In their newly published article "The Schooled Society Index: Measuring the Centrality of Schooling in the Twenty-First Century from a Global Perspective" in "Socius", Leandros Kavadias, Bram Spruyt and Toon Kuppens (University of Groningen) introduce the Schooled Society Index, a multidimensional indicator that maps cross-national differences in the centrality of schooling on a global scale. The publication is part of Leandro's PhD project "The Schooled Society Index: Measuring the increased centrality of education and its societal consequences from a global perspective".
Since the end of World War II, countries across the world have increasingly become what sociologist David Baker has coined ‘schooled societies’. Such societies are characterized by the centrality of schooling as an institution, authoritatively transforming individuals, groups and society at large. The thesis of schooled society posits that schooling is (1) a primary institution, having a direct and independent influence on society (rather than a secondary institution that is merely functional), (2) a multidimensional phenomenon, involving demographic, cultural and structural aspects, and (3) a global trend, diffusing across the world in a highly convergent manner. Up to this point, however, research on schooled society has mainly focused on global similarities or used indicators that captured only one aspect of it. Hence, the theory of schooled society needs an indicator that can be used in empirical comparative research. To construct such an indicator, the authors collected 12 internationally comparable country-level variables to build a unique and publicly available dataset containing 192 countries. A first set of scale analyses indicated that two subdimensions could be identified, namely the ‘institutionalization of schooling’ and ‘school-based allocation’. As these subdimension were strongly related, the authors constructed a composite scale, the Schooled Society Index. This index added value in comparison to previously used indicators of schooling. As a ‘living’ indicator, the Schooled Society Index is provided publicly and should continuously be supplemented and improved. As such, this index aims to advance our understanding of schooling in the contemporary world, an invisible yet ubiquitous institution.
The article is available here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23780231251338676
Data is publicly available on OSF: https://osf.io/49xy5/
Citation: Kavadias, L., Spruyt, B., & Kuppens, T. (2025). The Schooled Society Index: Measuring the Centrality of Schooling in the Twenty-First Century from a Global Perspective. Socius, 11, 1-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251338676
