Publications

Executive Summary

Education has long been identified as a key catalyzer of inequalities. For example, education can contribute to the reproduction of inequalities from one generation to the next (Aurini et al., 2020; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1964; Calarco, 2018; Lareau, 2003). This occurs when two conditions are met: 1) higher levels of educational attainment are associated with higher income; and 2) there is inequality in access to education based on social origins, meaning that children from more privileged families are more likely to achieve higher levels of education (Simard-Duplain & St-Denis, 2020).

On the other hand, research has also identified equalizing effects of postsecondary education (Hout, 1988; Mare, 1980; Torche, 2011). This research tends to show that inequality between bachelor’s graduates with various family backgrounds tends to be smaller than the level of inequality between individuals with various family backgrounds observed in the overall population. In other words, this research tends to suggest that inequality between individuals of more or less privileged backgrounds would be stronger without the expansion of higher education observed in North America and Europe over the last few decades (Bloome et al., 2018; Pfeffer & Hertel, 2015). This equalizing effect can occur at the same time as inequalities in access to PSE occur, with one dynamic possibly counteracting the other. Those findings usually rely on data from the US. It is not clear to what extent they transpose onto the Canadian context. Moreover, they rely on cross-sectional measures of education that take into account the highest level of education attained by individuals, but not the specific pathways they may take into PSE.

The second shortcoming is especially consequential given two sets of findings in the Canadian context: first, different pathways through PSE are associated with substantial income disparities. For example, individuals who complete a bachelor’s degree as their first credential and who pursue no further PSE tend to earn more than those who complete a college certificate or diploma before graduating from a bachelor’s program (St-Denis et al., 2021; Walters, 2003). Second, family background appears to be associated with different dimensions of PSE pathways, especially graduating from a second PSE program after completing a first program (St-Denis et al., 2021).

In this report, we set out to explore whether differences in the likelihood of following certain PSE credential accumulation pathways depending on parental education contributes to the intergenerational reproduction of disadvantage among children of less educated parents.