OAFP 4415 - Shaping Education: A Socioeconomic Perspective

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Everyone agrees today that education has many benefits for the employment and income prospects of individuals, but also in other areas of life, such as health and citizenship. It is at the heart of the economic and social progress of nations. These economic and social benefits will be discussed in the first part of the course. But the schooling achievement of many students is still hampered by several factors, such as their parents' socioeconomic background, their gender, and their ethno-racial origin. These factors are a source of inequalities which will be also examined in the course. We will also present the results of recent research concerning the involvement of parents in the educational success of their children, the integration of the children of immigrants through education, and the effects of digital technologies on the acquisition of cognitive and non-cognitive skills of students. The references used in the course come from several disciplines. More specifically, the course draws on both the work carried out over the past twenty years by sociologists, economists, and educational scientists. The course is based on a non-formal presentation of the main concepts, works and results which are at the center of this research. From this point of view, the approach adopted here is that of “socioeconomics”. Socioeconomics is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. So “shaping education” means “how social and economic processes shape education, education systems and education policy”.

Denis FOUGERE

Enseignement électif

English

Students should read working papers, articles published in academic reviews, and chapters of institutional reports after each session of the course to deepen their understanding of the covered topics. The reading list corresponding to a session will be distributed by the instructor during the session.

There are no special prerequisites. The course is often based on articles from academic journals, reports from international institutions (OECD, UNESCO, World Bank, etc.) and working papers in sociology, economics, and science of education.

Autumn 2022-2023

Students will have: 1) To present orally one or two academic articles (or working papers) in sessions 5 to 12 of the course (which corresponds to the last 8 sessions); each presentation will last one hour; it will be done by a group of 2 or 3 students (Percentage of the final score: 40%). 2) To produce a review paper (approximately 20/25 pages) which will be handed to the instructors during the last (12th) session of the course; these review papers should cover topics that will not be presented during the course. These topics will be proposed by the instructors. Each paper will be written by a group of 2 or 3 students. The review paper should be based on the two or three proposed articles (different from those presented orally). It should provide a documented and critical analysis of these papers, including a discussion of the objects of study, the research studies' design and methodology and their results and interpretations. The students will have to refer not only to some of the articles quoted in the bibliography of the two articles to be read in detail, but also to the main works (books, articles, working papers) which initiated the research in the considered topics. References to other papers and books should be no more than fifteen. They should not give rise to long digressions, the primary objective being to analyse the two or three articles proposed (Percentage of the final score: 60%). There is no final exam.

Twelve lecture courses, plus working groups of two or three students for preparing the oral presentation and the final survey of three academic papers.