Abstract
The chapter investigates patterns of inequalities of educational opportunities (IEO) among young men and women who lived with their parents in Brazil from 1960 to 2010. We used educational transition models (ETM) applied to census data (1960, 1970, 1980, 1991, 2000, and 2010) in order to analyze socioeconomic inequalities of access and completion of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. We documented how socioeconomic origins shape educational opportunities of young people in Brazil during five decades of intense educational expansion and social change. Our analysis reveals a mixed pattern of changes: inequality of educational opportunities (in terms of parental income and region of birth) decreased at basic educational levels, persisted at secondary level, and increased in terms of access to higher education.
This chapter benefited from comments and suggestions from participants of the first seminar project “Census: how much has Brazil changed in the past 50 years” held by the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM) in September 2012. We sincerely thank Marta Arretche for her invitation and support for the accomplishment of this work.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, we considered broader age brackets than those employed by the Ministry of Education (MEC) for measuring the age-grade distortion rate. For example, according to MEC criteria, the ideal age for completing primary education (transition T3, according to the classification hereby adopted) is age 15. In the present analysis, we consider that the individual can complete T3 up to the age of 18. We make use of broader age brackets because it is not our intention to measure the age-grade distortion rate but rather to examine the factors associated with the social and economic status of families that can affect youth educational performance and progression.
- 2.
This methodological choice is theoretically justified in section “Educational Transitions in Brazil: Operational Definitions and Data Description” of this chapter.
- 3.
All models had controls for state, since we consider that Brazilian states played a relevant role in providing basic education. More importantly, the coverage of state-level public supply shows significant variations across the different states as well as throughout the period analyzed (1960–2010). Consequently, standard errors were clustered by states. Cutoff points for the categories have been omitted so as to preserve greater simplicity in presenting the results.
- 4.
This effect becomes clear in the linear and binomial regression models when different specifications are tested. These were omitted in the present analysis.
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Ribeiro, C.A.C., Ceneviva, R., de Brito, M.M.A. (2019). Educational Stratification Among Youth in Brazil: 1960–2010. In: Arretche, M. (eds) Paths of Inequality in Brazil. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78184-6_3
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