Race and The Educational Expectations of Parents and Children: The Case of South Africa

Abstract

South Africa, a country that is highly stratified by race, is an important location for studying the relationship between race and educational expectations. Using a longitudinal data set, we examine the educational expectations of black (African), colored (mixed race), and white (European ancestry) parents and children in Cape Town, South Africa. We find that parents and children have high educational expectations regardless of race, but black parents and children have higher educational expectations than coloreds and whites once socioeconomic and other factors are controlled. We also find that parents' and children's expectations tend to agree more and are more closely correlated among coloreds and whites than blacks. We test two explanations for the educational expectations of parents and children, finding more support for the status attainment perspective among coloreds and whites than blacks and support for the family social capital perspective among blacks and coloreds only.Little attention has been paid to the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational expectations outside the United States and other more developed countries. South Africa is an important location for studying this relationship because of the extreme racial stratification that has existed there. Under apartheid, the official policy of racial segregation that ended in the early 1990s, individuals were placed into one of three groups on the basis of race: an advantaged group comprised of whites (European ancestry), a moderately disadvantaged group consisting of coloreds (mixed race) and Asians (mostly from India), and a severely disadvantaged group made up of blacks (Africans) (Mwabu and Schultz 1996;Thomas 1996;Klasen 1997). Apartheid encroached upon virtually every aspect of life including housing, marriage, and employment. The impact of apartheid on the educational attainment of nonwhites was tremendous. By the end of apartheid, the mean years of completed schooling among adult males were 3.9 for blacks and 5.5 for coloreds versus 9.5 for whites. Among adult females, mean years of completed schooling were 3.4 for blacks, 5.3 for coloreds, and 9.1 for whites (Thomas 1996).

Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context

“…This motivational function of parental expectations is supported by eight articles demonstrating a strong association between parental expectations and students' expectations or aspirations (Benner and Mistry 2007;Beutel and Anderson 2008;Carpenter 2008;Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998;Rutchick et al 2009;Smith-Maddox 2000;Trusty 2002;Trusty et al 2003). A recent longitudinal study of 884 children aged 6 to 13 years when the study began demonstrated the long-lasting effect of parental expectations on children's expectations.…”

“…Carpenter (2008) noted that correlations between parental expectations and expectations of 10th to 12th graders were weaker for Latino students with an immigrant parent compared with nonLatino students with an immigrant parents. Beutel and Anderson (2008) found that South African parents' expectations when their children were in the 8th grade was a significant predictor of students' educational expectations at 11th grade for Asian and mixed race students but not for Blacks after controlling for parents' education, previous literacy/numeracy scores, and whether or not the student was enrolled in school at the time of 11th grade. What may account for this pattern of weaker relations between parental and student expectations for racial/ethnic minorities than for European American families?…”

“…In three of these studies, there was evidence that the strength of the linkage between parents' expectations and students' expectations differed across racial/ethnic groups (Beutel and Anderson 2008;Carpenter 2008;Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998). Carpenter (2008) noted that correlations between parental expectations and expectations of 10th to 12th graders were weaker for Latino students with an immigrant parent compared with nonLatino students with an immigrant parents.…”

“…In particular, they cast doubt on the role of previous performance as a predictor of parental expectations for all racial/ethnic groups. For example, in a study of South African parents' expectations about the long-term attainment of their 11th grade children, parental expectations were related to literacy/numeracy scores in eighth grade for "Whites" but not for "Blacks," after controlling for parents' education (Beutel and Anderson 2008). Similar findings emerged in the USA, where Hossler and Stage (1992) found that minority parents had higher educational expectations than European American parents even though the GPAs of their ninth graders were lower than those of European Americans.…”

The Hopes Carry Them On: Early Educational Expectations and Later Educational Outcomes in Rural Gansu, China

“…Results also show that parents' expectations are tied to the local village cultural environment. However, among the large number of studies of parents' and children's educational expectations, only a few explore the influence of parent-child agreement and disagreement in expectations on children's schooling (Furstenberg 1971;Smith 1981 Smith , 1982 Smith , 1991Hao and Bonstead-Bruns 1998;Kim and Schneider 2005;Beutel and Anderson 2008). To date, there are almost no studies that examine longitudinally the reciprocal influence between parents and children in their educational expectations, and the associations of early expectations and children's later educational outcomes.…”