Using PISA 2009 data for Croatia, this paper addresses the relationship between socio-economic background, cultural capital and educational attainment. Following Bourdieu, we emphasized the ...importance of interpreting cultural capital effects as effects of family habitus. The results indicated that the material and the relational dimension of cultural capital had independent effects on science literacy results. Although there was no significant interaction effect between socio-economic status and cultural capital, the analysis suggested both a tendency for social reproduction as well as the possibility for social mobility of students with lower socio-economic status.
The model of ethnification posits that in post-socialist contexts ethnic identities are used as a source for political mobilization against ethnic outgroups. In Croatia, this is further amplified by ...collective war experiences. This paper investigates the association between identity-based variables, related to ethnification and war experiences, and anti-immigrant prejudice in Croatia. The study employed structural equation modelling of the data from a large youth sample (N = 1,034). Higher ethnic threat, lower cultural capital, more exclusive conception of nationhood and right-wing political orientation predicted stronger anti-immigrant prejudice. Ethnic threat moderated the effect of political orientation on prejudice: under high ethnic threat there was no difference between left-wing and right-wing individuals. As the results correspond to findings from Western countries, we argue that comparable explanations of anti-immigrant prejudice may be applied to non-Western and Western contexts.
This article provides a panoramic view of research findings on social inequalities in access to higher education in Croatia since the 1960s, guided by the question of what has changed in the ...findings. Our review shows that there is stark continuity over the last five decades: students from better educated family backgrounds tend to be overrepresented in higher education; students from better educated and white-collar family backgrounds are more likely to enrol in academic as opposed to professional study courses; students at one Croatian university in particular stand out in terms of their more privileged social background; and medicine seems to be the prime academic field for observing social reproduction. We note that these persistent findings run parallel to a dramatically changing political, economic and social context in Croatia, including transformations in the 1990s resulting from social ownership of the means of production to widespread private ownership, as well as transformations from a one-party political system to the establishment of a multi-party political system. The article maps possible theoretical explanations for the resilience of social inequalities in access to higher education in the context of dynamic times. It also questions the role of educational policies in this process.
The aim of the article was to address the relevance of cultural capitaland relative risk aversion theories for educational outcomes and aspirations of uppersecondary school students in Croatia, and ...to examine whether these approaches arecompatible in explaining educational inequalities. Linear and logistic regressionswere used to analyze data from 2106 students in their last year of upper secondaryschool (16–18 years old). Both constructs, cultural capital and relative risk aversion,had positive effects on school performance, enrolment of gymnasium instead ofvocational school and aspirations for higher education. The analyses indicatedthat cultural factors frequently associated with school performance should not beseparated from more direct status concerns shaping educational decisions. Ratherthan seeing them as unrelated, these mechanisms may both be seen as constitutiveof students’ educational dispositions.
The paper examines the aspirations of Croatian secondary school students towards studying abroad, in Zagreb or in some other city in Croatia. The theoretical background of the paper was based on the ...rational choice theory, typically used in explaining educational decisions in periods of educational transition. A multi-level multinomial regression analysis was conducted using a nationally representative sample of students attending four-year secondary schools (N=10 829). The data were collected during the school year 2017/2018. The results indicate that aspirations towards the place of studying are related to the students’ social background: stronger aspirations towards studying in Zagreb correlate with having at least one parent with higher education and with the active working status of the mother and father, while stronger aspirations towards studying abroad correlate with the higher education of both parents and a higher monthly household income. Students’ aspirations towards studying abroad are also related to the rational choice indicators: greater concern with avoiding downward social mobility, higher estimate of the probability of successful enrolment at and completion of higher education, lower assessment of the value of education in Croatian society and higher assessment of non-compliance with principles of meritocracy in Croatian higher education. On the other hand, aspirations towards studying in Zagreb only correlate with a higher assessment of the social value of education. All effects were independent of the students’ school performance. The findings are interpreted in the context of horizontal inequalities in higher education, pointing to possible implications for the educational policy.
This study examines the association between vocational school students' aspirations for higher education and different factors that may be related to their social background. Using cultural ...reproduction and relative risk aversion (RRA) theories, the study draws on data from 7060 students of four-year vocational upper secondary school programmes in Croatia. A multinomial logistic model with a random intercept was applied, in which students' aspirations for pursuing higher education served as the outcome variable. Apart from indicators of socio-economic status (SES), vocational school students' characteristics related to cultural habits and behaviours, as well as their concerns with downward mobility, were used as regressor variables in the analysis. All three constructs showed independent effects on aspirations for higher education, controlling for vocational sector, gender, school achievement, and school year. Further, a moderation effect was identified, indicating that the association between cultural capital and aspirations for higher education was stronger among students with more educated parents. In contrast to previous studies, the findings point to the potential complementarity of cultural capital and RRA concerning educational aspirations. We discuss the implications of the study and directions for future research.
