Degree completion is as important as participation in higher education. To date, most of the research on this subject has investigated the association between socio-economic background and academic preparation to explain lower rates or non-completion. This thesis explores the role that individual, institutional and contextual factors have on degree completion chances. The first empirical chapter uses an individual-level longitudinal dataset to study the role that attainment on entry and socio-economic background have on students’ chances of completion. The chapter finds that attainment on entry significantly affects students’ chances of degree completion. It also reveals, however, that attainment on entry does not completely explain the socio-economic differences in degree completion chances in the system. The second empirical chapter examines the role that institutions have on students’ chances of degree completion. Like the first chapter, this one draws on the individual-level longitudinal dataset. Although the analyses discover institutional effects, they show them to have a small effect on the system. The third empirical chapter examines the role that teaching has on the probability that students complete their degrees in higher education. The findings show that teaching has a small but significant effect on students’ chances of degree completion. Teaching effects take place only at the most selective institutions of the system. The final empirical chapter examines the role that unemployment has on students’ decisions to complete a university degree. Using data from the Labour Force Survey, the research finds that higher unemployment rates have a positive effect on students’ chances of degree completion. This thesis contributes to the field by showing that stratification of higher education also translates to degree completion. The results confirm that selectivity and institutional effects are strongly associated. In addition, they show that where the institutional framework is concerned, there is a gradient for class effect in educational outcomes.

The study of the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and mortality patterns has been a traditional research focus in demography, representing one of the core areas of the discipline. In Latin America, there is an important set of studies that show a significant inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and mortality rates. However, mainly due to limitations in the available data, we know very little about the specific relation between educational attainment and adult mortality. This inverse relationship between educational attainment and mortality rates provides just the tip of the iceberg for a large set of questions: How wide are educational differences in overall adult mortality in Argentina? Does the association between educational attainment and adult mortality vary by age group, gender and region? Are there unique adult mortality patterns by education among specific causes of death? Has the adult mortality differential by education attainment widened or narrowed as education attainment increased between 1991 and 2010? The main objective of this research was to describe and analyze the relationship between educational attainment and adult mortality patterns during the 1991-2010 period in Argentina. The data used in this study come from the Argentinian Mortality Files for the period 1991-2010 and from the 1991, 2001 and 2010 Argentinian Censuses. Results show a clear gradient in the specific mortality rates according to educational groups, for both sexes and for all age groups. The existence and direction of this relationship was as expected; however, the magnitude of educational differences was much higher than what has been found in other countries. The data also exhibited a clear declining trend in mortality inequalities by education as age increased. Educational differences in overall adult mortality did not display an increasing pattern over time. The year 2001, which was characterized by serious economic and social crisis in the country, displayed the highest educational inequalities in mortality in comparison to either 1991 or 2010. The findings of this dissertation are relevant to policy questions about health care and social inequalities in death. / text

This dissertation explores the educational history of Mexican Americans in Arizona. It focuses on the post World War II activism of Tucson Mexican Americans who challenged educational policies, practices, and programs such as segregation, Americanization, and language restriction. These practices shaped Mexican American education for much of the twentieth century. Beginning in 1950, Mexican American men and women engaged in grassroots activism by participating in multiethnic, multifaceted coalitions to challenge educational inequalities and promote meaningful educational reform between 1950 and 1990. Their efforts led to the passage of local, state, and national educational reforms, including the repeal of school segregation state laws, the implementation of Spanish-for-Spanish-speakers and bilingual-bicultural education programs, and the enactment of the federal Bilingual Education Act of 1968. In 1974, Mexican American parents filed a joint lawsuit with Black parents against Tucson School District No. 1, the largest district in the state, charging the district with de jure segregation of Mexican American and Black students. I assert that Mexican Americans promoted institutional reforms from the bottom up that would not only provide Mexican-origin children with equal educational opportunity, but would also meet the community's needs based on their own definition of equity. In doing so, Mexican Americans not only contested their subordinate status in the dominant society by directly challenging the traditional stronghold that Anglo Americans had on the public education system, but they also helped to advance the quest for educational equality and civil rights.

