Understanding Educational Aspirations And Expectations

It is no longer questioned that high education level and human capital formation promote human well-being and are one of the main preconditions for economic growth (Romer, 1989:28). Moreover, along with evolving globalization, competition and economic challenges world is facing, returns to academic achievements have become larger than ever (Harmon and Walker, 2001:39), and low academic achievements can be seen as a constraint for economic independence. It has been observed that during the World financial crisis unemployment has risen exactly among the less educated people [] . Therefore, it would be just natural if we would see more young adults, from both genders and all ethnic and social groups, reaching for higher educational levels and taking advantage of possibility to gain higher returns. However, evidence shows that educational attainment among youth differs significantly (e.g., Betz and Fitzgerald, 1987). Therefore, the question remains: why equally talented individuals with similar abilities and initial preferences make different academic choices, and why some of them end up in lower paying jobs and occupations?

Economists have tried to explain this phenomenon with the existence of credit market imperfections, which individuals from less advantageous backgrounds might be facing (Loury 1981, Galor and Zeira 1993, Piketty 1997). However, these hypotheses are questioned in a large body of literature. Although in developing countries credit constraints might be a partial explanation for differences in educational attainment, this does not fully explain the differences in the developed world. Evidence shows that in developed word families facing economic constraints, when it comes to education, represent only a small part of the community (Cameron and Taber 2002). Besides, nowadays there exist many organizations and funds which are providing scholarships and financial help to students from low income families [] . Therefore, it is essential to look for other, more internal reasons that could explain differences in educational choices and attainment among young adults with equal abilities and preferences.

For being able to understand and change one’s educational and career choices, it is crucial to understand what determines his or her aspirations. However, explaining it is not a straight forward task. Aspirations are determined already in early childhood and are prone to changes throughout the life. Moreover, sometimes high educational aspirations are not sufficient to guarantee a better outcome. This phenomenon exists due to aspiration-expectation gap, when one’s desired goals do not coincide with the expected outcome due to the disbelief to a successful result. This pattern is especially observed among women and certain ethnic groups. Therefore, it is not only crucial to look at the level of educational aspirations, but it is also essential to ask if one’s aspirations are always fulfilled.

Although a considerable amount of literature has examined educational and career aspirations of young adults, the existing literature tends to provide somehow different conclusions; therefore, a comprehensive and critical literature review, overlooking different factor influence one’s academic and career aspirations, is still missing. The purpose of this study is to contribute to an understand of how factors like gender, ethnicity, peers, parents, teachers and self-efficacy beliefs influence young adult academic and career aspirations and decision making. This thesis will also explain why sometimes high aspirations for girls and Black students do not lead to higher educational outcomes; the existence of an aspiration-expectation gap will be supported by the latest empirical data. Further, this thesis will discuss the existing policy measures aimed to promote and raise children educational attainment. Hence, the research questions of this thesis are:

What are the determinants of educational and career aspirations?

Why high educational aspirations do not always lead to better outcomes?

What are the existing policies and projects in order to raise one’s educational and career expectations?

The focus of the thesis will be qualitative studies and will be based on an extensive literature review, covering various study fields, explaining the determinants of educational and career aspirations (Part I). Part II will provide different theories explaining an aspiration-expectation gap for girls and Black students; the existence of it will be supported by the latest quantitative data from U.S. Census Bureau 2010. Further Part III will concentrate on the overview of the policy measures and government projects that have been implemented in order to raise one’s expectation level and close the aspiration-expectation gap.

Chapter 1

Literature review of the determinants of educational and career aspirations

This chapter introduces the determinants of educational and career aspirations and expectations. It begins with an introduction of the necessary definitions. Further, it is explained how one’s aspirations and expectations are formed by providing different views and findings from an existing literature.

1.1 Defining educational and career aspirations

It is believed that student educational and career aspirations are the most relevant factors determining one’s future educational attainment (Gottfredson 1981; Trice and King, 1991). Therefore, it is essential to understand the exact meaning of aspirations. However, there has not been reached a consensus of one and certain definition; therefore, various explanations have been provided by different authors.

Markus and Nurius (1986) have reported aspirations as one’s ideas and hopes of “possible selves”, i.e., what a person would like to and what would not like to become or achieve. In psychology, aspiration level has been defined as the level of quality of a task which one desires to attain. It is a determinant of an individual’s performance level in the future. It has been hypothesized that aspiration level varies from persons to person and place to place and is determined by factors that may change and influence aspirations level during the lifetime [] .

