Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 84, Issue 1, 2009

Grade retention or enrolling in a lower track? .

The relationship between social background and choices in secondary education for three cohorts of pupils .

Research on educational careers consistently has found a negative effect of social background on grade retention. In the present study, we make the argument that grade retention also can be seen as an attractive alternative for children in the higher tracks of secondary education when these turn out to be too demanding. Particularly highly educated parents might prefer grade retention above enrolling in a lower track. We test this hypothesis by estimating social background effects on the choice between grade retention and enrolling in a lower track. Our analysis is based on three cohorts of pupils who made the transition from primary to secondary education in 1989, 1993 and 1999 respectively. Indeed, when compared to a transition to a lower track, we find the expected positive effect of social background on grade retention. Surprisingly, the introduction of the unpopular pre-vocational secondary education (vmbo) in 1999 has not changed this effect.

Interaction uneasiness of people with Parkinson’s disease .

Human beings not only speak but also express their thoughts and emotions through facial expressions. People also relate to each other in interaction by watching each other’s facial expressions. The face of people with Parkinson’s disease gradually rigidifies as a consequence of a lack of dopamine production in the brain.

This life story research with people with Parkinson’s disease shows that they appear to feel impeded in their interactions with others. In their stories, the informants show five signs of what Goffman labels as ‘interaction uneasiness’. Firstly, people with the disease themselves show difficulties with expressing their inner feelings and thoughts. Secondly, they perceive signs of uneasiness in others. Thirdly, they perceive uneasiness in their interactions. Fourthly, they perceive uneasiness in the eyes of third parties. And fifthly, they feel their face does not suit in the situation they are in.

In the life stories indications of three conditions of this uneasiness have been found. The primary condition is difference in labelling, either caused by the lack of a label for the unusual face, or the fear that others might interpret their rigidified facial expressions wrongly. The secondary condition is a lack of culture: lack of culture for the uncommon and lack of knowledge of the culture of Parkinson’s disease. The third condition is the minimal legitimation work undertaken by people with the disease.

As a consequence of the uneasiness in interaction, people with Parkinson’s disease are inclined to five different reactions: resistance, indifference, retreat from public interactional situations as well as feelings of exclusion and banishment.

Parkinson’s disease thus appears to be a threat to customary social life for people with the disease.

Not accepted by the family: ‘being difficult’ or ‘being different’? .

Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) and combining a quantitative and a qualitative approach (N = 7.151 and n = 43, respectively), this study investigates the mechanisms underlying a lack of acceptance by one’s family. From the total NKPS-sample 12,1 per cent did not feel (entirely) accepted by their family. Theoretical assumptions were that people may not feel accepted by their family because they are ‘difficult’, e.g. by exhibiting personal problems; another reason might be that they are ‘different’, for instance because they have made non-traditional life course transitions or differ from their parents in educational level or religious preference. Both quantitative and qualitative results confirm the first assumption rather than the second. Qualitative results revealed a gender difference in the mechanisms involved in a lack of acceptance by one’s family.

Xenophobia among youngsters: the influence of interethnic contact.

This study examines xenophobic attitudes of high school pupils. It answers the questions: To what extent do high school pupils from different ethnic backgrounds hold xenophobic attitudes? And to what are these attitudes related with interethnic contact? Scientific progress is made in three ways. Firstly, attitudes of high school pupils from both the ethnic majority (Dutch) and the ethnic minority groups (Turks, Moroccans, and Caribbean) are examined. Secondly, the impact of positive as well as negative interethnic contact within and outside the school environment is determined. And thirdly, hypotheses about interethnic contact are tested while simultaneously controlling for alternative mechanisms that explain xenophobic attitudes. The results show that most pupils have a low level of xenophobia. In addition, the level of xenophobia is less when pupils evaluate their interethnic contacts both within and outside the school environment as positive and higher when they perceive these contacts as negative. However, the impact of positive interethnic contact in class disappears or even reverses when multiculturalism is stressed more during lessons.