Article analyses the report on the findings of extensive empirical research on equality of educational opportunities carried out in the US on a very large sample of public schools by Coleman and his colleagues. Report has had a major impact on education policy and has given rise to a large amount of research and various interpretations. However, as some interpreters have high¬lighted, even more important than the findings of the survey themselves has been Coleman’s redefinition of equality of opportunity, abandoning the then prevailing conception of equality of educational opportunities as equality of starting points and replacing it with the concept of equality of educational opportunities as equality of educational outcomes. The question is, therefore, whether equality of outcomes really is one of the two types of equality of opportunity.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2948183
In the present article, we analyse the reinstatement of meritocracy as that type of rationality that revaluated and transformed the way of thinking and the lives of the members of Western societies from the end of the 19th century; it strongly defined the way of life throughout the 20th century and it seems it still does in the 21st century. Established meritocracy introduced a new criterion of social promotion, one which allows the individual to advance on the social ladder using their intellect and effort as a criterion. Regarding this point, we briefly review the history of western societies after WWII and analyse the factors, which importantly contributed to its establishment and existence. We continue with the linking of the structural changes of the western world with the changes in the system of education, which take place because of interdependence and allow us to understand the formation of the elements of the modern school, which is becoming – concisely put – the main dispositive of meritocracy. The above said is demonstrated and hopefully proven with the thematisation of phenomena ranging from public education to mass and universal schooling. In conclusion we discuss the questions of inner tensions in the instrumentalised meritocracy and the limits of meritocracy as type of rationality.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3014743
The paper stresses the importance of promoting overall development of all students (equity) to promote educational success (efficacy). When schools support and foster overall development (social and emotional development included) this, on one hand, leads to decreases in student anxiety and, on the other hand, to increases in learning outcomes (e.g. academic achievement) (Durlak, 2011). Anxiety interrupts the process of learning and is related to lower academic achievement (Mazzone, Ducci, Scoto, Passaniti, D'Arrigo in Vitiello, 2007), therefore it is crucial for school to provide support (e.g.in the form of social and emotional learning) for highly anxious students to give them equal opportunities for educational success and higher academic achievement. In the paper we have used PISA data in order to analyse the relationship between academic achievement and anxiety in more detail. We tested the predictive power of different types of anxiety present in the school setting, test anxiety and math anxiety, for reading, mathematics and science literacy (as measured in PISA study). We used PISA 2012 data base (N = 8405) and PISA 2015 data base (N= 6372). The analyses showed that math anxiety is a significant predictor of reading, math and science literacy in PISA 2012 (with parental education included in the model). Similarly test anxiety is a significant predictor of math and science (and not reading) literacy in PISA 2015. Higher levels of math and test anxiety are related to lower level of math, science and reading literacy. In the context of assuring equal opportunities for all students we were further interested in the relationship between anxiety and social-economic status and between anxiety and gender. The aim was to identify the groups of students that are at higher risk for higher levels of anxiety. Higher levels of math and test anxiety were measured in students coming from lower social-economic background (in 2012) and in females compared to males (in 2012 and in 2015). The findings are congruent with the research literature and reflect the need to promote overall development in order to promote equal opportunities for all students (also for the ones that are lacking social and emotional skills to deal with higher levels of anxiety) to reach high equity and efficacy at the same time.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3013975