Please join the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies for a talk by visiting lecturer, Frederick de Moll, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Luxembourg.
Abstract
In recent years, public and political debates on educational inequality have increasingly focused on parents’ influence on children’s academic development. However, it remains unknown how parents on both ends of the social stratum respond to heightened expectations toward their responsibility to promote their children’s chances for academic success. Drawing on a Bourdieusian framework, the study examines social disparities in parents’ childrearing practices in Germany. I ask to what degree parents believe in their capacity to improve their children’s education, and how they view the task of parenting. The analysis makes use of survey data that were collected in two major urban areas in Germany during the years 2012 and 2013. For the kindergarten sample, questionnaires were administered to N = 847 parents with children three to five years old. The analyses of parenting during primary school draw on data from N = 1069 parents with school children in grade three and four (9–12 years old). The findings reveal solid social inequalities among parents with children in both age groups. More well-off parents engage in concerted cultivation practices from an early age on and they are more confident about their child’s educational opportunities. However, among the lower-class, parents’ efforts and self-beliefs in regard to promoting their children’s academic success show a more complex picture.
About the speaker
