Lesley Andres

Embarking on and Persisting in Scientific Fields of Study: Cultural capital, gender, and curriculum along the science pipeline

In this paper, we examine the nature and extent of participation of Canadian young women and men in science‐based academic fields. Informed by Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction, we focus on three key stages—senior secondary school, the transition to post‐secondary studies, and the post‐secondary completion stage—to determine whether and how the interrelationships of gender, cultural capital, course completion in senior secondary school, timing of decisions, and initial participation in post‐secondary education lead to the completion of science‐related undergraduate degrees. Through correspondence analyses of 10 years of longitudinal data with 1,055 respondents, we extend the findings of cross‐sectional studies that examine only one aspect of this longitudinal story by showing how the intersection between organisational structures (institutional and disciplinary) and cultural capital transmitted by the family shapes the opportunity structures of access to scientific fields of study by young women and men.

The Making of a Generation: The Children of the 1970s in Adulthood

In an effort to provide answers to the overarching question “of how a generation is made,” Andres and Wyn offer readers theoretical, conceptual, and policy insights based on the aspirations and trajectories of Canadian and Australian children born in the 1970s. The main premise of the book is that secondary-school graduates of the late 1980s and 1990s found themselves confronting significant economic uncertainty, workplace restructuring, and social change. Despite being more educated than their predecessors, these young adults entered new labour markets that were deregulated and precarious. As such, the authors convincingly argue that children of the 1970s “bore the brunt” of neoliberal educational and labour policies as they negotiated the significant social and economic transformations of the 1990s.

Educational Expectations, Parental Social Class, Gender, and Postsecondary Attainment A 10-Year Perspective

The authors employ a unique longitudinal data set of British Columbia high school graduates that followed respondents 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation to examine the extent to which educational expectations change over time in relation to parental socioeconomic status and eventual postsecondary attainment. Using the method of correspondence analysis, they demonstrate that graduates leave high school with educational expectations that change minimally from that point onward. Moreover, their findings reveal that there is a strong correspondence among gender, socioeconomic background of parents, and educational attainment. They conclude with direct implications for K-12 and postsecondary policy and practice.

The Persistence of Social Structure: Cohort, Class and Gender Effects on the Occupational Aspirations and Expectations of Canadian Youth

ABSTRACT From a rational action perspective, one might predict that the occupational aspirations and expectations of Canadian youth would have declined between the 1970s and the 1990s as the youth labour market deteriorated. Whether or not such a shift in the level of occupational goals was observed, a late modernity analysis would predict that social class, gender, and urban-rural residence would become less prominent determinants of aspirations and expectations, in contrast to a social structural prediction of continued strong structural effects. Analyses of baseline data from five longitudinal studies of school-work transitions conducted in Canada during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s lead us to reject the rational action argument—a decline in occupational aspirations and expectations was not observed. Instead, male occupational goals remained largely unchanged while female occupational ambitions rose. Social class continues to have strong independent effects on occupational goals, which appear to be media...

Life-course transitions, social class, and gender: a 15-year perspective of the lived lives of Canadian young adults

In this paper, through the theoretical lens of life-course research and reproduction theory, we employ 15 years of longitudinal data from the British Columbia, Canada Paths on Lifes Way project to examine the extent to which educational and career pathways of this cohort of 1988 high school graduates are gendered, individualized, prolonged, diversified; to determine marriage and parenthood patterns in relation to educational and occupational participation and outcomes across time; and to assess the extent to which social class still matters. We employ a transition probabilities analysis to follow the journeys of over 730 individuals from high school through the post-secondary system and work by identifying a sequence of significant stages. We then correlate these transition rates with relevant factors that influenced respondents’ lives. We demonstrate quantitatively that although the life courses of young women and men are experienced differently, there is an overall regularity in outcomes. Their ‘choices’ at key transition points are to large extent shaped by external structures and social class and gender differences are evident.

