Knowledge, skills or social mobility? Citizens' perceptions of the purpose of education

Autor: Marius R. Busemeyer, Elvire Guillaud
Přispěvatelé: University of Konstanz, Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne (CES), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) (LIEPP), Sciences Po (Sciences Po), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant/Award Number: EXC 2035/1, H2020 European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: Starting Grant 311769, European Project: 311769,EC:FP7:ERC,ERC-2012-StG_20111124,INVEDUC(2013)
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Social Policy and Administration
Social Policy and Administration, 2023, 57 (2), pp.122-143. ⟨10.1111/spol.12897⟩
ISSN: 0144-5596
1467-9515
DOI: 10.1111/spol.12897⟩
Popis: International audience; This article explores individual views of the purpose of education. Most existing research focuses on attitudes and policy preferences; while these types of perceptions have so far been largely overlooked due to a lack of data. Our analysis of original survey data in eight Western European countries shows that personal socioeconomic factors and ideological predispositions shape these individual opinions. Individuals with higher levels of education and income are more likely to view education as aimed at expanding knowledge as goal by itself, and less likely to view it as a tool to promote intergenerational social mobility. Left-leaning individuals are also more likely to regard education as a goal by itself, and less likely to view it as conferring useful labour market skills for the younger generation. Finally, we investigate the relationship between these different views and individual preferences for social policies. Our results show that the perception of education as promoting intergenerational mobility is strongly associated with support for passive transfers, while the perception of education as conferring marketable skills increases support for workfare policies. Social investment policies, because they are widely supported in the population, are not linked to specific views on education.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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