A presente tese se fundamenta na busca por compreender quais as possíveis implicações das escolhas curriculares de âmbito intraescolar, em especial no caso da Geografia, para o processo de construção de uma escola que esteja atenta à superação das desigualdades de acesso ao conhecimento. A fim de fundamentar teoricamente a pesquisa foram apresentados e discutidos, principalmente, elementos da teoria de Basil Bernstein (1984; 1996; 1999), especialmente sua produção sobre a teoria dos códigos (transformação cultural), a teoria do dispositivo pedagógico, o modelo do discurso pedagógico (e a recontextualização pedagógica) e, por fim, sua classificação acerca dos discursos sujeitos à transformação pedagógica. Com base na elaboração de categorias analíticas geradas a partir da interação entre a teoria e o mundo empírico da investigação, foram realizadas observações de aulas de uma professora atuando em duas escolas de perfis distintos em Curitiba (PR), além da aplicação de questionários para estudantes do Ensino Médio e entrevistas com professores que atuam, também, nesta etapa da escolarização. Os resultados da tese indicam, primeiramente, que o contexto primário de socialização dos indivíduos desempenha um papel importante na conformação do currículo que se realiza na escola, e que as escolhas curriculares efetuadas pelo professor ao longo das aulas são resultado de um complexo tensionamento entre diferentes fatores, e expressam uma confluência de expectativas que adquirentes e transmissores têm sobre o papel do conhecimento na construção de seu próprio futuro. Além disso, o oferecimento de conhecimento poderoso a todos, ou seja, em contextos de grande diversidade, depende de esforços e investimentos focados na flexibilização dos ritmos de aprendizagem na escola. Por fim, a pesquisa demonstrou que o esvaziamento curricular na disciplina de Geografia tende a ser um reflexo da flexibilização das fronteiras entre discursos horizontal e vertical, resultante de uma potencial incapacidade da escola para promover elevados níveis de exigência conceitual em contextos de maior diversidade. Esse esvaziamento gera um currículo fundamentado em códigos restritos de comunicação, privilegiando significados dependentes do contexto imediato da vida dos estudantes, e dificultando o acesso a saberes orientados por códigos elaborados, os quais têm a ver com formas de discurso fundamentados em conhecimento científico. / The present thesis is based on the search for understanding which are the possible implications of curricular choices within the school environment, especially in the case of Geography, for the construction process of a school that is attentive to overcoming the inequalities of access to knowledge. In order to base the research theoretically, elements of Basil Bernstein\'s theory (1984; 1996; 1999), especially his work on code theory (cultural transformation), pedagogical device theory, the model of discourse Pedagogical (and pedagogical recontextualization) and, finally, his classification on the discourses subject to the pedagogical transformation. Based on the elaboration of analytical categories generated from the interaction between theory and the empirical world of investigation, observations were made on classes of a teacher working in two schools with different profiles in Curitiba (PR), as well as the application of questionnaires for high school students and interviews with teachers who also work at this stage of schooling. The results of the thesis indicate, firstly, that the primary context of socialization of individuals plays an important role in the conformation of the school curriculum, and that the curricular choices made by the teacher throughout the classes are the result of a complex tension between different factors, and express a confluence of expectations that acquirers and transmitters have about the role of knowledge in building their own future. In addition, the provision of powerful knowledge to all, in contexts of great diversity, depends on efforts and investments focused on flexibilization of learning rhythms in school. Finally, research has shown that the curriculum depletion in the discipline of Geography tends to be a reflection of the flexibilization of the boundaries between horizontal and vertical discourses, resulting from a potential inability of the school to promote high levels of conceptual requirement in said contexts of greater diversity. This depletion generates a curriculum based on restricted communication codes, privileging meanings dependent on the immediate context of students\' lives, and making it difficult to access knowledge guided by elaborated codes, which have to do with forms of discourse founded on scientific knowledge.