Likewise, the Wisconsin model [] , which is a socio-economical model developed by Sewell and his colleagues in 1969 meant to explain one’s social mobility and its determinants, provides definitions of educational and career aspirations. The educational aspiration level variable in the model is explained as the level of education one would like to attain, e.g., not continue higher education after high school, finish vocational school or attains college or university degree. Sewell et al. (1969) defines career aspiration level as one’s ambitions and thoughts about their future occupation.

However, some studies have suggested that high educational aspirations do not necessarily lead to high educational attainment (Empson, 1992; Conroy, 1997). Gottfredson (1981) has identified this phenomenon and has provided explanation to it. She suggests the existence of realistic aspirations or expectations and idealistic aspirations. The former is applied when one’s educational and career aspirations are “tempered by knowledge of obstacles and opportunities” (Brown, 2002: 91), while the idealistic aspirations are one’s desired goals and ideal education and occupation, in other words – best possible life outcome. If there is a difference between these two types of aspirations and one’s idealistic aspirations do not reflect one’s expectations or realistic aspirations, there exist an “aspiration-expectation gap” (Danziger and Eden, 2006).

Hence, in this thesis Gottfredson’s theory about two types of aspirations and Danziger’s and Eden’s definition of aspiration-expectation gap will be used. Firstly, determinants of idealistic aspirations will be discussed. Later this thesis will elaborate on the external factors that shape one’s expectations or realistic aspirations. For the sake of simplicity, in the following text this thesis will refer to realistic aspirations as “expectations” while to idealistic aspirations as “aspirations”.

1.2 Determinants of educational and career aspirations and expectations

Understanding the exact elements that determine one’s educational and career aspirations and expectations is a tricky task. Existing evidence shows that there are many factor and circumstances that can shape them in a positive or negative way. Therefore, to contribute to a clearer understanding, in the following sections this thesis will deeply and broadly examine the determinants of aspirations and expectations.

1.2.1 Initial endowments – determinants of one’s aspirations

We will firstly look at the initial endowment determinants, i.e. gender and ethnicity, which influence one’s aspirations. These factors are extremely powerful in shaping one’s academic and career aspiration level already in an early childhood.

1.2.1.1 Gender:

Gender effect has a relevant role in determining one’s aspiration level. A considerable amount of literature has focused on gender-related differences in academic and career aspirations (Howard, 1979; Betz and Fitzgerald, 1987; Danziger and Eden, 2007).

Different views exist on the nature of the differences among both gender aspirations. Patton and Creed (2007) has argued that male students tend to hold higher aspirations for education level and position in the labor force, while Mau and Bikos (2000), approaching the same question, found the opposite. They claimed that girls are more likely to hold higher aspirations than men. Overall, most of the studies have supported Mau and Bikos (2000) view (Figure No.1) (e.g., Clift and Vaughan 1997; Butlin 1999; Anisef et al., 2001; Perry et al., 2009). Also, during the last decades female educational attainment and workforce has increased rapidly (Schoon, Martin and Ross, 2007); however, it has been observed that not too many women expect to follow careers which are mainly associated with the opposite sex, such as science and technology, despite the fact that these careers usually yield higher salary. This pattern becomes even more compelling as there is no evidence observed of differences in quantitative abilities in tasks related to science and technology between both genders (Betz and Hackett, 1981).

Figure No.1:

Source: Looker, D. And Thiessen, V. (2004:Figure 1)

1.2.1.2 Ethnicity:

Research has shown that educational and career aspirations vary across different ethnic groups. However, the results found in different studies yield different conclusions. It has been wildly assumed that the highest educational aspirations are held by Asian (especially Chinese) students (e.g., Cheng and Stark, 2002; Willitts et al., 2005). Their high aspirations are formed earlier than ones for other ethnic groups and are held constantly high throughout life (Kao and Tienda, 1998). Most of the researches contacted have found that White boys have the lowest aspiration level between all the other ethnic groups (Figure No.2) (Dillard and Perrin, 1980; Strand, 2007) and their educational achievements during the last years have increased less than for other ethnic groups (Figure No.3) [] . White boys were found to hold lower aspirations than their Black peers in the research conducted by Wilson and Wilson (1992). Contrary, Cook et al. (1996) discovered that middle class White males had higher educational aspirations than low-income African American males. However, this conclusion does not seem straight-forward as the differences might be also explained by the economic factors.

