Knowledge, skills or social mobility? Citizens' perceptions of the purpose of education

Marius Busemeyer and Elvire Guillaud ()
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Marius Busemeyer: University of Konstanz
Elvire Guillaud: CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po

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Abstract: This article explores individual views of the purpose of education. Most existing research focuses on attitudes and policy preferences; while these types of perceptions have so far been largely overlooked due to a lack of data. Our analysis of original survey data in eight Western European countries shows that personal socioeconomic factors and ideological predispositions shape these individual opinions. Individuals with higher levels of education and income are more likely to view education as aimed at expanding knowledge as goal by itself, and less likely to view it as a tool to promote intergenerational social mobility. Left-leaning individuals are also more likely to regard education as a goal by itself, and less likely to view it as conferring useful labour market skills for the younger generation. Finally, we investigate the relationship between these different views and individual preferences for social policies. Our results show that the perception of education as promoting intergenerational mobility is strongly associated with support for passive transfers, while the perception of education as conferring marketable skills increases support for workfare policies. Social investment policies, because they are widely supported in the population, are not linked to specific views on education.

Keywords: education policy; knowledge; marketable skills; social mobility; social policy preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04084125
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Published in Social Policy and Administration, 2023, 57 (2), pp.122-143. ⟨10.1111/spol.12897⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-04084125

DOI: 10.1111/spol.12897

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