Paper short abstract:

Based on the in-depth interview with teachers from rural schools, the research paper aims to describe the mechanisms of reproduction of educational inequality in Ukrainian context and problematize possible social consequences of current neo-liberal reforms for children from rural area.

Paper long abstract:

As the research of the impact of the economic and cultural capital on educational inequality shows, Ukrainian educational system is not able to provide equal access to the university, regardless of children's social background. Despite of the anti-discrimination ideas in legislation and in public discourse (with implementation of transparent mechanism of selection in 2004 - External Independent Testing), there are statistically significant differences in the results of EIT that defines chances to get higher education between children from rural area and their peers from urban schools (especially from elite ones). Based on the in-depth interviews with teachers from rural schools, mechanisms of reproduction of educational inequality are divided into four dimensions: economic capital of the school, economic capital of the family, cultural capital of the school and cultural capital of the family.

Current educational reforms of secondary and higher education in Ukraine not only won't improve situation with access to higher education for children from poor social background, but also will make it even more limited. Closing of unprofitable universities and schools in rural area, expending the years of studying at school and implementation on funding reallocation based on a competition with financial support only of those, who are more successful, will deepen educational inequality, making accesses to the mechanism of changing socio-economic position even more dependent from socio-economic background.

Paper Download (425 KB)