Figure No.2: Figure No. 3:

Data source: S., Strand (2007: 39) Data source: Department for Children, Schools and Families: Statistical First Release, England (2010: 12)

Although, Strand (2007) has found that Black Caribbean and Black African students might have higher academic aspirations than White students, their higher educational

attainment seems to be much lower (Figure No.4). Therefore, a question arises: what are the factors that do not allow high aspiration transformation into high achievements? The answer lies in the aspiration-expectation gap on which this thesis will elaborate in chapter 2.

Figure No.3:

Source: Jusan Ng (2011)

1.2.2 External factors – determinants of one’s expectations

In the next two sub-sections, this thesis will concentrate on external factors, i.e., peers, teachers and parents, which can positively or negatively influence one’s academic and career expectations.

1.2.2.1 Peer effect:

A variable studied in the literature concerning the determinants of academic and career expectations is the peer effect. The peer effect refers to the positive or negative influence significant others have on one’s expectations and level of achievement (e.g., by providing one with feedbacks, models or norms how they should behave, think and act in certain situations). Among their peers young adults develop their identities and self concept; therefore they are essential socialization agents for a young individual (Bandura, 1989; Brown et. al., 1994; Black, 2002). Although, some have argued that children expectations are more likely to be shaped by the characteristics of a family than by the characteristics of peers (Duncan et. al., 2001), relevant amount of the literature shows that peers play a crucial role in influencing one’s achievement level and educational expectations (Peterson et al., 1986; Willms 1986; Goldstein et al., 2005).

Ide et al. (1981) examined ten studies published form 1966 to 1978 that concerned the peer effect’s influence on one’s academic achievements and expectations. In all these studies, they found a significant correlation. This finding is consistent with Downs and Rose (1991) who argue that peer effect is contributing to the construction of one’s behavior and academic expectations.

Another, slightly different view is held by Haller and Butterworth (1960) who look more critically on the straight forward correlation between one’s academic expectations and peer influence. Although, they do not reject it, they emphasize that the initial factors, like characteristics and family backgrounds, could play a key role in bringing together similar individuals in that way forming homogeneous groups of peers. According to Jonsson and Mood (2008) children with high academic expectations and achievements are likely to connect with those sharing the same interests and expectations. Oppositely, adolescents, who have worse attitude to school and lower expectations, will most probable be attracted to peers with similar views (Ryan, 2000).

In sum, it has been found that being around a certain group of people will have an effect on a person’s future, specifically, it will impact the academic level or career one will expect to achieve. However, the degree of the importance of peers is ambiguous as different studies yield different results.

1.2.2.2 Teachers’ and parents’ influence:

As discussed earlier peers have a certain influence on shaping one’s academic expectations (e.g., Peterson et al., 1986; Willms, 1986; Black, 2002); however, a significant amount of literature points out the importance of family’s and teachers’ influence on children long term decisions, e.g., occupation considerations (Jurkovic and Ulrici, 1985; O’Brien, 1990; Furman and Buhrmeister, 1992; Wall et al., 1999; Duncan et. al., 2001). It is believed that teachers and parents can positively influence one’s confidence and beliefs of his or her abilities, thus, persuading that the person is capable of being successful in further life (Van Auken and Stephens, 2006).

According to Wall et al. (1999) parents as a support and role model have influence on one’s conception about educational and career opportunities. Parents’ social support is directly linked with students’ school experiences, achievements and behaviors (Nurmi, 1987). There also exist a positive correlation between parents expectations for their child and child’s expectations for himself (e.g., Davies and Kandel, 1981; Hossler and Stage, 1992). Family support can encourage the student to devote bigger effort to learning and school tasks (Gilbert et al., 1993). It is also observed that children who have the highest self-efficacy are the ones with the biggest family social support (Dubow and Ullman, 1989). In contrast, the ones with low family cohesion are more exposed to depression, low self-efficacy and self-esteem (Moran and Eckenrode, 1991; Cauce et al., 1992; Hirsch and DuBois, 1992). Moreover, Wall et al. (1999) has claimed a stronger correlation between young male expectations and the family support than the one for girls. In the research by Roper, (2008) it was shown that parent expectations and student GPA are correlated (Table No.1). Children with higher grades tended to have parents with higher expectations for them. According to De Coulon et al. (2008) also parents’ education level plays a significant role in formation of children expectations. In their research, they found a significant correlation between low literacy rates of parents and low test scores by their children. It was shown that parents with the lowest literacy skills were the least supportive and encouraging in relation to education. As a result, children with such parents were more likely to report dissatisfaction with school and develop low educational expectations.

