Ethnicity and higher education: The role of aspirations, expectations and beliefs in overcoming disadvantage

Abstract

The papers in this issue examine various aspects of ethnic differences in higher education. The first three papers, all of which focus on Britain, attempt to explain the very high motivation behind enrollment in higher and further education by ethnic minority students. These papers argue that investment in higher education is a defiance strategy that is used by ethnic minorities to counterbalance the effect of ethnic penalties. It seems that aspirations are still significant in shaping the educational attainment and are fuelled by the grim structural barriers facing ethnic minorities. The anticipation of labour market discrimination on the one hand, and the belief in the value of education as the main means for social mobility on the other hand, lead ethnic minorities in Britain to over-invest in education. The fourth paper tells a different story, in that immigrant students experience systematic disadvantages throughout their school careers including a much lower enrollment in higher education. These young immigrants hold more negative perceptions towards the value of education, not only in comparison with their Italian counterparts, but it seems also in comparisons with minority young people in Britain. However, in the last paper, the results resemble the British case, in that the second generation students hold higher academic expectations than their non-immigrant origin peers, and that these higher expectations are associated with higher levels of persistence and attainment. The authors here highlight the importance of the theory of immigrant optimism in explaining the between-groups differences. However, this theory does not seem to have strong explanatory power in the Italian case, if anything, perhaps ‘immigrant pessimism’ is a better theory to explain the low aspirations for higher education and poor educational attainment among immigrants in Italy. Of course, further evidence is required to substantiate this claim.

First-Year Students Background and Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Student Engagement

“…This finding was unexpected because the sociocultural status is likely to impact the way in which students approach their academic work (Phan et al, 2010). However, the literature about overcoming disadvantage in higher education can help explain these results, highlighting the role of aspirations for a better future and beliefs in the value of higher education as a means for social mobility (Visser and Gerharz, 2016;Khattab, 2018). The Portuguese high school context may also help explain these data.…”

The Educational Migration of Sub-state Ethnic Minorities on the Outskirts of the EU

“…These ethnic minority students first need to overcome the language barrier (i.e., to learn Serbian) when starting their studies, which requires time, effort, and sacrifice (Lendák-Kabók, 2014). Minority students around Europe also experience different challenges after finishing high school (Khattab, 2018); the above-discussed minorities are not exceptional in this sense. In Britain, members of (immigrant) ethnic minority communities demonstrate high levels of motivation and enrollment in higher and further education (Lessard-Phillips, 2018).…”

Immigrant optimism or immigrant pragmatism? Linguistic capital, orientation towards science and occupational expectations of adolescent immigrants

“…operationalized as expectations of high-level educational and occupational attainment relative to family origins, has been systematically reported in the USA (Feliciano and Lanuza 2016;Kao and Tienda 1995;Portes and Rumbaut 2001) and other affluent societies (Khattab 2018;Medvedeva and Portes 2017;Tjaden and Hunkler 2017). Optimism varies by ethnic origins and host country contexts, and some immigrant youth are pessimistic about their future educational outcomes (Khattab 2018;Yiu 2013).…”

“…operationalized as expectations of high-level educational and occupational attainment relative to family origins, has been systematically reported in the USA (Feliciano and Lanuza 2016;Kao and Tienda 1995;Portes and Rumbaut 2001) and other affluent societies (Khattab 2018;Medvedeva and Portes 2017;Tjaden and Hunkler 2017). Optimism varies by ethnic origins and host country contexts, and some immigrant youth are pessimistic about their future educational outcomes (Khattab 2018;Yiu 2013). Nevertheless, the academic optimism of immigrant youth, particularly the intention to study at university, has attracted the most attention (Cebolla-Boado and Martinez De Lizarrondo 2015;Gil-Hernández and Gracia 2018;Khattab 2018;Medvedeva and Portes 2017).…”

“…Optimism varies by ethnic origins and host country contexts, and some immigrant youth are pessimistic about their future educational outcomes (Khattab 2018;Yiu 2013). Nevertheless, the academic optimism of immigrant youth, particularly the intention to study at university, has attracted the most attention (Cebolla-Boado and Martinez De Lizarrondo 2015;Gil-Hernández and Gracia 2018;Khattab 2018;Medvedeva and Portes 2017). In contrast, occupational expectations elicit less interest, even though both motivational variables are closely related and mutually reinforcing (Feliciano and Rumbaut 2005;Tseng 2006; Xie and Goyette 2003).…”