Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SCHOOLPOL (The Transformation of Post-War Education: Causes and Effects)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-11-01 al 2024-10-31
The educational context children are born into profoundly shapes their life chances—not only economically, but also in terms of civic and political engagement. While it is well established that education matters, recent research highlights how institutional variation in education systems influences a broad range of outcomes. Yet we still lack systematic, comparative data on the educational contexts in which today’s adults were educated, the political forces shaping those systems, and their long-term impacts. We also lack strong comparative theory to explain why post-war education systems diverged across countries. In an era marked by rising geographic and educational inequalities and political polarization, understanding how education systems affect social mobility and democratic participation is crucial for developing inclusive, effective policy. SCHOOLPOL contributes to this goal by offering data and insights to better address persistent disadvantage, improve social cohesion, and support democratic institutions.
The project had four core aims. First, to document and explain variation in national education systems (WP1), by building detailed longitudinal data on primary and secondary education structures and reform trajectories in 20 countries from 1945 to the present. This included novel measures of tracking, access, privatization, standardization, and reform politics. Second, to understand the geographic dimensions of educational inequality and their political implications (WP2). With rising interest in regional disparities, WP2 examined how educational inequality varies spatially and how it relates to evolving patterns of political behavior. Third, to assess how education systems shape intergenerational mobility and political preferences (WP3), asking whether growing up in different institutional contexts alters life outcomes and attitudes. Fourth, to examine the contemporary politics of education—how parties use reforms to pursue political goals and how these reforms feed back into political life.
To achieve these aims, SCHOOLPOL produced three major work packages covering policy, institutional, and political data from 20 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For federal systems, key subnational units were sampled to capture variation within countries.
The project had four core aims. First, to document and explain variation in national education systems (WP1), by building detailed longitudinal data on primary and secondary education structures and reform trajectories in 20 countries from 1945 to the present. This included novel measures of tracking, access, privatization, standardization, and reform politics. Second, to understand the geographic dimensions of educational inequality and their political implications (WP2). With rising interest in regional disparities, WP2 examined how educational inequality varies spatially and how it relates to evolving patterns of political behavior. Third, to assess how education systems shape intergenerational mobility and political preferences (WP3), asking whether growing up in different institutional contexts alters life outcomes and attitudes. Fourth, to examine the contemporary politics of education—how parties use reforms to pursue political goals and how these reforms feed back into political life.
To achieve these aims, SCHOOLPOL produced three major work packages covering policy, institutional, and political data from 20 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For federal systems, key subnational units were sampled to capture variation within countries.
WP1 analyzed the politics of education reform—tracking, privatization, and centralized control—across 20 countries from 1945 to 2022. The team developed detailed indicators to measure institutional structures and recoded party manifestos and actor data (e.g. unions, churches) using the same framework. The main output is a book manuscript co-authored by the PI and Anja Giudici. WP1 data also informed five publications, including articles in Comparative Politics, European Journal of Political Research, and Social Policy and Administration, and two forthcoming book chapters.
WP2 created a regional human capital database linking educational attainment, voting patterns, and demographics at small geographic scales. It includes further school performance datasets for Sweden and England. This fine-grained data enabled our analysis of regional educational inequality and political geography, leading to five publications, including an article in the Journal of European Social Policy, three chapters with Cambridge University Press, and one with Manchester University Press. A database paper is under revise-and-resubmit, with additional working papers in progress.
WP3 explores how educational institutions shape social mobility and political attitudes. It links survey data to geographic and institutional context (from WP1 and WP2) and includes a five-country survey conducted at the end of the project. This research produced five publications, including work in the Oxford Handbook of Globalization and Education, Policy Studies Journal, and an award-winning article in Comparative Education Review. It also contributed to the Deaton Review on political inequality. Further publications are planned in 2025.
Findings from all three work packages underpin the PI’s solo-authored book, currently under contract, which examines how education reforms by social democratic parties failed to generate lasting electoral support.
