Workshop report: Childcare arrangements and social inequalities: A cross-country comparison
Phase 4 of the ERC project ‘Education as a Lifelong Process – Comparing Educational Trajectories in Modern Societies’ (eduLIFE) addresses the impact of childcare arrangements on social inequalities in early and later life, where childcare arrangements are defined as a combination of parental and non-parental (formal and informal) education and care. The major interest of the project phase lies in the links between social origin, childcare and short and long-term individual achievement in different childcare systems. Phase 4 invited leading experts from several academic disciplines (like sociology, psychology, economics, and educational science) to contribute by conducting a country-specific study, in one of the following research topics: Social disparities in cognitive or non-cognitive outcomes in infancy particularly the role of family care quality, the patterns of care arrangements in infancy and early childhood (pre-school age) by children’s social background, and the consequences of early education and care for social inequalities in early and later individual outcomes. Our common investigation adopts a comparative design by putting together empirical evidence from longitudinal data in different countries.
More than 30 researchers attended the 7th eduLIFE workshop that took place in the Badia Fiesolana of the EUI on May 21 and 22 of November, 2015. The conference was chaired by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Dr. Nevena Kulic, Dr. Jan Skopek, and Dr. Moris Triventi. Researchers from various countries presented research questions, research methodologies, and innovative datasets. The next workshop of Phase 4 is scheduled for November 12-13, 2015, and will bring together the results from the multidisciplinary research network.