Table No.1:

Source: Roper (2008: 2)

A significant amount of literature has discussed parents and family role in shaping one’s expectations, however, the body of literature about teachers’ expectation influence is rather small. Cheung (1995) found evidence on positive teacher influence on one’s academic achievements. Teacher support has shown to have a bigger influence on women, student from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic minority perceptions of academic and career opportunities (Ellis and Lane, 1963; Wall et al., 1999). However, it is often blamed that teachers have insufficient expectations for their students, especially for students in rural areas and for certain student groups (Bishop, 1989; Hilliard III, 1991). It is shown that teachers tend to establish better contact and attitude forward students with higher ability (Bamburg, 1994). This is seen as a problem because children tend to internalize and adopt teacher perceptions about their abilities, which as a result, in case of low teacher expectations can lead to psychological constraints for self-efficacy and self-esteem (Raffini, 1993).

To sum up, a considerable body of literature has shown that teachers, parents and peers can influence one’s academic and career expectations. Young adults tend to internalize expectations that others have about him or her and accordingly adjust their own educational and career expectations.

1.2.3 Self-efficacy beliefs

As already discussed, all of the beforehand mentioned factors, i.e., gender, ethnicity and social support, have an effect on shaping one’s behavior, thoughts and attitudes towards different tasks, education levels and occupations. However, in order to be able to reach the aspired goals it is also extremely beneficial that one has a high self confidence in what he is doing. It was shown that teachers and parents have the ability to influence one’s self-beliefs what in turn leads to higher or lower level of academic expectations of that individual. Therefore, this section will discuss why high self-efficacy beliefs, i.e., one’s belief that she or he is capable of producing certain level of performance to attain certain goals (Bandura et al., 2001), are important in determining the outcome.

The importance of self-efficacy on one’s educational expectations have been wildly studied in the literature (e.g., Bandura, 1994; Lent and Brown, 1996; Nauta et al., 1998; Brown & Lent, 2006); it has been proven that individual’s self-efficacy beliefs have a significant importance in promoting positive outcomes and reducing the possibility of negative outcomes (Oyserman et al., 2006; Destin and Oyserman, 2009).

Students who have high self-efficacy are more productive, efficient and confident about their performances than their peers with the same ability but lower self-efficacy. It has been also shown that they put more effort and are more concentrated on the task than others, as well as they are more committed to their goals (Bandura, 1997; Schunk and Pajares, 2005). Therefore, the ones with high self beliefs perform better and based on better outcomes have higher future academic and career expectations (Brown & Lent, 2006) (Figure No.5) [] .

Figure No.5:

Source: Looker, D. And Thiessen, V. (2004: Figure 10)

Chapter 2

Aspiration-expectation gap

In the previous chapter, determinants of one’s academic and career aspirations and expectations were discussed. It was shown by the evidence from the existing literature, that girls are more likely to hold higher aspirations than boys (e.g., Clift and Vaughan 1997; Butlin 1999; Anisef et al., 2001; Perry et al., 2009) and Black adolescents hold higher aspirations than Whites (e.g., Wilson and Wilson, 1992; Strand, 2007). It was also shown that social support has an influence on forming one’s expectations.

However, high aspirations do not always lead to high educational attainment and high position in the labor force (Strand, 2007). It has been suggested that the problem lies in the difference between aspirations and expectations. Unfortunately, often academic and career expectations of girls, Black Africans and Black Caribbean students are lower than their aspirations due to some perceptions in the society, perceived barriers or even academic feedback (e.g., Gottfredson, 1981; Armstrong & Crombie, 2000). As a result, this can lead to underachievement and lowered self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura et.al. 2001).

This chapter will approach this phenomenon by providing existing and relevant theories that tend to explain the reasons of an existing aspiration-expectation gap for females and ethnic minorities. Later, empirical data obtained from U.S. Census Bureau results will be provided to help us to confirm or reject some of the existing theories and hypothesis, therefore, giving the final concussions.

