A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF DIFFERENCES IN SOCIOECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT PATTERNS OF HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE GRADUATES IN ZAMBIA (SOCIAL, MOBILITY)

This research attempted to isolate the most salient causes of differences in the socioeconomic achievement patterns of College and high school graduates in Zambia. Patterns of intergenerational mobility (Chapter Three) reveal that upward mobility for both high school and college graduates was the norm; downward mobility, the exception. High rates of structural and exchange mobility suggested an increase in the availability of occupational opportunities and in the openness of the occupational structure. Intragenerational mobility among college graduates revealed a tendency towards job stability; mobility was generally upward. Chapter Four shows that colleges, to a greater degree than high schools, were selective of people from the higher socioeconomic strata of the general population. For college graduates, educational attainment and college quality were systematically related to socioeconomic background. For high school graduates, academic performance, school quality and occupational aspirations were not linked systematically to background. According to Chapter Six, college graduates favored formal job information channels--bonding, advertisements and institutional placement. Use of informal channels was greater for older graduates of higher quality colleges with degrees in humanities and social sciences. Multiple classification analysis (Chapters Five and Six) and path analysis (Chapter Seven) showed socioeconomic background to have the least effect on the graduates\u27 occupational attainment. First job and educational attainment (college graduates) and academic performance (high school graduates) had the greatest effect. Specialization and information channel for college graduates had no significant effect. Education was more important than previous job in the occupational attainment of younger college graduates; the opposite was true for older graduates. In conclusion, patterns of socioeconomic achievement, predicated on superior educational and academic performance paralleled those found in Western societies and other Third World countries. Father-to-offspring occupational inheritance was the exception not the rule. Future research on social mobility should focus on issues such as ethnic discrimination and nepotism which most graduates preceived to be barriers to upward mobility