Thomas var gestafræðingur við Háskóla Íslands á vordögum í rúman mánuð. Thomas og David ræða rannsóknaráætlun hans sem beinist að félagslegu og þjóðernislegu misrétti í menntun. Nánar tiltekið fjalla þeir um nýlegt verk Thomasar sem skoðar atvinnuvon unglinga - spurninguna um hvað 15 ára ungmenni vilja verða þegar þau verða fullorðin- og hversu mikil áhrif fjölskyldubakgrunnur og búseta þeirra hefur á þessa von eða væntingar. Síðan ræða þeir um áskoranir innflytjenda í menntakerfinu - og hvernig hægt er að útskýra þær hindranir sem eru til staðar.

Inequality in education: Occupational aspirations and immigrant disadvantages

In this new episode of the podcast David Reimer interviews Thomas Zimmermann who is postdoc at the Department of Sociology at the University of Frankfurt.  Thomas was a visiting researcher at the University of Iceland in the spring for over a month. Thomas and David discuss his research agenda that focuses on social and ethnic inequalities in education. More specifically they talk about Thomas’ recent work that examines occupational aspiration of adolescents - the question of what 15-year olds want to become when they are adults – and how much this is influenced by their parental background as well as aspects of the country they live in. Then they discuss the topic of immigrant disadvantages in the education system – and how these disadvantages can be explained.