A presente tese se fundamenta na busca por compreender quais as possíveis implicações das escolhas curriculares de âmbito intraescolar, em especial no caso da Geografia, para o processo de construção de uma escola que esteja atenta à superação das desigualdades de acesso ao conhecimento. A fim de fundamentar teoricamente a pesquisa foram apresentados e discutidos, principalmente, elementos da teoria de Basil Bernstein (1984; 1996; 1999), especialmente sua produção sobre a teoria dos códigos (transformação cultural), a teoria do dispositivo pedagógico, o modelo do discurso pedagógico (e a recontextualização pedagógica) e, por fim, sua classificação acerca dos discursos sujeitos à transformação pedagógica. Com base na elaboração de categorias analíticas geradas a partir da interação entre a teoria e o mundo empírico da investigação, foram realizadas observações de aulas de uma professora atuando em duas escolas de perfis distintos em Curitiba (PR), além da aplicação de questionários para estudantes do Ensino Médio e entrevistas com professores que atuam, também, nesta etapa da escolarização. Os resultados da tese indicam, primeiramente, que o contexto primário de socialização dos indivíduos desempenha um papel importante na conformação do currículo que se realiza na escola, e que as escolhas curriculares efetuadas pelo professor ao longo das aulas são resultado de um complexo tensionamento entre diferentes fatores, e expressam uma confluência de expectativas que adquirentes e transmissores têm sobre o papel do conhecimento na construção de seu próprio futuro. Além disso, o oferecimento de conhecimento poderoso a todos, ou seja, em contextos de grande diversidade, depende de esforços e investimentos focados na flexibilização dos ritmos de aprendizagem na escola. Por fim, a pesquisa demonstrou que o esvaziamento curricular na disciplina de Geografia tende a ser um reflexo da flexibilização das fronteiras entre discursos horizontal e vertical, resultante de uma potencial incapacidade da escola para promover elevados níveis de exigência conceitual em contextos de maior diversidade. Esse esvaziamento gera um currículo fundamentado em códigos restritos de comunicação, privilegiando significados dependentes do contexto imediato da vida dos estudantes, e dificultando o acesso a saberes orientados por códigos elaborados, os quais têm a ver com formas de discurso fundamentados em conhecimento científico. / The present thesis is based on the search for understanding which are the possible implications of curricular choices within the school environment, especially in the case of Geography, for the construction process of a school that is attentive to overcoming the inequalities of access to knowledge. In order to base the research theoretically, elements of Basil Bernstein\'s theory (1984; 1996; 1999), especially his work on code theory (cultural transformation), pedagogical device theory, the model of discourse Pedagogical (and pedagogical recontextualization) and, finally, his classification on the discourses subject to the pedagogical transformation. Based on the elaboration of analytical categories generated from the interaction between theory and the empirical world of investigation, observations were made on classes of a teacher working in two schools with different profiles in Curitiba (PR), as well as the application of questionnaires for high school students and interviews with teachers who also work at this stage of schooling. The results of the thesis indicate, firstly, that the primary context of socialization of individuals plays an important role in the conformation of the school curriculum, and that the curricular choices made by the teacher throughout the classes are the result of a complex tension between different factors, and express a confluence of expectations that acquirers and transmitters have about the role of knowledge in building their own future. In addition, the provision of powerful knowledge to all, in contexts of great diversity, depends on efforts and investments focused on flexibilization of learning rhythms in school. Finally, research has shown that the curriculum depletion in the discipline of Geography tends to be a reflection of the flexibilization of the boundaries between horizontal and vertical discourses, resulting from a potential inability of the school to promote high levels of conceptual requirement in said contexts of greater diversity. This depletion generates a curriculum based on restricted communication codes, privileging meanings dependent on the immediate context of students\' lives, and making it difficult to access knowledge guided by elaborated codes, which have to do with forms of discourse founded on scientific knowledge.

In the last few decades, educational research has largely demonstrated the effects of the socio-economic background on academic performance. Traditionally, researchers have used the so-called contextualised value-added (CVA) concept, implemented via multilevel statistical models, to assess variation in learning outcomes arising from schools and pupils. Depending on the stakeholders they intend to inform, two basic types of CVA models can be defined: models for school accountability and models for school choice. School accountability models can be further distinguished according to the ‘recipient’ of the information: internal models provide information for school authorities to improve their own practices, while external models provide information for government officials to assess school performance for policy-making purposes. Despite the evidence in favour of the use of more complex models for school accountability, government practice in Chile has been restricted to the use of raw school averages in standardised tests as indicators of effectiveness, which have been used indiscriminately for the purposes of school accountability and school choice. Using data from the Chilean National Pupil Database (SIMCE 2004-2006), this thesis demonstrates how the traditional CVA (2-level) models fall short in addressing the complex phenomenon of academic performance, especially in the context of a developing and highly unequal country, such as Chile. The novelty of the CVA modelling in this thesis is that it extends and improves the traditional models insofar as they explicitly assess the variation between pupils, classrooms, primary schools, secondary schools and local authorities, as well as the correlation between Mathematics and Spanish Language at all levels. This is done by implementing two univariate 4-level CVA models for progress in Mathematics and Spanish fitted separately via maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and a bivariate 5-level cross-classified CVA model for progress in both subjects fitted via Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation. External school accountability measures were derived from the extended univariate and multivariate models and compared to measures derived from a model akin to the traditional approach. A number of key differences were found, leading to the conclusion that further adjustments to the traditional CVA models are not negligible. The univariate 4-level CVA models provide more insight into school accountability than the traditional approach in a straightforward fashion, while the bivariate 5-level model encompasses a more reliable and ultimately comprehensive view on school performance. With regard to internal school accountability, further models were specified with the purpose of analysing pupils' heterogeneity to inform school improvement processes. The concept of "cultural capital" (Bourdieu, 1977) was chosen to shed light on the matter. Since cultural capital is essentially immeasurable, a latent variable was constructed from a group of manifest variables related to access and use of reading materials. From a substantive point of view, this thesis shows how access to all sorts of reading materials and reading habits can have not only a relevant impact on pupils' progress in Language, but also in Mathematics. Finally, this thesis concludes around three main ideas: firstly, school value-added models for school accountability, either external or internal, need to take into account the complexity of influences affecting pupils' academic progress as thoroughly as possible, in order to make a fair assessment of schools' performance and/or to inform school improvement policies. Secondly, school effectiveness is not a unidimensional process, which implies that school value-added models should ideally (when there are available data) reflect upon the multidimensionality of the phenomenon and take into consideration the relationship between different subjects, as well as non-academic outcomes. Thirdly, CVA models can also be used to inform internal school accountability by analysing the effects of meaningful modifiable factors and potentially serve as drivers of school improvement policies.