The article analyses how young people in Croatia conceptualise their identities in terms of “place identifications”, a type of social identification that captures membership of a group of people who ...are defined by their location. It is based on focus group discussions conducted with 68 elementary and secondary school students aged between 11 and 17 in three urban localities in Croatia: Rijeka, Zagreb and Zadar. The concepts guiding the analysis included place identifications, the civic and cultural components of national identity and intersectionality. The study found that students displayed a strong identification with the region they are from through a discourse of stereotypes along the coastal–inland, rural–urban and north–south distinctions. National cultural identities and liminal European-Balkan identities were equally strong providing interesting examples of inclusion and othering. The young people showed a sense of aspiring to be European, of feeling almost European, of being not-quite-yet European, of being “Balkan”. There was a common sense of the Balkan-European divide being a line that stood very slightly to the north-west of wherever the students happened to be: there was Europe, generally beckoning – but they were on a threshold and still leaning towards the Balkan side, described as impolite, quarrelsome, underdeveloped and littered. The study suggests complex and kaleidoscopic identity constructions of young people in Croatia in which different and even opposed elements do not exclude each other but rather coexist in various ways.
The present paper focuses on teacher?s role in social justice and explores
how teachers perceive and react upon diversity and inequality in their
classrooms. Through a literature review, we aimed to ...answer three research
questions: 1) what are diversity awareness and critical consciousness in
education; 2) why are diversity awareness and critical consciousness
important; and 3) how can diversity awareness and critical consciousness be
supported in teachers. The literature review has revealed that most papers
on teachers? diversity awareness and critical consciousness have been
published within the last few years and that the importance of the two
concepts has been recognized for a wide range of educators. There seems to
be a growing interest in this topic due to the increase of the diversity in
classrooms and the recognition of the teachers? role in addressing diversity
and inequality. However, large-scale studies would be a needed contribution
to the field, as most of the existing studies are small-scale. Based on this
review, we argue that both diversity awareness and critical consciousness
need to be supported through preservice and in-service teacher professional
development programs, if we are to make education systems more inclusive for
all.
Osnovni je cilj rada ispitati odabrane elemente multikulturalističke politike priznavanja
vodeći računa o međuodnosu kulturno-identitetskih i strukturnih aspekata društvene prakse.
U tu se svrhu: 1) ...predstavljaju ključni koncepti multikulturalističke teorijske pozicije; 2)
razmatra se Bourdieuov koncept habitusa, koji upućuje na ograničenja i društvenu deriviranost
subjektivnih dispozicija; 3) propituje se odnos pojmova habitusa i identiteta i 4) zahtjevi za priznanjem
manjinskih identiteta povezuju se sa zahtjevima za redistribucijom unutar teorijskog
okvira N. Fraser. Analiza pokazuje da je oblikovanje postojećih identiteta u smjeru fluidnijih i
debinariziranih identitetskih obrazaca važan element za svrsishodno aktiviranje i politiziranje
manjinskih identiteta. Taj se proces treba temeljiti na svijesti o strukturalnim limitima svake
refleksivne rekonstrukcije identiteta.
Osnovni je cilj rada ispitati odabrane elemente multikulturalističke politike priznavanja vodeći računa o međuodnosu kulturno-identitetskih i strukturnih aspekata društvene prakse. U tu se svrhu: 1) ...predstavljaju ključni koncepti multikulturalističke teorijske pozicije; 2) razmatra se Bourdieuov koncept habitusa, koji upućuje na ograničenja i društvenu deriviranost subjektivnih dispozicija; 3) propituje se odnos pojmova habitusa i identiteta i 4) zahtjevi za priznanjem manjinskih identiteta povezuju se sa zahtjevima za redistribucijom unutar teorijskog okvira N. Fraser. Analiza pokazuje da je oblikovanje postojećih identiteta u smjeru fluidnijih i debinariziranih identitetskih obrazaca važan element za svrsishodno aktiviranje i politiziranje manjinskih identiteta. Taj se proces treba temeljiti na svijesti o strukturalnim limitima svake refleksivne rekonstrukcije identiteta.
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