ERIC Number: EJ1014035
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1056-4934
EISSN: N/A
What Are We Educating Our Youth for? The Role of Education in the Era of Vocational Schools for "Dummies" and Diploma Mill Universities in Ukraine
Korzh, Alla
European Education, v45 n1 p50-73 Spr 2013
This qualitative multisite case study contextualized in the political economy of Ukraine examines orphanage youth's conceptualization of the role of vocational and higher education in the neoliberal era and highlights educational transformations in Ukraine. Drawing on Bourdieu's forms of capital (cultural, social, and economic), this research sheds light on educational and labor market inequalities confronting Ukrainian marginalized youth. The findings reveal that vocational schools, into which orphanage alumni are tracked en masse, offer substandard quality of education and obsolete skills for a market economy, ultimately leading to destitution. A handful of orphanage alumni who manage to access higher education, in pursuit of coveted credentials (cultural capital), face challenges in the labor market. Social capital, or connections and associated bribes, of which orphanage youth tend to be deprived, overrides cultural capital and limits Ukrainian marginalized youth's labor market opportunities. (Contains 9 notes.)
Descriptors: Role of Education, Vocational Education, Case Studies, Educational Change, Cultural Capital, Social Capital, Equal Education, Labor Market, Social Differences, Disadvantaged Youth, Educational Quality, Residential Care, Access to Education, Higher Education, Employment Opportunities, Qualitative Research, Observation, Semi Structured Interviews, Neoliberalism, High School Students, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ukraine
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A