2.1 Gender:

One of the explanations for different gender-related career expectations is that women career decisions are more complex than those of men. This arises from a bigger involvement in family and children lives or possible early pregnancy (Vonderacek et al., 1986; Lucas et.al., 1997; Eccles, 2005). Even more, women academic and career expectations can be shaped by existing stereotypes or strong gender identity because of social role perceptions (Eagly, 1987; Akerlof and Kranton, 2000; Danziger and Eden, 2007; Gupta et al., 2008).

2.1.1 Stereotype activation theory:

Gender stereotyping can influence a person’s decision making when it comes to academic or career choice (Heilman, 2001; Nosek, Banaji and Greenwald, 2002). Gupta et al. (2008) examined the impact of stereotypes on both gender’s intentions to follow traditionally male-related occupations. They found evidence showing that people were likely to internalize stereotypes and act according to them, choosing tasks associated with their own gender. This pattern is more observable if the stereotype is wildly accepted in a culture (Heilman, 2001).

According to Day (1990) many women have high aspirations; however, usually they do not expect to be able to have the occupation they would like to in case it is more male-dominated. Wall et al. (1999) was examining the correlation between career expectations and career aspirations. As a result, they found inconsistency between women career expectations and aspirations, i.e., their expectations were most of the time lower than their aspirations. The phenomenon was explained by stereotypes in the society about gender-related jobs and women beliefs about the limits of what they possibly can achieve.

2.1.2 Social role and socialization theory:

Another important theory explaining differences in men and women career and academic expectations is the social role theory. The theory, developed by Eagly (1987) is based on the historical division of men and women roles in the society, where women were associated with household responsibilities while men had responsibilities concerning livelihood of the family. Consequently, career expectations started to differ among men and women. Furthermore, the gender-related roles were usually transmitted to future generation making the distinction between appropriate gender roles in the society even stronger (Eagly, 1987).

Moreover, the academic and career expectations are shaped by socialization processes people experience in childhood. Socialization shapes people perceptions of what is appropriate for themselves and for others, including what is expected from both genders (Seymour, 1999). Further, in early childhood children learn these roles associated with their gender, which in turn, shapes later perceptions about different types of jobs and influences their academic and career expectations (Danziger and Eden, 2007). According to Eagly and Wood (1999) and Franke et al. (1997) both genders tend to adjust their expectations in accordance with their social roles and expect to have occupations connected with their own gender (Dunne, Elliott and Carlsen, 1981). This leads to men occupying men-related professions and attaining higher educational levels while women tend to enter more female-related studies and jobs and attain lower educational levels (Powell and Butterfield, 2003).

Although, gender stereotyping has been diminishing and the gender gap in education has been decreasing (Power and Wojtkiewiez, 2004), there are still fewer female than male representatives in men-related studies and profession fields (Powell and Butterfield, 2003); this shows that Eagly’s (1987) social role theory is a considerable attempt to explain the differences between female and male academic and career expectations.

2.2 Ethicity:

There are two main views, respectively structuralist and culturalist, that tend to explain differences in educational attainment between ethnic groups.

2.2.1 Structuralist theory:

According to structuralist perspective, differences in educational choices between ethnic groups can be explained by external factors. The most influential factor, following structuralist theory, shaping one’s expectations is the teacher support. This view has been supported by Ellis and Lane (1963) and Wall et al. (1999) who state that teacher support have an influence on ethnic minority students’ perceptions about academic and career opportunities. Unfortunately, most of the time teacher expectations are negatively correlated with ethnic minority group students’ expectations (Strand, 2007). In his report, Strand (2007) found evidence that teachers are likely to develop lower expectations for certain ethnic groups, especially for Black students. They also tend to hold unequal attitude towards White and Black student behaviors due to racism and social stereotypes. This, as a result, leads to a situation where ethnic minority students, following teacher beliefs about them, lower their own expectations of the possible outcomes regardless to their initial high aspirations. This, in turn, can explain the differences in educational attainment between Black students and their other ethnicity peers.

However, the hypothesis, that educational expectations and attainment between ethnic groups can be fully explained by racism and social stereotypes have been criticized. Modood (2003) has argued that Asian students tend to face more social pressure and racial harassment than Black Caribbean and Black African students, yet their achievements are outstanding and there is no evidence that Asian students would experience aspiration-expectation discrepancies due to the racism toward their ethnic group.

