Changing Pathways to Attainment in Men's Lives: Historical Patterns of School, Work, and Social Class

• Published in: Social forces Vol. 77; no. 1; pp. 231 - 256
• Main Authors: Shanahan, Michael J., Miech, Richard A., Elder, Glen H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chapel Hill, NC The University of North Carolina Press 01.09.1998; University of North Carolina Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Achievement; Adult Education; Career development planning; Careers; Changes; Classes, stratification, mobility; Dropouts; Economic aspects; Economic Change; Economic fluctuations; Economic transitions; Education; Education Economy Relationship; Education Work Relationship; Educational Attainment; Educational Experience; Elementary schools; Elementary Secondary Education; Eligibility; Employment Opportunities; Enrollment Rate; Family Characteristics; Generational Differences; High school students; Higher Education; Historical text analysis; Historiography; Human Capital; Labor Market; Learning Experience; Males; Manufacturing; Men; Motivation in education; Occupational Changes in a Generation Survey; Occupations; Patterns; Public Schools; School dropouts; Secondary schools; Social Change; Social Class; Social Classes; Social conditions & trends; Social organization. Social system. Social structure; Sociocultural Patterns; Socioeconomic Status; Socioeconomics; Sociology; Student motivation; Unemployment; United States; United States of America; USA; War; Warehousing; Work; United States Of America; United States > US; Education; Economic sector; Cohort Analysis; Professional career; Economic change; Man; Achievement; Occupational status; Social stratification; Social Class
• ISSN: 0037-7732; 1534-7605
• DOI: 10.1093/sf/77.1.231

Pathways to attainment are modified through historical time, reflecting the progressive consolidation of the educational trajectory in the life course, as well as changing patterns of social class and the economy. Using data from the Occupational Changes in a Generation surveys, this study examines a series of hypotheses that interrelate educational attainment with historical change, expansions and contractions in labor market sectors, and socioeconomic status. Consistent with expectations, opportunities in manufacturing drew students from primary school before World War II, while expansions in the government sector increased the likelihood of drop-out at the secondary and tertiary levels after the war. In this later period, students from the lower and middle classes often were more likely to leave school because of economic expansion. Thus, through historical time the capacity of the economy to draw students from school has progressed upward through the educational career and has affected the lower and middle classes disproportionately.