Modul 2: Higher education: access, students, fields
General and Vocational Oriented Pathways to Higher Education: Does the Regional Provision of Education Moderate Social and Gender-specific Inequalities in Switzerland?
Andrea Pfeifer Brändli, School of Education FHNW; Christian Imdorf, Leibniz Universität Hannover; Regula Julia Leemann, School of Education FHNW
Abstract:
In Switzerland, two vocationally oriented secondary school programs have been institutionalised in the 1990’s: The Vocational Baccalaureate School which supplements basic Vocational Education and Training and the Specialised Baccalaureate Schools. They prepare pupils for Universities of Applied Science and of Teacher Education. We ask whether these two schools can bring more young people into higher education (HE; institutional permeability) and whether they are less socially selective (social permeability) compared to the classical general education pathway (General Baccalaureate School). Furthermore, we are interested in how different cantonal offers of educational pathways matter for social disparities in HE access. Theoretically, we link policy-driven educational opportunities with the concepts of institutional and social permeability and with intersectionalities of social origin and gender. Using LABB data from the Federal Statistical Office, we analyse educational trajectories of the cohort with a first upper secondary degree in 2012 over four years. We apply multilevel binary logistic modelling to examine how educational pathways impact on HE access differently by canton. Moreover, we analyse how the cantonal educational offers structure social inequality in HE access. Preliminary results show that institutional permeability varies at the cantonal level in consequence of regional educational policy. Regarding social permeability, young women from socially advantaged families transition to HE twice as often as young men from disadvantaged families. Remarkably, the educational pathways can almost exhaustively explain these educational inequalities. Still, Specialised and Vocational Baccalaureate Schools are important pathways to HE for young women and men respectively from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
Baccalaureate school, specialised school and vocational education and training as pathways to universities for teacher education in Switzerland: On the relevance of the category of gender
Regula Julia Leemann, School of Education FHNW; Andrea Pfeifer Brändli, School of Education FHNW; Christian Imdorf, Leibniz Universität Hannover; Sandra Hafner, School of Education FHNW
Abstract:
In Switzerland, teacher education has undergone major changes in recent decades. It was raised to tertiary level and is now institutionalised at Universities of Teacher Education (UTE). Young people can enter UTE via three pathways at upper secondary level – baccalaureate school (BS), specialised school (SS) and vocational education and training (VET) – the latter two require additional achievement and certificates. Furthermore, the proportion of women in the teaching professions has risen steadily. Previous research has focused exclusively on the access to teacher education via the BS. The aim of this paper is to examine the relevance of all three pathways and the category of gender – controlling for social origin and migration background – for entry into UTE. What is the relevance of gender and of the core subject / occupational field within the respective path, what further educational qualifications do the students complete before entering UTE, and which study programs do they choose ? Theoretically we refer to gender theories that link individual and institutional aspects for explaining gender segregated educational trajectories and choice of occupation. Descriptive and multivariate analyses are based on the LABB data from the Federal Statistical Office. We analyse educational trajectories of the cohort with a first upper secondary degree in 2012 over 54 months. First results show that VET has the lowest transition rate, and the SS the highest. On all three pathways, women more often opt for a study at UTE than men. However, since men are overrepresented in VET, they are quantitatively more present within this access route than in the other two. Contrary to BS, where the chosen core subject predispose entry into UTE for both genders, the occupational field in VET has no relevance. In the pedagogical field of the SS, both genders very often choose the teaching profession.
Engaging students- insights from distance learning during the Corona lockdown
Zellweger Franziska, Zurich University of Teacher Education
Abstract:
In this project, the theoretical framework builds on the concept of student engagement (e.g., Kahu & Nelson, 2018; Krause & Coates, 2008). Trowler (2010) defines it as a concept that “is concerned with the interaction between the time, effort and other relevant resources invested by both students and their institutions intend-ed to optimise the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students (…)” (p. 1). With the closure of schools and universities mid March 2020, the conditions for learning and teaching have been turned upside down for students and lecturers alike. How do the students cope with the situation and what can be learned from this experience for the further development of teacher education programmes when we return to "normality"? A questionnaire will be handed out to students of three teacher education programmes at different institution end of May as a well as interviews are conducted with 3 students at each institution at three points in time during the spring semester. At the conference, we will give insights into preliminary results regarding aspects that support student en-gagement in distance learning.
The emergence of new fields in higher education between innovation and reproduction
Philippe Saner, Department of Sociology, University of Lucerne
Abstract:
This paper investigates the emergence of data science, a new interdisciplinary field in higher education. Specifically, I examine the structural factors that shape the structure and design of study programmes within the academic field and its organisations. Universities are confronted with the question of how they can fit and implement a knowledge formation described as interdisciplinary or transversal into existing organizations that are strongly disciplinary in nature. The following questions guide the analysis: Which scientific and non-scientific factors influence the planning, design and implementation of curricula in data science? To address these questions, I examine the introduction of data science at Swiss universities as a case study, using study programme descriptions, curricula, and interviews with data science educators to serve as empirical material. Based on correspondence analyses of curricula and qualitative content analyses of the interviews, the article elaborates how higher education policy, economic motives and organisational aspects frame the introduction of the new study programmes. The analysis points to different understandings of data science, which manifest themselves in divergent research and teaching practices on the one hand and symbolic demarcations with other field actors on the other. The epistemic and disciplinary distinctions intertwine with structural categories in the organizational field of universities. This reciprocity shapes an academic field that is characterized by the synchronicity of cooperation and competition.
Citizenship and access to higher education: A new field of study?
Gaële Goastellec, OSPS; UNIL
Abstract:
Since the creation of the first European universities in the Middle Ages, the instrumentation of access to Higher Education has been associated with civil, political and social citizenship differentiation. Still, research on Higher Education has largely let aside this dimension to mainly investigate the effect of cultural, social and economic resources. This presentation aims at engaging the debate about the reciprocal relation between access to Higher Education and citizenship, its empirical and theoretical added value as it allows to connect different scales of analysis and offers insights on the role of Higher Education in the world historical development.