Educational credentials have a central role in contemporary societies. However, social origins continue to affect educational performances and transitions well before children enter compulsory school, thus threatening future outcomes and development. By interacting research streams from economics, psychology, and pedagogy, this dissertation locates within the literature on child development, early education, and social stratification, and it aims at further contributing to the sociological evidence on the mechanisms that lead to inequalities in skills. The core of this dissertation lies in the analysis of the characteristics of the early childhood educational system (ECE) and of the home learning environment (HLE), as growth-promoting or unfavourable contexts for the development of both cognitive and noncognitive skills. Adopting recent cross-national and longitudinal data, this dissertation asks (1) whether and how much ECE matters in the lives of children around Europe, leaving long-lasting traces on their achievements once adolescents; (2) whether and how much parental social position, beliefs, and other family and child characteristics play a role in the care selection process in Germany; and (3) whether and how much quality in HLE and ECE contributes at explaining differences in skills before entering primary school in Ireland.

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-06-29T15:10:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessagomesdecastro.pdf: 1995969 bytes, checksum: 8fb5cd23aa520202a8998ee3c0549443 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-07-03T13:59:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessagomesdecastro.pdf: 1995969 bytes, checksum: 8fb5cd23aa520202a8998ee3c0549443 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-03T13:59:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessagomesdecastro.pdf: 1995969 bytes, checksum: 8fb5cd23aa520202a8998ee3c0549443 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-12 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Investiga-se como transcorrem trajetórias escolares em contexto social desfavorável e como o sucesso e o fracasso escolar são socialmente produzidos neste transcorrer. Para tanto, na parte teórica, realiza-se uma revisão da literatura científica internacional e nacional, no campo da Sociologia da Educação, abrangendo algumas das produções mais proeminentes entre a segunda metade do século XX e início do século XXI, sobre os determinantes das trajetórias escolares, longe de esgotar o escopo. Na parte empírica, realiza-se estudo longitudinal de trajetórias escolares ao longo do ensino fundamental e estudos de caso. No estudo longitudinal, utilizam-se diários de classe e atas de resultado final e aproveitamento como fonte de dados. Acompanham-se, assim, o fluxo, ou seja, a quantidade de alunos aprovados, reprovados e evadidos, a cada ano letivo, de 03 coortes, isto é, 03 conjuntos de alunos que se encontravam juntos no 1º ano do ensino fundamental, os quais deveriam percorrer toda esta etapa de ensino de 2000 a 2006, de 2003 a 2010 e de 2006 a 2014, totalizando 225 trajetórias escolares. Além disso, foram estudados 09 casos, (03 casos por coorte), por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, buscando-se investigar os fatores que a literatura científica aponta como determinantes do sucesso e fracasso educacional. As hipóteses são de que o transcorrer das trajetórias escolares em contexto social desfavorável é complexo, uma vez que diferentes fatores, relacionados ao indivíduo, a sua família e à estrutura escolar, implicam este transcorrer, atuando em conjunto e interação na produção social do sucesso escolar (trajetórias promissoras) e do fracasso escolar (reprodução das desigualdades educacionais e sociais). Conclui-se que fatores individuais como sexo e cor, fatores familiares como a posição social da família e a posse de capital econômico, cultural e social, além de fatores relacionados à socialização extrafamiliar, de fato, manifestam-se de diferentes maneiras no transcorrer das trajetórias escolares, tornando-as complexas, implicando seu sucesso ou fracasso, inclusive de maneiras sutis. No que tange aos fatores relacionados à estrutura de oportunidades educacionais e sociais, constata-se que a prática escolar de reprovação amplia fortemente as desigualdades entre as trajetórias escolares. / The main objective is to investigate how school trajectories unfold in adverse social context and how school success and failure are socially produced during this time span. For this purpose, a national and international scientific literature review was carried out in the theoretical part considering the field of Sociology of Education, encompassing some of the most relevant works between the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, approaching the determinants of school trajectories, far from exhausting the research scope. Case studies and longitudinal studies of school trajectories are performed throughout elementary school in the empirical analysis. Class diaries and school records containing final results and educational achievement were used as data source in the longitudinal study. The flow of 03 cohorts of students was monitored, i.e., 03 sets of students who were in the same class in the first year of elementary school and were expected to follow all the stages of learning from 2000 to 2006, from 2003 to 2010 and from 2006 to 2014, totaling 225 school trajectories. In addition, 09 cases (03 cases per cohort) were analyzed through semi-structured interviews, aiming to investigate the factors that the scientific literature points out as determinants of educational success and failure. The hypotheses are that the unfolding of school trajectories in unfavorable social contexts is complex since different factors related to the individual, family and school structure play a role in this course, interacting together in the social production of school success (promising trajectories) and school failure (reproduction of educational and social inequalities). It was concluded that individual factors such as sex and color, family factors such as the social position of the family and the economic, cultural and social capital possession, as well as factors related to extrafamiliar socialization manifest indeed in different ways in the trajectories making them complex, implying their success or failure, even in a very subtle way. Regarding the factors related to the structure of educational and social opportunities it is observed that the school practice of grade retention increases inequalities in school trajectories.

