https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9221-0045
![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we employ a comparative life course approach for Canada and Germany to unravel the relationships among general and vocational educational attainment and different life course activities, with a focus on labour market and income inequality by gender. Life course theory and related concepts of ‘time,’ ‘normative patterns,’ ‘order and disorder,’ and ‘discontinuities’ are used to inform the analyses. Data from the Paths on Life’s Way (Paths) project in British Columbia, Canada and the German Pathways from Late Childhood to Adulthood (LifE) which span 28 and 33 years, respectively, are employed to examine life trajectories from leaving school to around age 45. Sequence analysis and cluster analyses portray both within and between country differences – and in particular gender differences – in educational attainment, employment, and other activities across the life course which has an impact on ultimate labour market participation and income levels. ‘Normative’ life courses that follow a traditional order correspond with higher levels of full-time work and higher incomes; in Germany more so than Canada, these clusters are male dominated. Clusters characterised by ‘disordered’ and ‘discontinuous’ life courses in both countries are female dominated and associated with lower income levels.
Ethics approval
This research was approved by the UBC Behavioural Review of Ethics Board under Certificate number H15-02182.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. In this paper, we use the term ‘tertiary education,’ which is synonymous with ‘post-secondary’ or ‘higher’ education. In Canada, admission to tertiary level education normally requires high school graduation or its equivalent. In Germany, the Arbitur, which is the credential earned upon completion of academic study at the senior secondary level, is required for admission to tertiary education. Vocational education (VET) in Germany is part of the secondary system which students enter following completion of lower secondary education.
2. Only data reporting spousal information is limited to respondents with spouses. Otherwise, the full data sets for both countries are used.
3. For Canada, self-reported estimations of total household income before taxes and deductions are adjusted by the square root of household size, In Germany, total household income after taxes and deductions is reported (OECD, 2011).
4. For the Canadian data, we employ a purposive substitution matrix for cluster analysis (0,2,2,3\3,0,1,3\3,1,0,3\3,3,3,0) and an insertion/deletion cost of 1.5. Discrepancy measures and the theoretical interpretability of the group characteristics were used to guide our choice in the number of clusters (Studer, Ritschard, Gabadinho & Müller, 2011)
5. The data point March 2016, which is the last month-to-month data collection point, is abbreviated as ‘in 2016’ here and in the description of the clusters.
6. April 2012 is the cut-off date for the German Data. It is abbreviated from here on in to ‘2012.’
7. For the German data, we employ a purposive substitution matrix for cluster analysis (0,2,1,1,3\2,01,1,3\1,1,0,0,3\1,1,1,0,3) and an insertion/deletion cost of 1.5 with discrepancy measures and theoretical interpretability guiding the number of clusters.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Lesley Andres
Lesley Andres is a Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is the principal investigator of the Paths on Life’s Way Project, a unique Canadian longitudinal study that has combined extensive qualitative and quantitative data over a 33 year time frame to examine the lives, actions, experiences and perspectives of individuals within a life course framework. This research focuses on educational, occupational and other life course outcomes in relation to various forms of inequality. Her most recent books are Designing and Doing Survey Research (2012) and The Making of a Generation: Children of the 1970s in Adulthood (2010, co-authored with Johanna Wyn).
Wolfgang Lauterbach
Wolfgang Lauterbach is a Professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He is the principal investigator of the German Pathways from Late Childhood to Adulthood: Context and Development in Adolescence as Predictors of Productive Life-Courses (LifE) study, a 33 year data collection endeavour. The main focus of his research is on educational attainment processes, social inequality, income and wealth. Recently, he has investigated shadow education in relation to social inequality. Articles on this topic have been published in International Journal for Research on Extended Education and Orbis Scholae.
Janine Jongbloed
Janine Jongbloed is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the field of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada and an Associate Researcher with the Institute for Research in the Sociology and Economics of Education (IREDU) in France. She holds a PhD from the University of Burgundy. Her research interests include the nonmarket effects of tertiary education, educational participation and patterns over the life-course, and comparative studies of educational and welfare production regimes. She works with longitudinal projects in both France and Canada, including the 33 year Paths on Life’s Way mixed-methods survey research study in British Columbia.
Hartwig Hümme
Hartwig Hümme is a doctoral student in the Faculties of Humanities, Economic- and Social Sciences at the University of Potsdam. He holds a MA in Educational Sciences from the University of Rostock. The focus of his research is life course studies, returns to education, educational inequalities, and comparative educational research.