Page 40 - TLU magazine - The Way to The Top

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TALLINN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE / NO. 14 / SPRING 2020
grandchildren follow in the footsteps of their
GRANDPARENTS
Head of the Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Lifecourse Stud- ies at Tallinn University Ellu Saar says that if grandparents were white- collar in Estonia in their time, it is quite likely that their grandchildren also went to university.
Studies in several countries have produced mixed results on how grandparents' lives affect their grandchildren. Some researchers believe that it does, but only through fathers and moth- ers. However, another part of the research team thinks that the impact is more direct, even with parents with the same level of education, the likelihood of a grandchild's higher education depends on the grandparents' occupations.
The results of the studies carried out in Estonia seem to confirm the second conclusion. Sur- prisingly, it has become clear that the grandchil- dren did not miss out on their higher education due to the repression of the Soviet era. "If we take into account only education, it can be argued that repression even had a positive effect on grandchildren," says Saar.
Three generations were investigated in Estonia: the local population before World War II, then the post-war generation, many of whom were cut off from previous opportunities by the Soviet authori- ties, and the new generation, the grandchildren. From an educational viewpoint, researchers were able to clearly distinguish white-collars, whose descendants, despite the events that followed, went to university. No differences of origin were observed for workers and farmers.
However, the impact of origin on education is only one aspect which the data currently avail- able to researchers allow them to study. The second is the different resources available to the family. For example, one measure of cultural re- sources is the number of books in a childhood home. Along with parents' education, this has proved to be a very important factor in helping children to acquire higher education.
However, the impact has not changed much over time. This was significant during the Soviet era, but it is still important today despite changes in Estonian society and the expansion of education in the 1990s.
The researchers looked at, among other things, whether cultural resources (or the number of books) could to some extent replace the scarcity of economic resources. "Basically we can say that this is the Matthew Effect: those who already have, get even more," explains Saar. "In other words, it is likely that there were more books in the family if parents had a higher level of education." At the same time, material re- sources could not compensate for the scarcity of cultural resources. "Very few parents with a low level of education have a large library at home, neither do parents with a high level of educa- tion have very few books."
In principle, the education system at a lower level of schooling could be able to equalise opportuni- ties stemming from the origin of students, but in the case of Estonia, inequalities of origin rather increased in the 1990s. The access to higher education, which has significantly widened, has also not helped. For example, an elite school where children can get in only by passing tests gives a noteworthy advantage. "It is a question of political choices as to whether we are striving for greater equality in education or trying to push the top even higher," says Ellu Saar.
Communications Manager Sulev Oll