Cette thèse appréhende la question de l'expérience subjective des écoliers et des collégiens face aux pratiques évaluatives quotidiennes vécues en salle de classe. Elle cherche à rendre compte des explications que les élèves fournissent pour signifier leurs actions scolaires. La problématique vise à comprendre ce qui fait sens chez les élèves au travers des différentes pratiques évaluatives et de leurs perceptions singulières. Notre travail s'inscrit donc dans une logique compréhensive. Notre méthodologie repose sur la combinaison d’observations de classe, d’entretiens semi dirigés avec des parents d’élèves, des écoliers de CP et CM2, des collégiens de 6e, des enseignants du 1er et 2nd degré, complétée par un questionnaire administré à des écoliers de CM2 et des collégiens de 6e et 5e. Nous nous intéressons aux pratiques évaluatives quotidiennes en tant qu'expériences positives ou négatives dont l'accumulation et la fréquence d'apparition orientent significativement la mobilisation scolaire des élèves. / This PhD tackles the question of the subjective experience of schoolchildren and college students facing daily classroom assessment practices. It seeks to account for pupils’ explanations about their school actions. Our issue is to understand what makes sense to pupils through different assessment practices together with their unique perception. Our research is therefore part of a comprehensive logic. Our methodology is based on the combination of class observations, semi-structured interviews with parents, schoolchildren year 1 and year 5, junior high school students year 6, teachers of the 1st and 2nd degree, completed by a questionnaire carried out for schoolchildren year 5 and college students year 6 and 7. Daily assessment practices as positive or negative experiences whose accumulation and frequency significantly influence the student mobilization are to be investigated.

This diploma thesis deals with adult education, unequal access to adult education and its impact on the social status of the individual. The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyze whether and how participation in adult education affects the social status of the individual and intragenerational educational reproduction in the Czech Republic. The thesis will first deal with the benefits of adult education, which are declared in international documents UNESCO, OECD and EU and national documents, including their critical reflection. Then, attention will be focused on the link between social inequalities and inequalities in education, and with a focus on inequalities in access to adult education. The main part of the diploma thesis will deal with the current situation in the Czech Republic in terms of intragenerational educational reproduction and the impact of adult education on the social status of the individual. First, the educational level of the adult population will be analyzed using Labour Force Survey data. Then intragenerational educational reproduction will be analyzed, which means, how success in initial education correlates with participation in adult education, based on Labour Force Survey and Adult Education Survey data. Finally, the correlation of participation in adult education with...