PATHWAYS INTO A SCIENTIFIC ELITE: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS, SCHOOLING AND UNIVERSITIES OF FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY BORN FROM 1900

We report on continuing research on the British scientific elite, intended to illustrate a proposed new approach to elite studies, and based on prosopographical data on Fellows of the Royal Society born from 1900. We extend analyses previously reported of Fellows’ social origins and secondary schooling so as to take their university careers into account. The composite term ‘Oxbridge’ is called into question, as Cambridge appears historically to have been far more productive of members of the scientific elite than Oxford. However, Fellows from more advantaged class backgrounds do have a clearly higher probability than others of having attended Cambridge, Oxford or London, rather than universities outside of ‘the golden triangle’ – an outcome only partially mediated through private schooling. The ‘long arm’ of family of origin is thus apparent, although private schooling has been more important in helping Fellows from managerial rather than from professional families to gain entry to an elite university. Family influences on Fellows’ fields of research also remain, even though a further major factor is the universities they attended. A ‘royal road’ into the scientific elite, which Fellows from higher professional and managerial families have the highest probability of having followed, can be identified: that leading from private schooling to both undergraduate and postgraduate study at Cambridge. But the most common pathway, taken by 20% of all Fellows, is that leading from state schooling to undergraduate and graduate study at universities outside of the golden triangle. Fellows from higher professional, but not managerial, families show a distinctively high probability of having avoided this pathway; but it is that most common for Fellows of all less advantaged class origins. The case of the British scientific elite would suggest that detailed and disaggregated analyses of processes of elite formation can show these to be much more diverse than has often been supposed.

Improving Literacy Outcomes for Disadvantaged Girls Through Empowerment

Literacy acquisition is important for the formation of higher order skills, further engagement with written forms of knowledge, and deeper participation in society. Yet not all children have the opportunity to acquire literacy skills in their own mother tongue to allow them to continue to advance to these wider benefits of learning. This is particularly the case for girls living in poverty in Pakistan, where about 40% of the poorest girls are out of school compared to 24% of the richest girls not going to school. For those who start school, less than half complete a full cycle of basic education and less than 20% complete secondary schooling. In this chapter, the authors develop evidence for the effectiveness of a remedial learning program—Siyani Sahelian—which aims to support the reintegration of disadvantaged girls into schooling by developing literacy skills in Urdu (among other academic and life skills). The chapter provides evidence of the extent to which the programme supports literacy acquisition in an equitable way, and the main reasons behind the observed trends.

The Differential Attainment Rate among Latina Students: A Comparative Analysis of Recent Trends in Educational Achievements across Gender between 2005 and 2020

Grounded on educational achievement data between 2005 and 2020 from the Digest of Educational Statistics, this paper makes the point that despite considerable academic achievements, Latinas continue to underperform when compared to women of other races and ethnicities while concurrently outscoring Latinos. When differential attainment rates are disaggregated among co-ethnics Latinas, there is enough evidence to suggest that national development and quality of life, particularly the rate of women’s participation in secondary schooling, condition the association between ethnicity, gender, and educational achievement. Besides contributing to the literature and methodology of transition rates, the research supports the advocacy for more inclusive and equitable educational attainment announced in Sustainable Development Goal 4 and it suggests that more attention should be paid to how transnationalism affects education.

Impact of Conflict Induced Displacement on Primary and Secondary Schooling in Pakistan

The impact of armed conflict on primary and secondary schooling is very hazardous and apparent. Since, 2001 the conflict has made millions of people displaced in the form of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) mainly from Tribal Areas on western border with Afghanistan to the settled areas within Pakistan. This research addressed the impact of internal conflict on primary and secondary level school children during displacement at Jalozia camp, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa. For that reason, the household survey was conducted at Jalozai IDPs camp. The survey results indicate that conflict induced displacement has negatively impacted the level of schooling both at primary and secondary level. However, the impact is more hazardous for secondary schooling. Due to some socio-economic and cultural constraints, mostly female students were dropout of schools at secondary kevel. In addition, conflict affected the socio-economic status of the marginalized displaced people which either way affected the schooling of displaced children. Key words: Conflict; Displacement; Schooling; Socio-Economic Status; Pakistan

The Student in the Classroom and Beyond

This chapter provides an exposition of former students’ memories of secondary schooling in Ireland for the period 1922–1967, supplemented by similar material uncovered in the historical record. No claim is made that it portrays what were the common experiences of all. Rather, it is the product of a desire to cast the net as widely as possible, in order to canvass a maximum variety of perspectives. Further, most although not all of the testimony upon which we have based it is mainly of the ‘topical life story’ type. In other words, it is testimony based on memory. At the same time, we are not denying the possibility that it has the potential to provide understandings to add to the corpus of historical work already undertaken on the history of Irish secondary school education presented in previous chapters.

