Spheres of influence: what shapes young people’s aspirations at age 12/13 and what are the implications for education policy?

Archer, Louise; DeWitt, Jennifer; Wong, Billy

doi:10.1080/02680939.2013.790079

Cited by 177 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…First, we focus on when, during schooling, aspirations take shape. There is growing recognition that the current major investment in careers education and outreach activities in the later secondary years may begin too late (Archer, DeWitt, & Wong, 2014;Gore et al, 2015;Whitty et al, 2015), particularly given the cumulative impacts of prior achievement and the influences of social and cultural capital. Statistics on who is enrolled in university are widely available, but we know much less about who aspires to a university education and when these ideas begin to shift or consolidate.…”

Section: Building the Evidence Basementioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for university equity initiatives in schools

Gore

Holmes

Smith

et al. 2017

Higher Education Research & Development

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Demand for higher education in Australia has doubled since 1989, increasing the number of students from diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. Equity targets have seen a proliferation of programs and interventions aimed at encouraging school students, particularly those from low socio-economic status backgrounds, to participate in higher education. However, little is known about the specific occupational interests of school students upon which targeted strategies might effectively be designed and implemented. This paper examines school students' aspirations for specific careers that require a university education, in relation to student background and school-related variables. The analysis draws from a study of 6492 students from Years 3 to 12 in 64 New South Wales public schools. We found a complex array of factors relating to interest in different careers. Year level at school, gender and prior achievement were stronger predictors across many careers than factors such as SES, Indigenous status and school location. We argue that rather than taking a one-sizefits-all approach to encouraging participation in higher education, outreach activities should be targeted to take account of student diversity and inequalities that foster differing aspirations. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Building the Evidence Basementioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for university equity initiatives in schools

Gore

Holmes

Smith

et al. 2017

Higher Education Research & Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, students' attitudes may be influenced by, or follow from, various aspects of life, linking with their contexts and backgrounds. For example, in England, parents from some minority backgrounds (including East-Asian/Chinese and SouthAsian/Indian backgrounds) have considered science to be a valuable indicator of success and a pre-requisite for following preferred careers and have often conveyed these attitudes to their children (Archer and Francis 2006;Archer et al 2014;Wong 2012). However, limited knowledge of particular careers and few existing role models in physics (but role models being present within other areas) may mean that such students have considered scientific fields such as medicine to be more relatable and achievable than physics (Wong 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ Changing Attitudes and Aspirations Towards Physics During Secondary School

2017

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Many countries desire more students to study science subjects, although relatively few students decide to study non-compulsory physics at upper-secondary school and at university. To gain insight into students' intentions to study non-compulsory physics, a longitudinal sample (covering 2258 students across 88 secondary schools in England) was surveyed in year 8 (age 12/13) and again in year 10 (age 14/15). Predictive modelling highlighted that perceived advice, perceived utility of physics, interest in physics, selfconcept beliefs (students' subjective beliefs of their current abilities and performance) and home support specifically orientated to physics were key predictors of students' intentions. Latent-transition analysis via Markov models revealed clusters of students, given these factors at years 8 and 10. Students' intentions varied across the clusters, and at year 10 even varied when accounting for the students' underlying attitudes and beliefs, highlighting that considering clusters offered additional explanatory power and insight. Regardless of whether threecluster, four-cluster, or five-cluster models were considered, the majority of students remained in the same cluster over time; for those who transitioned clusters, more students changed clusters reflecting an increase in attitudes than changed clusters reflecting a decrease. Students in the cluster with the most positive attitudes were most likely to remain within that cluster, while students in clusters with less positive attitudes were more likely to change clusters. Overall, the cluster profiles highlighted that students' attitudes and beliefs may be more closely related than previously assumed, but that changes in their attitudes and beliefs were indeed possible.

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“…It has been suggested that those performing typically working-class "girly" femininity experience particular tension with masculinity that is dominantly associated with science, and are among least likely to aspire to careers in science [10]. Working-class girls also tend to possess lower levels of dominantly-valued "science capital", making it further difficult to see science as something that people like them do [39][40][41]. Finally, identification with science has been argued to be additionally complicated by ethnicity, which presents an "additional burden" for many girls' and women's engagement and participation in science [2,3,18,42].…”

Section: Introduction: Identification With Science and Its Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sciencey Girls: Discourses Supporting Working-Class Girls to Identify with Science

Godec

2018

Education Sciences

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Abstract:Women from working class and some ethnic minority backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in science, particularly in areas such as physical sciences and engineering. Many find it difficult to see science as something that is "for them", which then has implications for their learning and participation in science. In this paper, I discuss findings from a U.K.-based qualitative study with 15 working-class girls, aged 11 to 13, from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Data were collected over the course of one academic year, through interviews and discussion groups with the girls and interviews with their science teachers, and analysed through a post-structural gender lens. The paper foregrounds five science-identifying girls, who negotiated their identification and engagement with science through the following discursive strategies: (i) rendering gender invisible, (ii) drawing attention to the presence of women in science, (iii) reframing "science people" as caring and nurturing, and (iv) cultural discourses of desirability of science. The findings contribute to the understanding of how working class girls-who are often "othered" and constructed as "unintelligible" within the dominant discursive regime of prototypical science-find identification with science possible. The paper discusses the affordances and challenges of each discursive strategy.

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Spheres of influence: what shapes young people’s aspirations at age 12/13 and what are the implications for education policy?

Cited by 177 publications

References 38 publications

Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for university equity initiatives in schools

Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for university equity initiatives in schools

Students’ Changing Attitudes and Aspirations Towards Physics During Secondary School

Sciencey Girls: Discourses Supporting Working-Class Girls to Identify with Science

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