Although, there exist several problems with the structuralist core assumptions, their ideas present useful and testable information that helps to explain and understand the reasons behind Black African and Caribbean student aspiration-expectation discrepancies.

2.2.2 Culturalist theory:

According to culturalist point of view, differences in educational choices rise from internal factors, like internalization of historical and social norms or constraints. Therefore, culturalist perspective can partly fill the missing holes in the structuralist theory and explain why, for example, Asian students perform better than their Black peers although are both prone to racial harassment.

Caplan et al. (1991) has argued that Asian performance is significantly better than one for other ethnic groups due to their cultural perceptions and understanding. It is claimed that Asian students tend to hold higher sense of responsibility for their family and prioritize self-reliance more than students from other ethnic groups, especially, Black Africans and Black Caribbeans.

It is observed that Black Caribbean boys on average experience bigger peer pressure than other ethnic groups. They are exposed to the pressure to adopt the lifestyle of street culture, which negatively influences their academic performance (Sewell, 1997). Ogbu and Fordham’s (1986) have contributed to the explanation why Black students tend to have low educational attainment despite the fact that they are holding high educational aspirations. They focused on two opposite ways how students are thinking and behaving, i.e., “acting White” and “acting Black”. Due to the previously mentioned peer pressure of adopting the street culture, “acting White”, i.e., doing well at school, is not seen as “appropriate” behavior for Black students. Therefore, Black students choose to keep their identities and are avoiding “acting White”, what results in lower educational achievements and attainment than in case of an absence of this pressure.

Another factor that triggers the low educational attainment for Black African and Caribbean students is the socio-historical factor (Ogbu, 1991). Based on the historical roles in the society for Black population, Black African and Black Caribbean students may under value the necessity of investment in education. This is due to “job ceiling” they might feel they are facing. It has been suggested that Black people do not have the same economic opportunities as White people in the job market. In a recent study, Fouad and Byars-Winston (2005) found that, despite the high aspiration level among the Black students, they expected fewer job offers and opportunities than their White counterparts. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Black student do not see education as an essential tool for being able to gain a high position in the labor force and their academic attainment is lower than the one for other ethnic groups. This in turn, unfortunately, has resulted in a tendency that Black people are overrepresented in low skilled jobs and are a considerable proportion of the unemployed labor force (Fouad and Byars-Winston, 2005).

2.3 Empirical data supporting aspiration-expectation gap:

By examining data from U.S. Census Bureau 2010 [] , we can approve the hypothesis of an existing aspiration-expectation gap for female and Black students.

As we can see in the Figure No.6 there exist differences between women and men participation rates in the highest levels of education. The fact that men have higher participation rates in Master and Professional/Doctorate studies is striking taking into account that females tend to have higher educational aspirations (e.g., Clift and Vaughan, 1997; Butlin, 1999; Anisef et al., 2001; Perry et al., 2009). Therefore, it can be concluded that social pressure and perceived barriers have an influence on female student educational and career expectations and beliefs when they are deciding whether to continue or not with further education. This in turn leads to a situation where men, by having obtained a higher degree of education, are more preferred in the job market and, therefore, occupy the highest positions in the labor force.

Results obtained and gathered in Figure No.7 supports the fact that Black students are also suffering from aspiration-expectation discrepancies. As we can observe, they are underrepresented in higher education levels. Although, Black students hold higher aspirations than their White peers (e.g., Gottfredson, 1981; Armstrong & Crombie, 2000), their educational attainment is significantly lower. Only 13.3% of the Black students have obtained Bachelors degree, while, among White students, this rate is 19.6%. The difference continues to exist also when looking at the percentages of students who have chosen to obtain Master’s or Professional/Doctorate degree.

The data from Census Bureau 2010 in Figure No.7 also supports Modood (2003) claims that Asian students, although often facing racial harassment, have the highest education level. They are overrepresented in the very highest educational levels, and their participation rates are higher than for Whites and Blacks. Therefore, we cannot conclude that the racism towards Black students can be a full explanation for their low educational attainment rates, and we should more closely look at the explanations from culturalist perspective.

