Educational Inequalities in the Context of Bulgarian Conditions

Abstract

The present paper is focused on studying inequalities existing in the school environment of contemporary European Bulgaria. The analysis is based on several thesis and corresponding indicators (Harvey) ,which are used for measuring educational inequalities:

- Beginning - including the conditions and resources (financial, physical, personal) of the school.

- Educational process - including, all the processes which take place in the school: teacher's attitudes and values, level of interest, methods of teaching, contacts, and assessment.

- Attainments - concerning students' achievements and the fact that the last is influenced by the family as cultural, economic, and social capital (Bourdieu).

-Goals - concerning the educational efficiency and depends through correlation between attainments and starting conditions.

The present frame for operationalization of inequalities is applied to some types of schools in Bulgarian reality - "elite", "private", "Roma" schools. Based on previous empirical results and data, on students' achievements and opinions gathered as well as teachers' evaluations, the present paper is focused on what degree the different Bulgarian schools create opportunities for educational equalities and which educational institutions stimulate unequal conditions in the "beginning", the "educational process" and at the "end" of the education cycle. One of the conclusions is that there are serious differentiations between schools in the following indicators, that formulate the Bulgarian school as a milieu for the existence for inequalities.