Race and the educational expectations of parents and children: The case of South Africa

Type Journal Article - The Sociological Quarterly
Title Race and the educational expectations of parents and children: The case of South Africa
Author(s)
Volume 49
Issue 2
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2008
Page numbers 335-361
URL http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2008.00118.x
Abstract
South Africa, a country that is highly stratified by race, is an important location for studying the relationship between race and educational expectations. Using a longitudinal data set, we examine the educational expectations of black (African), colored (mixed race), and white (European ancestry) parents and children in Cape Town, South Africa. We find that parents and children have high educational expectations regardless of race, but black parents and children have higher educational expectations than coloreds and whites once socioeconomic and other factors are controlled. We also find that parents' and children's expectations tend to agree more and are more closely correlated among coloreds and whites than blacks. We test two explanations for the educational expectations of parents and children, finding more support for the status attainment perspective among coloreds and whites than blacks and support for the family social capital perspective among blacks and coloreds only.

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