Educational aspirations among UK Young Teenagers: Exploring the role of gender, class and ethnicity

(2016) - Ann Berrington, Steven Roberts, Peter Tammes

Link:: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3235
DOI:: 10.1002/berj.3235
Links::
Tags:: #paper #Aspirations #Ethnicity #Gender #SES #SocialClass #Education
Cite Key:: [@berringtonEducationalAspirationsUK2016]

Abstract

Large socio-economic differences in educational attainment and participation in Higher Education (HE) are seen in the United Kingdom (UK). Furthermore, improvements in attainment and in rates of progression to university have been much faster for most ethnic minority groups than for White children. Political rhetoric explains these differences in terms of a lack of aspiration, particularly among White, working-class boys. This paper extends recent work by examining the intersection of gender, class and ethnicity in their association with aspirations for higher levels of education among teenagers born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We adopt a developmental-context approach using detailed information collected from teenagers and their parents within the United Kingdom Household Panel Survey. White boys from the lowest occupational class and from workless households have the lowest aspirations (around one-half have a positive aspiration for college or university) because the three elements – being White, male and working class – combine in an additive fashion to encourage lower aspiration. However, even though this figure is low, it is higher than the percentage of working-class boys who go to university. Thus, focusing on aspirations alone will not on its own reduce ethnic differences in HE participation. Class and ethnic differences in parental attitudes towards education, levels of parental engagement with their children’s schoolwork, and in the quality of the parent–child relationship act as important mediating factors. Key Stage 2 scores from the English National Pupil Database demonstrate that attainment is also a key mechanism through which parental class influences teenagers’ aspirations.

Notes

“White boys from the lowest occupational class and from workless households have the lowest aspirations (around one-half have a positive aspiration for college or university) because the three elements – being White, male and working class – combine in an additive fashion to encourage lower aspiration. However, even though this figure is low, it is higher than the percentage of working-class boys who go to university. Thus, focusing on aspirations alone will not on its own reduce ethnic differences in HE participation” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 729)

“David Willetts, for example, speaking as the Universities Minister, suggested that a declining trend in university applications among boys more generally was ‘the culmination of a decades-old trend in our education system which seems to make it harder for boys and men to face down the obstacles in the way of learning’ (Garner, 2013)” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 730)

“Related to both points, all ethnic minority groups are now more likely to go to university than White-British young people – a very recent change, especially in regards to Black-Caribbean and Black-African students’ changing participation (Crawford & Greaves, 2015).” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 731)

“Aspirations reflect teenagers’ hopes or desires to reach a particular level of education and do not necessarily reflect specific socio-economic realities (Gorard et al., 2012). Thus aspirations represent idealistic preferences for the future and tap into underlying values (Bohon et al., 2006). Expectations are more concrete than aspirations since they incorporate individuals’ evaluations of the likelihood of fulfilling them – expectations are ‘what an individual believes will happen in the future’ (Gorard et al., 2012, p. 13). Thus it is argued that expectations are more determined by ‘the perceived structure of opportunity within society’ (Khattab, 2015, p. 734). Khattab (2015) demonstrates that aspirations and expectations both have a positive effect on attainment, but when combined together they are mutually enforcing.” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 731)

“While there is consistent empirical evidence in support of a positive relationship between educational aspirations and educational outcomes, there is debate as to whether this relationship is causal (Gorard et al., 2012; Baker et al., 2014).” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 731)

“The status-attainment model sees aspirations and expectations as important links between socio-economic background and educational attainment” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 731)

“The early 1980s saw gender parity in university entrance, and more recently girls have overtaken boys in both their academic motivation and achievements (Schoon, 2010).” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 732)

“essentialist explanations that see boys’ masculinity as incongruent with the ‘feminised’ school setting (Whitehead, 2003; Francis & Skelton 2005; Schoon & Eccles, 2014).” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 732)

“The developmental-context approach, used extensively in the study of children’s educational outcomes (e.g., Marjoribanks, 2002; Schoon, 2010; Chowdry et al., 2011; Strand, 2011; Gutman et al., 2014) accounts for the interplay between structure and agency over time and acknowledges that there are multiple and interlinked influences on individuals’ lives (Bronfrenbrenner, 1979; Elder, 1998; Schoon & Eccles, 2014)” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 733)

“ithin this framework, the relationship between parental background and educational outcomes reflects both a direct relationship, but also an indirect relationship that works through more proximal factors such as parental attitudes and behaviour towards education, and the young person’s attitudes and behaviour towards education (Chowdry et al., 2011). We refer to these indirect pathways as mediation” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 733)

“The UKHLS provides the latest data source with sufficiently large sample size and rich parental and individual data in order to examine how ethnicity intersects with class and gender in their association with educational aspirations.” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 748)

“Our conclusion is that, contrary to much political rhetoric, young people’s aspirations for college/university participation remain high: just about two-thirds of young people aged 10–15 hold this aspiration – a larger proportion than actually participate. The idea that there is a ‘culture of low aspirations among young people’, should therefore be questioned (Gorard et al., 2012; Rose & Baird, 2013; St. Clair et al., 2013; Baker et al., 2014).” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 749)

“Despite overall high levels of aspiration, there are significant differences by gender, ethnicity and class, with higher aspirations found among girls, teenagers from professional and managerial backgrounds and teenagers from non-White ethnic groups.” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 749)

“Class and ethnic differences in aspiration tend to work through more proximate mechanisms to influence aspiration (Chowdry et al., 2011).” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 750)

“e have found evidence consistent with an ethnic-capital effect (Modood, 2004; Modood & Khattab, 2015): parents of minority ethnic children had more positive educational aspirations, and were more likely to be reported by their children as interested in their school work and engaging with the school. Nevertheless, even when we control for these differences in parental attitude and behaviour, White teenagers continued to have lower educational aspirations suggesting that there are other, unobserved differences between ethnic minority groups not captured in the model.” (Berrington et al., 2016, p. 750)