Educational Systems and Gender Segregation in Education: A Three-Country Comparison of Germany, Norway and Canada

How do institutional settings and their embedded policy principles affect gender-typed enrolment in educational programmes? Based on gender-sensitive theories on career choice, we hypothesised that gender segregation in education is higher with a wider range of offers of vocational programmes. By analysing youth survey and panel data, we tested this assumption for Germany, Norway and Canada, three countries whose educational systems represent a different mix of academic, vocational and universalistic education principles. We found that vocational programmes are considerably more gender-segregated than are academic (e.g. university) programmes. Men, more so than women, can avoid gender-typed programmes by passing on to a university education. This in turn means that as long as their secondary school achievement does not allow for a higher education career, they have a higher likelihood of being allocated to male-typed programmes in the vocational education and training (VET) system. In addition, social background and the age at which students have to choose educational offers impact on the transition to gendered educational programmes. Overall, gender segregation in education is highest in Germany and the lowest in Canada. We interpret the differences between these countries with respect to the constellations of educational principles and policies in the respective countries.

Expected and Unexpected Consequences of the Educational Expansion in Europe and the US. Theoretical approaches and empirical findings in comparative perspective

A main mechanism behind the change in European and North American societies in the second half of the 20th century is the educational expansion, i.e. the increase in educational opportunities and the higher demand for education. Whereas other abstract social processes like modernization have been widely theorized in social science literature, the educational expansion and its consequences in particular have not been well studied. Therefore the main aim of this compilation is to deal with the question of whether the demands of the educational reforms have been fulfilled and which other consequences the educational expansion has had. This book will focus on consequences of the educational expansion for individuals and their life courses as well as for the social structure and other societal areas such as culture and politics. Aspects that will be analysed in the light of educational expansion include participation in education, educational inequalities, labour market outcomes, educational returns, and gender differences as well as crime, life expectancy, and lifestyles. Countries analysed in the book include West European countries like Germany, France, Italy and Spain, East European countries (Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic) as well as the US.

On the relationship between need for cognition and self-control capacity

In the present study, we examined the hypothesis that individuals’ motivational tendency to engage in effortful information processing (i.e., their need for cognition; NFC) is positively related to their self-control capacity. This hypothesis was based on previous findings that effortful information processing and self-control both depend on a joint strength resource, and that this resource is boosted by frequent use. NFC was assessed via questionnaire. One week later, the participants (N = 46) completed a test of self-control capacity (Stroop Task). As expected, NFC was positively related to self-control capacity but unrelated to general processing speed.

Umsetzung subjektiver Sporthäufigkeitsstandards: zur Rolle dispositionell verfügbarer Selbstkontrollkraft

In dieser Arbeit wurde untersucht, ob Personen mit höherer dispositioneller Verfügbarkeit von Selbstkontrollkraft höhere subjektive Sporthäufigkeitsstandards eher einhalten. Auf Basis früherer Forschung gingen wir davon aus, dass die Verfügbarkeit von Selbstkontrollkraft eine Voraussetzung für willentliche Handlungen ist. Ein subjektiver Sporthäufigkeitsstandard bezeichnet die eigene Auffassung einer Person, wie häufig sie Sport treiben sollte. Insgesamt 93 Studierende gaben an, an wie vielen Tagen in der Woche sie aus ihrer Sicht Sport treiben sollten und an wie vielen Tagen in der Woche sie tatsächlich Sport treiben. Außerdem beantworteten sie eine Skala zur Messung der dispositionellen Verfügbarkeit von Selbstkontrollkraft. Eine hierarchische multiple Regressionsanalyse mit anschließenden Simple-Slope-Analysen erbrachte den erwarteten Befund: Teilnehmende mit höherer Verfügbarkeit von Selbstkontrollkraft setzten höhere Sporthäufigkeitsstandards eher um. Wir diskutieren den Befund u. a. im Hinblick auf die Förderung sportlicher Aktivität.