Climbing the Social Ladder: Perceptions of Educational Mobility and Inequality among Adolescent Educational Climbers

In Germany, educational opportunities as well as opportunities for social mobility are unequally distributed, and upward mobility has declined since the 1970s (Baarck et al. 2025). Yet, despite increasing inequalities, public resistance remains relatively limited. This apparent disconnect may be explained by the role of fairness beliefs: it is not actual inequality but rather how inequality is perceived and socially legitimized that shapes social conflict and political responses (e.g., Gimpelson and Treisman 2018; Mau et al. 2023). In line with this perspective, existing research on inequality perception shows that people’s views of inequality – whether in income, wealth, or social mobility – often deviate significantly from empirical reality (Bellani et al. 2021; Gimpelson and Treisman 2018; Hvidberg et al. 2020; Knell and Stix 2020).
Against this background, the present study explores how adolescent educational climbers – defined as youths from non-academic households (aged 16–18) attending a Gymnasium and thus have the prospect of obtaining a higher education entrance qualification, thereby being, at least theoretically, on a path of upward social mobility – perceive social and educational mobility and inequalities. The study employs semi-structured interviews. The interview guide was developed through an iterative process, with pretesting conducted in June 2025. The transcribed and anonymized data will be analyzed using an inductive qualitative content analysis with MAXQDA (Kuckartz and Rädiker 2024).
Although data collection is still ongoing, a total of twelve interviews has been conducted, allowing for the presentation of preliminary impressions in this abstract; by In_equality, all interviews will have been conducted and qualitatively analysed. Overall, participants appear highly optimistic regarding the existence of equal educational opportunities and possibilities for social mobility. With regard to their personal situations, only a minority express a clear desire for upward mobility in terms of higher income or educational attainment. Interestingly, most interviewees report having at least one parent who had aspired to obtain the Abitur or a university degree but was unable to do so for various reasons. This could be understood as an “inherited aspiration for upward mobility.”
The study contributes through a deeper understanding of how perceptions of educational mobility and inequality are formed. More specifically, the qualitative approach makes it possible to explore the local and institutional contexts, as well as the concrete experiences and narratives (compare: Andersen et al. 2021, p. 1119), that shape the development of perceptions of educational mobility and inequality during this formative life phase.