ERIC Number: EJ1353845
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2227-7102
Access to Baccalaureate School in Switzerland: Regional Variance of Institutional Conditions and Its Consequences for Educational Inequalities
Leemann, Regula Julia; Pfeifer Brändli, Andrea; Imdorf, Christian
Education Sciences, v12 Article 213 2022
In Switzerland, baccalaureate school is still considered to be the royal road to a university education and the elite path for the social reproduction of the upper class. However, cantonal enrollment to baccalaureate school varies widely due to Swiss federalism. There is a recurring debate on whether access to baccalaureate school is fair and equal among pupils who live in different cantons and who are of different social origin. This paper aims to analyze how the institutional conditions of cantons and municipalities impact a pupil's probability of entering baccalaureate school and how the cantonal provisioning of places in baccalaureate school affects social inequality of access. For our theoretical foundation, we combine concepts of neo-institutionalism with mechanisms of social reproduction in education. Empirically, we analyze national longitudinal register data to model educational transitions from compulsory to baccalaureate school by using logistic regression models. Our results show that institutional structures at the cantonal and municipal levels influence the probability of transition beyond individual pupils' characteristics. The degree of inequality varies between cantons, depending on the supply of baccalaureate school places. Inequality first increases with an increasing number of places (the scissors effect) and decreases only after the demand of more privileged families for places at baccalaureate school is saturated.
Descriptors: Access to Education, Academic Education, College Preparation, Foreign Countries, Equal Education, Municipalities, Secondary Schools, Special Schools, Admission (School), Track System (Education)
MDPI AG. Klybeckstrasse 64, 4057 Basel, Switzerland. e-mail: education@mdpi.com; e-mail: indexing@mdpi.com; Web site: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Switzerland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A