Figure No.6:

Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey: 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. For full data see Appendix 1

Figure No.7:

Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey: 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. For full data see Apendix 1

Chapter 3

Policy implications and practices

This thesis has claimed that high aspirations do not always lead to high educational attainment. As discussed in chapter 2, it is because of the fact that aspirations tend to diverge from the actual expectations. Therefore, policies aiming to increase the educational level in the society should not only focus on increasing one’s aspirations but should explicitly be aimed to increase one’s actual educational and career expectations. Moreover, taking into account that children expectations are also shaped and influenced by external forces, it is not only crucial to rise individual’s expectations but it is also essential to encourage and support parents, teachers and the community to develop high expectations for their kids and students. This is especially essential for those adolescents who are dealing with aspiration-expectation discrepancies and need an encouragement from the society to follow their desired goals and reach the best possible life outcome. In this chapter policies and projects that have been launched in order to raise parents’, children’s and community’s expectations will be discussed.

3.1 Summary of the policies and projects implemented:

Target group

Goal

Family and parents

Community, i.e., teachers and peers

Individual

Building up capabilities, providing incentives, encouragement and inspiration

Sure Start; Family Literacy, Language and Numeracy programs – The Children’s Plan: Building brighter futures; Skills for Life: Changing Live; Informal adult learning.

’20/40 targets’; Young Advisor

SEAL; Xl clubs; Black Boys Can; HEFA

3.1.1 Special incentives and policies targeted for parents

The finding that parents and family can influence and shape children expectations (Wall et al., 1999) is a crucial finding when thinking about the possible ways how to increase one’s educational and career expectation level. Many organizations and projects are targeted especially towards parents in order to encourage them to hold high expectations for their kids, and help them to be involved in educational and developmental process. Sure Start [] children’s centers, developed after UK government initiative, provide a variety of support and advice for parents in order to help them to provide the necessary involvement in their children life already from an early age. This project was launched after the successful examples of Head Start in U.S and Australia. In the view that parent expectations for their children are one of the determinants of children school experiences, achievements and expectations (e.g., Davies and Kandel, 1981; Hossler and Stage, 1992), Sure Start centers realize the importance of rising parents confidence in an early stage of parenting so they would be able to aim high for their children. The effectiveness of this policy was tested by researchers from Oxford, Wales and Durham universities. Research conducted by Oxford and Wales universities found a positive effect of the Sure Start programs. By examining 153 families involved in the project, they found a significant improvement of parent abilities to encourage and motivate their children (Hutchings et al., 2007). However, research carried out by Durham university team failed to find any significant contribution Sure Start program has made to improve young children self-efficacy and achievements (Frean, 2007). Although, these two researches have lead to conflicting results, approaching parents’ attitudes towards their children is one of the possible tools in order to help them to encourage their kids and raise their self beliefs. This only means that more attention should be devoted to the way how parents are trained and helped.

According to De Coulon et al. (2008) parents’ education level and literacy skills play a big role in formation of children educational and career expectations. The family literacy, language and numeracy programs have realized that lack of parent’s education can become a barrier to supporting the educational development of their children. Since 2000, UK government has concentrated on raising adult literacy level in order to involve them in their children academic development. Programs like The Children’s Plan: Building brighter futures, Informal adult learning and Skills for Life: Changing Live can be outstanding examples of UK government’s intensions and contribution to the solution of the problem. Moreover, over £30m have been allocated over 3 years from 2008 – 2011 to support different projects and programs helping to improve parents’ literacy and educational level20.

3.1.2 Special incentives and policies targeted for teachers and peers

Given the finding that besides parents also teachers have a significant influence on one’s academic and achievement expectations (Cheung, 1995) it is also beneficial to encourage teachers to increase expectations for their students. Teacher support has shown to have a bigger influence on women, student from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic minority perceptions of academic and career opportunities (Ellis and Lane, 1963; Wall et al., 1999). Therefore, when thinking about the possible ways how to increase educational and career expectations for these groups of people these findings should be taken into account. Teachers should be encouraged to help students to understand the importance of high education on the future and career success. Australian government has recognized the problem associated with low expectations of young people and has provided funding to increase school partnership with universities and to help teachers to raise the educational expectations of their students [] .

Many studies have claimed also peers’ significant importance on one’s educational and career expectations (Peterson et al., 1986; Willms, 1986; Goldstein et al., 2005); therefore, young people organizations like Young Advisors [] are trying to show their peers that they have the power to influence and change the community in which they live.

