|
|
|
|
Arum, Richard
- Professor
- New York University
- Department of Sociology and Education
- USA
|
|
Richard Arum is Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Education in the Steinhardt School of Education, New York University. Arum also is Program Director of Educational Research, Social Science Research Council, where he currently oversees the development of a research consortium designed to conduct ongoing evaluation of the New York City public schools and serves as coordinator for the research program of the Pathways for College Network, an alliance of over 30 U.S. organizational partners committed to using research-based knowledge to improve college access and success for underserved and disadvantaged students.
Arum received a Masters of Education in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. Arum has served as Chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions (2001-2004) and Director of Research at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education (2004-2005). Prior to arriving at New York University, Arum was an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Arizona.
Arum asks questions about how law, markets and politics affect access, curriculum, disciplinary climates and resource investment in public schools. His work also explores the extent to which schools shape the life course trajectories of students, examining questions such as: How does school discipline affect youth socialization? To what degree do urban public schools determine whether an individual is likely to end up unemployed, in a dead-end job or incarcerated as an adult? Or alternatively, to what extent do elite colleges affect one’s likelihood of ending up married to individuals with greater social and economic resources? Broadly speaking, his research focuses on the relationships among schools, labor markets and state regulation; and how these relationships manifest themselves in the paths that individual biographies follow.
Select Publications
- Arum, Richard, Adam Gamoran and Yossi Shavit. forthcoming 2007. “Inclusion and Diversion in Higher Education: A Study of Expansion and Stratification in 15 Countries” in Yossi Shavit, Richard Arum and Adam Gamoran, eds. Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
- Arum, Richard with Irenee Beattie, Richard Pitt, Jennifer Thompson, Sandra Way. 2003 [2005, paperback]. Judging School Discipline: The Crisis of Moral Authority in American Schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Arum, Richard and Walter Mueller, eds. 2004. The Resurgence of Self-Employment: A Comparative Study of Self-Employment Dynamics and Social Inequality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Arum, Richard. 2000. "Schools and Communities: Ecological and Institutional Dimensions," Annual Review of Sociology. 26:395-418.
- Arum, Richard. 1996. "Do Private Schools Force Public Schools to Compete?" American Sociological Review61:29-46.
|
|
Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Project
I have two specific research projects that I will be studying in connection with Tel Aviv University in Israel. As a visiting NCS Fellow, I will collaborate with Yossi Shavit on extending our current comparative study of inequality in access to higher education in 15 advanced societies. This study found that in terms of reducing inequality in access to higher education with respect to social backgrounds, both educational expansion and differentiation led to more inclusion than diversion; whereas privatization was associated with inclusion and diversion equally. Specifically, Shavit and I will collaborate with Adam Gamoran, to coauthor a manuscript targeted for publication in a peer reviewed academic journal that would be based on our comparative cross-national project on higher education access.
The second research focus will be a comparative analysis of the higher education system in the US and Israel. I will be working with colleagues from both New York University and Tel Aviv University. These two countries are ripe for systematic comparison, particularly on the topic of eligibility and privatization. In Israel, eligibility for higher education is determined by the matriculation diploma. This diploma is awarded at the end of high school to students who took and passed several (at least 7 but as many as 10) national examinations. In the United States eligibility is not closely tied with subject specific school performance. Another topic lending itself to comparative analysis is the development of private colleges in Israel, in view of the U.S. experience. In 1990 there were no private colleges to speak of in Israel. Now there are several and they are very visible in the higher education market. The research will include the study of the following questions: One, what is the logic of their formation? Two, who are the main actors in the process (historically in the U.S. they were largely churches and philanthropists, in Israel the institutional origins are different)? Three, who do they serve and how are their credentials viewed? |
| |
|
|
|
|