Parents, Educational Attainment, Jobs and Satisfaction: What's the Connection? A 10-Year Portrait of Canadian Young Women and Men

In this study, we examine relationships among parental background, post-secondary attainment, occupational status, and extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction of a cohort of British Columbia youth who graduated from high school in 1988. This cohort was studied through surveys conducted in 1989, 1993, and 1998. Consistent with cultural reproduction theory, it was expected that via the route of educational and occupational attainment, individuals from relatively advantaged families would report higher job satisfaction than others. In this study, we take account of gendered dispositions as another critical form of capital. In our analyses, we include those who have never attended a post-secondary institution following high school, through to those who have completed a minimum of a university degree. Simultaneous two-group LISREL models by gender were specified and estimated. Analyses reveal that significant relationships are, for the most part, direct and sequential, and that every step in the sequence matters. Parents, by virtue of being more highly educated and holding higher status jobs, did not directly or indirectly influence the status of occupations their children will hold as young adults. Rather, parental privilege is passed on to their children via the route of educational attainment. Also, our analyses reveal important gender differences. The findings extend our understanding of these relationships and raise important questions about the ways investment in higher education is translated into occupational status and eventual job satisfaction for women and men.

Navigating complex lives: a longitudinal, comparative perspective on young people's trajectories.

Background: Drawing on a sociological analysis that brings the prevailing social and economic policies into the frame of this analysis, this article focuses on the relationship between the social conditions faced by young people in the 1990s and early 2000s, the opportunities and constraints that these conditions presented to them, and patterns of mental health.

The Cumulative Impact of Capital on Dispositions Across Time: A 15 Year Perspective of Young Canadians

In this chapter, I employ detailed longitudinal questionnaire data from the British Columbia, Canada Paths on Life’s Way study to examine the ways in which young people’s educational dispositions are constructed and shaped by examining how the parents of my study participants transmitted cultural and social capital to them; how they, in turn, have invested and converted the various forms of capital into educational attainment and occupational status; and how the cumulative impact of these experiences and conditions influence the ways in study participants are currently transmitting cultural and social capital to their children. The 15 year horizon of this study allows for a meaningful examination of the Bourdieu’s theoretically rich concepts of habitus and capital, by interrogating the intricate “relationship between the structure of hopes or expectations ... and the structure of probabilities which constitute the social space” (Bourdieu, 2000a: 211). Through the method of structural equation modelling, an examination of the long term impact of cultural and social capital on dispositions and value sets of parents are limited at best. Two competing explanations of the results are advanced.

Two Sides of the Same Coin? Applied and General Higher Education Gender Stratification in Canada

Abstract In this chapter, we take up the distinction between applied and general fields of study in order to consider how patterns of gender stratification between them may differ. Purporting to offer industry- and firm-specific skills, applied fields of study are often differentiated from general education pathways that are offered within the university sector. However, as our research demonstrates, there is considerable interplay between these two forms of education when higher education engagement over the life course is examined. Using sequence and cluster analysis, we illustrate five ideal-typical higher education pathways in a sample of males and females over a 22-year period in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The gendered patterns of how individuals choose and move between general and applied fields of study offer a deeper account of stratification within general and applied skill acquisition and provide nuance concerning how vocational education can be conceptualised in relation to the actual higher education pathways students undertake. In Canada, where a high percentage of students gain university-level credentials, vertical and horizontal gender stratification within applied and general fields of study is distinctive and highlights system-specific engagement.

Taking Stock of 50 Years of Participation in Canadian Higher Education

This Chapter begins by describing the Canadian postsecondary system, both structurally and through the lenses of welfare regimes and production regimes. A discussion of expansion and participation follows, first from the 1960s to the 1980s, and then from the 1990s to the present day. Despite extraordinary expansion during both periods, disadvantaged groups continue to exist. Opportunities and challenges currently facing three underrepresented groups—women, the socio-economically disadvantaged, and Aboriginal people—are highlighted. The chapter concludes by providing recommendations for policies and practices that could further enhance postsecondary participation opportunities in Canada.