The democratization of education, its apparent paradox, a plausible explanation, and its empirical proof
Abstract
This presentation analyzes temporal trends in the intrinsic association between social origin and educational attainment (in the sense of highest degree obtained) in French society. First, it aims at establishing stylised facts about temporal dynamics in inequality of educational opportunity according to social origin for French society. Second, the presentation also especially aims at highlighting that unconditional and conditional analyses conducted on the same data may reveal remarkably opposite trends. Third, the presentation aims at reconciling these different results, especially by relying on tentative hypotheses developed by Pierre Bourdieu & Jean-Claude Passeron in 1970 in France as well as Robert D. Mare in 1981 in the US. Fourth, it aims at establishing an empirical proof of these statements on the basis of two longitudinal datasets that are nearly 40 years apart.