3.1.3 Special incentives and policies targeted for individuals

Promoting young people self-efficacy beliefs, especially for the underrepresented groups in higher education, has been a prominent issue for many organizations and government agencies. In the view that individual’s self-efficacy beliefs have a significant importance in promoting positive outcomes and reducing the possibility of negative outcomes (Oyserman et al., 2006; Destin and Oyserman, 2009), organizations like SEAL, HEFA and Xl clubs [] in UK aim to increase one’s self-confidence, self-concept, as well as develop children’s social, emotional and behavioral skills. These programs are extraordinary beneficial for certain groups of people facing social barriers in their educational and career development; they promote and encourage students to raise their expectations about what they are able to achieve overcoming the social barriers and stereotypes. XI clubs results seem outstanding. It has been reported than 90% of students involved in the program showed positive change in their development and 88% of the participants continued with higher education [] . Also HEFA program participants have showed improvements in their attitudes towards university and higher education (Figure No.8). A special attention to Black student achievements has been provided by the UK national Black Boys Can [] association. As it has been proven that Black student educational attainment is lagging after their White peers’ educational attainment (Strand, 2007) this government organization is aiming to help Black students to realize their possibilities, goals and abilities and fulfill their academic potential. An evaluation of the Black Boys Can association’s accomplishments was carried out by REACH group members. Results showed considerable and positive changes in boys’ self-beliefs and achievements with more than 60% of the boys involved in the organization achieving only A-C levels in high school exams (REACH, 2007).

Figure No.8:

Data source: HEFA (2010) [] 

In short, these examples have shown that governments and some organizations are already working effectively in order to help adolescents to fulfil they academic and professional potential. However, there is still a place for improvement. In order to help more the communities to develop high aspirations for their kids, students and friends, local authorities should devote more attention and provide more funding to children centres, parent literacy centres and non-profit organizations that are helping families and their children. In order to promote most effective organizations and help their practises to spread in national and global level, evaluation of all the programs and projects should be mandatory and freely available. Also, it could be beneficial to encourage universities to work more closely with high schools and senior year students, especially with those who might be facing aspiration-expectation discrepancies.

Chapter 4

Conclusions and implications for further research

The purpose of this study was to contribute to an understanding of how factors like gender, ethnicity, peers, parents, teachers and self-efficacy beliefs influence young adult academic and career aspirations, as well as expectations. It was found that early aspirations are determined by initial endowments, like gender and ethnicity, but external factors, like social support, become prominent when determinants of one’s expectation and self-efficacy beliefs are considered. It was found that overall girls, adolescents from ethnic minorities tend to hold high initial aspirations. However, it appeared that, due to the socialization process, initial aspirations do not remain stable during the life and can be shaped and influenced, positively or negatively, by peers, family, also teachers.

These findings become truly useful when we answer a question: why equally talented individuals with similar abilities and initial preferences make different educational choices, and why some of them end up in lower paying jobs and occupations? It was discussed that the answer lies in perceptions of social roles, existing barriers and stereotypes. Therefore, by internalizing these existing perceptions, one might not expect to reach the best possible outcome in education or profession; while another person with the same initial aspirations and preferences, but not exposed to such social barriers, might fulfill his potential.

Further, this thesis discussed the existing policy measures and programs aimed to promote and raise children educational expectations, thereby increasing educational attainment. It showed that governments and some organizations have realized the importance of one’s expectations of the outcome and have launched several projects targeted not only for children themselves, but also for family and the community in order to help them to support their kids, students and friends so they can realize their potential and raise their expectations.

However, the present study has several weaknesses and limitations. While the literature review attempted to cover large body of literature, some studies may have been not listed. Thus, it may be an issue that this thesis provides a biased view on some determinant influence on one’s academic and career aspirations and expectations. Further, due to the limitation of this thesis, some determinants influencing aspirations and expectations were excluded. Factors, like socioeconomic status, religion, age, sexual orientation and disability were not covered, therefore, would ask for consideration in further research. Also, this thesis considered a current state of knowledge, however, with a changing social conditions and structure, the determinants of aspirations and expectations, as well as, their significance might change over the time, therefore, continues research is necessary.

Moreover, this thesis showed that peers, parents and teachers have an impact on one’s educational and career expectations. Further research should concentrate on the transmission mechanism. That is, it should be tested to what extent external factors influence one’s perceptions of his or her future education and occupation. This in turn, might help governments and organizations, with a goal to increase youth expectations, to implement effective policies and break the pattern of unfulfilled aspirations among women and Black students.