Ineke Nagel

Effects of art education in secondary schools on cultural participation in later life

This paper reports on the effects of art education in secondary schools on the cultural participation of Dutch students 10–20 years after leaving school. We draw our conclusion from a sample survey among 1034 students from 31 schools, half of whom took art as a subject of examination. Art examination subjects were more often chosen by students who were already active in the arts, come from culturally active families, and who more often chose languages and other humanities in their examination package. However, in spite of their affiliation with art prior to choosing an examination package, training in the arts during secondary school was found to add to their participation in cultural activities ten to twenty years later. The effects are restricted to the same art discipline as the art lessons attended, and apply to both receptive [enjoying art of artists] and productive [producing art] cultural participation.

Reading behaviour from adolescence to early adulthood: A panel study of the impact of family and education on reading fiction books

In this article we study how the frequency of book-reading – a form of legitimate culture – develops in the period from adolescence to young adulthood and how it is influenced by parents’ education, parental reading socialization climate, school and their interactions. In disentangling parental and educational effects we contribute to the cultural reproduction–cultural mobility debate. We use multi-actor panel data on three cohorts of Dutch secondary school students (and their parents) who took part in a classroom survey between the ages of 14 and 17, and who participated in at least one of the follow-up surveys two, four and six years later. We find that the amount of book-reading is more strongly associated with education than with parents’ reading socialization. The influence of parents increases slightly in the period from adolescence to young adulthood. Differences in reading behaviour between students of different educational programmes increase during secondary education, but decrease in the period after secondary schooling. The transition to tertiary education hardly affects the frequency of reading. Overall, the results are more in line with the cultural reproduction model than with the cultural mobility model.

Short-Term Effects of Compulsory Multidisciplinary Secondary School Arts Education on Cultural Participation in the Netherlands

In 1999, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science introduced a new kind of compulsory arts education in secondary school aimed at stimulating cultural participation among Dutch youth. This article examines whether the course, called ‘Cultural and Artistic Education,’ succeeds in doing so. Data on 3,851 secondary school students (ages 14-16) in the Netherlands reveal that enrollment in Cultural and Artistic Education stimulates participation in high culture and, to a smaller degree, popular culture. The effects apply equally to students with different gender, ethnic minority, and family background status. A positive effect on attitude toward art only partly holds and is less convincing. No effects were found on the complexity of the attended cultural activities.

Art and socialisation

This article discusses the impact of arts socialization on participation in arts. Arts participation is characterized by large social inequalities. We focus on early arts socialization by parents and later socialization at school and discuss two models that explain the link between social inequalities and arts socialization: the cultural reproduction model and the cultural mobility model. The models differ in the importance they attach to early socialization by the parents and later socialization in schools. In addition, we discuss the status theory and the information theory, which explain effects of arts socialization, respectively, by social context and cognitive capacities. Finally, we review some relevant empirical studies, noting their substantive findings and/or methodological shortcomings.

Adolescents’ Expectations About the Timing of Family Life Events: Unraveling the Role of Value Transmission and Modeling

Intergenerational continuity in family behaviors partly results from socialization processes in the parental home. However, socialization is a multidimensional process. This article tests hypotheses about the relative importance of value transmission and modeling in explaining expectations of adolescence concerning the timing of leaving home, and entry into cohabitation, marriage, and parenthood. Structural equation modeling on multiactor data from over 1,000 parent–adolescent child couples in the Netherlands is used to test hypotheses. Results suggest that, in general, both value transmission and modeling are important predictors of adolescents’ expectations concerning the timing of major family events. Moreover, no differences between mothers and fathers and between boys and girls are observed in the strength of the intergenerational relationships studied.

Effecten van culturele en economische hulpbronnen op toekomstverwachtingen van adolescenten

Since the second half of the twentieth century, life in advanced societies has been individualized, with the individual seen as the architect of his or her own life, creating his or her own destiny, and with the future being the result of personal choices, preferences and capacities. This view is not uncontested, though, as many continue to stress the importance of the social, cultural and economic origins of individuals in understanding life course choices. The central question of this paper is to what extent the socio-economic origin of adolescents influences their expectations about their future life course, in the domains both of work and education, and in their family life. This question is studied using a data set in which 60 schools throughout the Netherlands have participated. More than 1,500 adolescents, aged 14–17 years, were interviewed about their future plans, expectations and life ambitions. In addition, their parents were questioned on the future plans of their child.