Great Expectations? A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between the School-to-Higher Education Transition and Social Mobility

Abstract

Education has always been considered as a means for social mobility, leveling off inequalities among individuals and enabling them to realize their potential. Against a backdrop dominated by political discourses on employability, flexibility and performance, there are growing concerns that students’ career decisions may be affected by individual and structural factors undermining the fairness of the transition from school to higher education (HE). To address this issue, this article seeks to unpack the enablers and barriers affecting the school-to-HE transition. To do so, we undertook a systematic review of papers published in psychology, sociology, education and public policy from 1985 to date, a period where major employment and education reforms in advanced and emerging economies were implemented. The findings show that socio-economic, cultural and institutional factors affect students’ access to HE. By taking stock of research on the school-to-HE transition, this article contributes to broaden the debate on the topic and reflects upon the relation between education and social mobility.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICYT Chile, grant MR/N026527/1). The authors are indebted to Emilio Moya, Daniel Paillama and Daniel Dueñas for their research assistance.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The diffusion of non-standard forms of employment varies significantly across the world depending on each country’s economic level and institutional setting. In the EU, it is estimated that in the period 2011–2014 only 58% of the work force had a “standard” full-time permanent contract, with the use of atypical contracts rising for low- and mid-waged jobs (Eurofound 2015). In Latin America, the number of atypical contracts from one country to another, with a small percentage of non-standard contracts in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, to 30% of atypical workers in Chile and El Salvador (International Labour Office 2016).

2 These were in alphabetical order: Academic Search Complete; Academic Search Premier; Anthropology Plus; Books@Ovid; British Education Index; Business Source Complete; Business Source Premier; Chicano Database; eBook Collection (EBSCOhost); EconLit; Education Abstracts (H.W. Wilson); Education Source; Educational Administration Abstracts; ERIC; Humanities International Complete; Political Science Complete; PsycARTICLES; Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection; PsycINFO; SocINDEX

3 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Moher et al. 2009)