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School quasi-markets as social networks

par Friant, Nathanaël;Gagliolo, Matteo
Référence Belgian Network Research Meeting (BENet) (4: 2014-10-03: ULB, Brussels)
Publication Non publié, 2014-10-03

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Résumé :

Some educational systems are characterized by free school choice and a public funding of schools according to the number of pupils enrolled. This is what we call a school quasi-market (Le Grand, 1991). In these systems, schools are in competition with each other according to the number, and the characteristics, of pupils they enrol. Schools are said to be interdependent (Delvaux & Joseph, 2006). These interdependencies can be revealed by comparing the actual distribution of pupils between schools with what would happen if pupils simply attended the school closest to their home (Friant, 2012; Taylor, 2009). We can then analyse which schools attract pupils and which schools are avoided, thus characterizing a competition space. The problems arise when we want to broaden the analysis to a larger scale (e.g. the educational system as a whole). We need more advanced tools to analyse such a large network of interdependencies.This paper addresses this problem by applying social network analysis to better describe and analyse school quasi-markets. We use the results of an agent-based simulation of school choice in French-speaking Belgium (Friant, 2012) and consider the data as a network of schools exchanging pupils with each other. The resulting network is cyclic, directed, and weighted, with nodes representing schools, and edges weights representing fluxes of pupils. Using such metrics as weighted in- and out-degrees, clustering, betweennes centrality, and flows, we propose new ways of characterizing the position of schools in a hierarchical competition space, and in the educational system as a whole.ReferencesDelvaux, B., & Joseph, M. (2006). Hiérarchie scolaire et compétition entre écoles: le cas d’un espace local belge. Revue Française de Pédagogie, (156), 19–27.Friant, N. (2012, November 14). Vers une école plus juste : Entre description, compréhension et gestion du système (Thèse de Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l’Education). Université de Mons, Mons. Retrieved from http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00752087Le Grand, J. (1991). Quasi-Markets and Social Policy. The Economic Journal, 101(408), 1256–1267.Taylor, C. (2009). Choice, Competition, and Segregation in a United Kingdom Urban Education Market. American Journal of Education, 115(4), 549–568.