A Marginalized Laity

For the period 1922–1967 the Catholic Church opposed any notion of joint responsibility between laity and clergy for primary and secondary schooling. It did so in order to be able to pursue unhindered its major interest in schooling, which was ‘the salvation of souls’ and the production of priests, brothers, nuns, and a loyal middle class. Further, the State cooperated with the Church because in doing so it was able to pursue its own aim of producing a literate and numerate citizenry, pursuing nation building, and preparing an adequate number of secondary school graduates to address the requirements of the public service and the professions without having to provide schools. The Church legitimated the involvement of the teaching religious in associated practices with parents, school inspectors, and lay teachers. Relatedly, it worked to try to ensure that the voices of educationists who were not religious received little hearing in relation to education policy-making. A small number of secondary schools run largely by lay Catholics were able to operate. The individuals in question, in establishing these schools, quietly contested the hegemony of the Catholic clergy and religious in the provision of education, and indicated what might be possible in the future.

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview on the central argument of the book, namely, that the Catholic Church in Ireland, and especially from the time of national independence in 1922 until 1967, resisted questioning by non-clerics of its overall approach to education. As a result, it opposed involving lay people, including parents, in the exercise of what it claimed was its right and responsibility to provide secondary schooling. The State acquiesced willingly, thus allowing priests who were teachers, religious teaching brothers, and female teaching religious to promote unhindered sets of pedagogical, administrative and leadership practices aimed at the salvation of souls and the reproduction of fellow clerics and a loyal middle class. That situation, in turn, led to the promotion of piety and the upholding of class privilege as core characteristics of secondary schooling. Successive governments were pleased with the circumstances, partly because the great majority of the nation’s politicians and public servants were themselves loyal middle-class Catholics. Equally pleasing to them was the fact that the Church, for a fraction of the cost that would need to be paid by the State, was willing to fund secondary school education, and in so doing was prepared to meet the needs of the mercantile class, the public service, and the professions, for educated individuals in their late teenage years.

THE SOCIAL ORIGINS AND SCHOOLING OF A SCIENTIFIC ELITE: FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY BORN FROM 1900

We present an analysis of the social composition of the UK scientific elite, as represented by Fellows of the Royal Society, in terms of Fellows’ social class origins and type of secondary education. From various sources, we have assembled data for 1691 Fellows, representing 80% of our target population of all Fellows born from 1900 onwards whose scientific careers were spent predominantly in the UK. We find that while these elite scientists come largely from more advantaged class backgrounds, it is professional rather than business or managerial families that are the main source of their recruitment – and, increasingly, such families where a parent is in a STEM occupation. Recruitment from working-class families has declined and for most recent birth cohorts almost ceased. The scientific elite is thus now more homogenous as regards the social origins of its members than it was in the second half of the twentieth century. At the same time, little change is evident in the secondary schooling of Fellows. In all birth cohorts, between two-fifths and a half of all – and over two-thirds of those from more advantaged class backgrounds – were privately educated, although the proportion attending Clarendon schools would seem low compared with that in other elites. A further finding is that both class origins and type of schooling are associated the relative probabilities of Fellows working in different research fields.

Intensity and content of private tutoring lessons during German secondary schooling: effects on students’ grades and test achievement

Private supplementary tutoring is a widespread phenomenon. However, evidence that private tutoring has positive effects on academic achievement or about the specific conditions of successful private tutoring is rare. Adapting Carroll’s (1963) model for school learning to private tutoring, we expected to find positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, and students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. In a sample of eighth-grade students in German secondary schools (N = 8510, 18.6% currently being tutored), we conducted regression analyses with multiple covariates and did not find a positive main effect of private tutoring attendance in any of the school subjects examined. Moreover, within the subsamples of tutored students, we were not able to identify positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, tutoring content (such as a focus on homework completion, test preparation, or study behavior), or students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. Given these disillusioning findings, we primarily derive suggestions for future research.

School dropout among female learners in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa

South Africa, like many countries, has high numbers of learners who do not complete secondary schooling. This reduces these young people’s chances of finding work or of earning a better salary. It is thus important to understand the factors that contribute to high school dropout. In the study reported on here we investigated the factors that caused a number of female learners to drop out and return to high school in a rural community in Mpumalanga. The learners provided 3 reasons for dropping out of school: pregnancy, illness and immigration. The analysis of these factors suggests 3 underlying themes that influence the ability of children to remain in school, viz. health, policies and structures, and poverty. The implications of these and recommendations to address them are discussed. The authors argue that greater interdepartmental efforts are required to support vulnerable girls to remain in school.