Why are Working-class Children Diverted from Universities?--An Empirical Assessment of the Diversion Thesis

Abstract

In spite of educational expansion, the decline of inequality of educational opportunity in schools and the institutional reforms in vocational training and university education, access to university education still remains remarkably unequal across social classes. According to the ‘diversion thesis’ suggested by Müller and Pollak, which was extended by Hillmert and Jacob, working-class children are distracted from the direct path to university by non-academic educational institutions which affect individuals’ educational choices and provide attractive of education and training alternatives in non-academic areas. To investigate why such a diversion occurs, the mechanisms of socially selective educational choices have to be analyzed from the perspective of rational action theory. In order to test this theoretical approach, data of school leavers that have attained the ‘Abitur’ (high school degree) were collected in East Germany's federal state of Saxony. The main mechanisms responsible for the fact that working-class children are very likely to favour vocational training over education at university are the subjective evaluation of prior educational performance, the probability of success at university, and the subjectively expected costs. In particular, working-class children's educational choices are most influenced by negative estimates of prospective success in university education, which causes them to refrain from university education.

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