Session Information
23 SES 09 A, Policy Change and Educational Inequalities
Paper Session
Contribution
Research questions:
- What’s the social context of the post-Soviet period in which the Russian education system developed (poverty, deprivation and social inequality as a whole);
- As changed the content of education policy in post-Soviet Russia, particularly with respect to its impact on educational stratification and inequality;
- What are the challenges for Russia’ current education policies in dealing with these problems.
Theoretical basis:
- The situation has changed radically with Russia’s market transition in the beginning of the 1990s, leading it to adopt a completely new form of social stratification characterized by higher levels of differentiation in terms of social and economic resources (Radaev, Shkaratan, 1992).
- The excessively uneven distribution of wealth in today’s Russia is widely recognized as one of its major social problems (Quality and Way of Life of the Population of Russia, 2011).
- And although it ranks among averagely unequal countries according to its Gini coefficient for income distribution (being, for instance, less equal than USA, Brazil, Mexico and dozens of developing countries in Africa and Latin America), it ranks among the most unequal in terms of wealth inequality with the wealthiest 10% holding 87.6% of the national wealth.
We identify the following key trends in Russia’s post-Soviet education policies, which have greatly influenced the growth of inequality in general education:
- The emergence of competitive market for education services and withdrawal from equalization policies (particularly in reallocation of resources) (Kolesnikova, 2008);
- The promotion of policies which favor diversity and variability among educational institutions and programs, i.e. the emergence of different types of schools and the legitimatization of selectivity practices within them (Stolyarenko, Merzhoeva, 2011);
- The decrease in federal spending on compulsory and secondary education, and the shifting of the burden of financing educational institutions towards the municipal level (Stolyarenko, Merzhoeva, 2011);
- The introduction of the Unified State Examination (USE), and the increase in associated tutoring which requires additional substantial investments from families (Bray 2009);
- Targeted state support which explicitly favors leading schools (Waldman, 2010).
The framework for our analysis is the following:
- Representation of education equality/inequality topicality (Coleman, 1966; Bourdieu, 1977; Bernstein, 1975);
- Representation of neo-liberal agenda – diversity of educational trajectories through introducing school choice and school autonomy, representation of neo-liberal, neo-conservative and neo-managerial policies alliance – autonomy and decentralaization + state accountability system, effectiveness and efficiency (Apple, 2001; Attewell, 2001);
- Specific forms of social stratification in Russia in transition period (Shkaratan, Radaev, 1996; Gerber, 1998).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Apple, M. V. Comparing Neo-Liberal Projects and Inequality of Education. Comparative Education 37 (4); pp. 409-423. Attewell, P. The Winner-Take-All High School: Organizational Adaptations to Educational Stratification. Sociology of Education 1974(4); pp. 267-295 Bernstein B. Class, Codes and Control. Routledge, 1975. Vol. 3. Bourdieu P., Passeron J.-C. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Sage, 1977. Bray, М. Confronting the Shadow Education System: What Government Policies for What Private Tutoring? Paris, 2009. Coleman J. et al. Equality of educational opportunity U.S. Govt. Print. Off. National Center for Educational Statistics, 1966. Gerber Theodore P. & Hout M. Educational Stratification in Russia During the Soviet Period. American Journal of Sociology, 1998, 101; pp. 611-60. Hargreaves, A. Sustainable learning communities. In L. Stoll & K. S. Louis Eds., Professional learning communities: Divergence, depth and dilemmas. New York: McGraw Hill Open University Press, 2007; pp. 181-195. Kolesnikova E. Demonopolization of the educational services market in post-Soviet Russia. Sociology of education: Anthology/Author: R.N. Abramov. –M.: Higher school of economics, 2008; p.211. Quality and Way of Life of the Population of Russia, 1989-2009 [Text]: report to the 12th International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, Moscow, April 5-7, 2011 / G.V. Andrushchak, A.Y. Burdyak, V.E. Gimpelson, etc.; leader of authors' collective E.G. Yasin; National Research University Higher School of Economics; Moscow: Higher School of Economics University Press, 2011. 86, [2]. Meroe A.S. Democracy, Meritocracy and the Uses of Education. The Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education. Measuring improvements in learning outcomes. OECD, 2008 Radaev V., Shkaratan О. Etakratism Power and Property — Evidence from the Soviet Experience Interna Social Science 1992, N 3. Rockoff J.E. The Impact of Individual Teachers on Student Achievement: Evidence from Panel Data. American Economic Review. 2004. Vol. 94. No. 2. Sahlberg, P. Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2011. Stolyarenko, L.D., Merzhoeva A.X. Socio-philosophical analysis of the problem of social selection in Russian system of general education. Novocherkask: NGMA, 2011;. p. 192. Tucker M. Ed. Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World's Leading Systems’Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2011. Wilson W.J. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Illinois University of Chicago Press, 1987. Waldman I.A. Support for the strong through neglect of the weak: time to change priorities? Russian education, 2010 No. 5; pp. 28-36.
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