state of cultural capital. Second, a greater focus on capability expansion of children from disadvantaged background has greater equity enhancing effect. Further, effect of home disadvantage was found to reduce with improvement in the school quality, most notably teacher quality and accountability. Major implication of the findings of this research is that public policy that focuses on capability expansion would be more effective in addressing the issue of inequality in education and can act as an agent of sustainable development. Results of this research suggest that interactive and participatory approaches to teaching and learning is crucial for creating secondary habitus to support acquisition of life skills.

Authors

• David Nongrum, DERT, Department of Education

• Dany Lyngdoh, Department of Education, Government of Meghalaya

• shashiranjan Jha, IPE Global