WP2 created a regional human capital database linking educational attainment, voting patterns, and demographics at small geographic scales. It includes further school performance datasets for Sweden and England. This fine-grained data enabled our analysis of regional educational inequality and political geography, leading to five publications, including an article in the Journal of European Social Policy, three chapters with Cambridge University Press, and one with Manchester University Press. A database paper is under revise-and-resubmit, with additional working papers in progress.
WP3 explores how educational institutions shape social mobility and political attitudes. It links survey data to geographic and institutional context (from WP1 and WP2) and includes a five-country survey conducted at the end of the project. This research produced five publications, including work in the Oxford Handbook of Globalization and Education, Policy Studies Journal, and an award-winning article in Comparative Education Review. It also contributed to the Deaton Review on political inequality. Further publications are planned in 2025.
Findings from all three work packages underpin the PI’s solo-authored book, currently under contract, which examines how education reforms by social democratic parties failed to generate lasting electoral support.
SCHOOLPOL has substantially advanced the empirical, theoretical, and methodological understanding of education systems and their societal impacts, moving beyond the state of the art in five key ways.
First, it developed a new framework for mapping education systems, measuring institutional structures—such as access, tracking, and privatization—rather than outcomes. This revealed overlooked patterns in reform, including how right-wing parties adopted detracking in varied ways, often alongside privatization. The project shows that countries follow non-converging paths shaped by how parties combine voter and interest group pressures into distinct reform packages.
Second, by recoding education sections of party manifestos from 1945–2022 in 20 countries, the project provided novel insights into how parties articulate education policy. Unlike past studies focused on spending or mention counts, this approach revealed differences in rhetorical strategy linked to parties’ dual pressures from core constituencies and general voters. These findings were published in leading journals and contribute to new theorizing on political communication.
Third, SCHOOLPOL produced a regional human capital database offering unprecedented granularity in education and demographic data. It shows that key political and social divides are not simply urban vs. rural but lie within regions—particularly between inner cities and their peripheries. This helps reframe debates about “left behind” areas by highlighting more complex spatial dynamics of educational attainment that have institutional origins outside of education systems.
Fourth, the project distinguishes between “differentiation” and “hierarchy” in education systems and shows their distinct effects on social mobility. Hierarchical systems significantly reduce mobility for disadvantaged groups. Follow-on work links these findings to political preferences, showing how institutional structures shape political preferences and voting.
Finally, the PI’s book manuscript integrates findings from all work packages to examine why educational expansion by social democratic parties in the 1990s–2000s did not generate lasting political support. It argues that education policies can disrupt rather than reinforce political alignments, offering a new theory of policy feedback in advanced democracies.
First, it developed a new framework for mapping education systems, measuring institutional structures—such as access, tracking, and privatization—rather than outcomes. This revealed overlooked patterns in reform, including how right-wing parties adopted detracking in varied ways, often alongside privatization. The project shows that countries follow non-converging paths shaped by how parties combine voter and interest group pressures into distinct reform packages.
Second, by recoding education sections of party manifestos from 1945–2022 in 20 countries, the project provided novel insights into how parties articulate education policy. Unlike past studies focused on spending or mention counts, this approach revealed differences in rhetorical strategy linked to parties’ dual pressures from core constituencies and general voters. These findings were published in leading journals and contribute to new theorizing on political communication.
Third, SCHOOLPOL produced a regional human capital database offering unprecedented granularity in education and demographic data. It shows that key political and social divides are not simply urban vs. rural but lie within regions—particularly between inner cities and their peripheries. This helps reframe debates about “left behind” areas by highlighting more complex spatial dynamics of educational attainment that have institutional origins outside of education systems.
Fourth, the project distinguishes between “differentiation” and “hierarchy” in education systems and shows their distinct effects on social mobility. Hierarchical systems significantly reduce mobility for disadvantaged groups. Follow-on work links these findings to political preferences, showing how institutional structures shape political preferences and voting.
Finally, the PI’s book manuscript integrates findings from all work packages to examine why educational expansion by social democratic parties in the 1990s–2000s did not generate lasting political support. It argues that education policies can disrupt rather than reinforce political alignments, offering a new theory of policy feedback in advanced democracies.