Original scientific paper
Socio-economic status and social capital as factors of educational achievements at the higher education level: Example of prospective pre-school teachers
Silvia Rogošić
; Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Coleman’s theory of social capital (Coleman, 1988, 95–120) was rarely tested on a sample of Croatian students. In the research conducted by Rogošić (2016, 68), the factors of educational achievements (human and financial capital of the family, and social capital of the family and educational institutions) are operationalized according to Coleman’s conceptual framework. Findings show that some components of social capital contribute to educational success and they have a greater impact than human capital (parents’ education) and financial capital on educational achievements at the higher education level (grades during the study). These findings need to be verified, because to a large extent they can depend on the research context and the sample characteristics. The aim of this study is to replicate the research carried out by Rogošić (2016; 149–151) by using empirical generalization as one of the recommended techniques of replication (Tsang and Kwen, 1999, 767). The sample consists of prospective pre-school teachers who are students of the University of Zagreb (N=303). Findings of the replicated research, as well as original research findings, show that human capital of the family does not significantly contribute to the explanation of student’s educational achievements, and the results of regression analysis in the replicated study (similar to the original study results) show that social capital of the faculty contributes significantly to the explanation of achievements at the higher education level (β= -0.19; p<0.05). On the other hand, financial capital (average monthly expenditure) best explains educational achievements in the repeated study (β=0.234, p<0.01), while in the original study it was not a significant predictor of educational success. Since part-time students did not participate in the original study we assume that differences between research findings are related to differences in study choice motivation and educational achievements between part-time and full-time students, which differ among others at the level of financial capital they possess.
Keywords
James Coleman’s theory; replication of research; prospective preschool teachers; social capital; human capital; financial capital
Hrčak ID:
217454
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2018.
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