Transcript Aspirations and expectations: home/school relations in context Multiverse resource Louise Gazeley Questions to be explored… 1.

Aspirations and expectations:
home/school relations in
context
Multiverse resource
Louise Gazeley
Questions to be explored…
1. What do we mean by aspirations and to
what extent are these shaped by
expectations?
2. Could more be done in schools to support
the aspirations of children from working
class backgrounds?
3. Does it matter if some parents are
considered to be lacking in aspirations?
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“The relationship between educational
aspirations and attainment is complex and
non-linear…
…This suggests a need to look more
broadly at young people’s aspirations, how
they are formed and at the process by
which they influence outcomes.”
Cabinet Office, (2008), Aspiration and attainment
amongst young people in deprived communities,
p.9.
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Aspirations and expectations…
1. How would you define aspirations and
expectations?
2. Do you think that these are separate or related
concepts?
3. Do you agree that high expectations encourage
high aspirations and that low expectations
encourage low aspirations? (See next slide)
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“Pupil expected to enter Higher Education and
pursue a career in education.”
Teacher interview about Pupil 6, middle class. Source:
Gazeley and Dunne, (2005) Addressing working class
underachievement, Multiverse, page 12.
“It was the teacher’s view that if a child has a
low CAT score, then their receiving low marks
is not underachievement - just a reflection of
low potential.”
Special Study - Teacher Trainee 4. Source: Gazeley
and Dunne, (2005), Addressing working class
underachievement, page 8.
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1. Produce a simple time line showing key
points in your own educational experiences to
date.
2. Use arrows to mark in the points where your
expectations and aspirations were raised,
lowered or changed.
3. Try to annotate the line to indicate who or
what was influential at critical points.
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The following three slides contain extracts
from a short autobiographical account that
describes the experiences of a working class
scholarship boy at a selective, independent
school in the 1950s.
What do these extracts suggest about the
school’s expectations and aspirations for
pupils attending the school?
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1
Many of the children had come through the Prep School
and so were much better prepared for what was
demanded of them than were the scholarship boys…
Coming to terms with new and demanding work
requirements was not easy and took some time and no
help was specifically provided with the transition by the
school… Of course the educational help one could draw
on at home was very limited. My father had left school at
12 I think and my mother at 14. My siblings had a very
disrupted education due to the mobility of the family (my
father was in the army). So there was very little help
forthcoming from anyone and I had to struggle with new
subjects such as Latin and Greek and French and
Maths, and so on, as best I could.
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2
My experience in the early years was not untypical of
many of the other scholarship boys. It was wholly
unclear where our education was leading and all
parents faced the costs of keeping their children at
school. So what happened is that by the age of 14/15
we were as a group siphoned off into a special class
(called the Shell - I have no idea why this name). It was
a class set aside for those boys who were planning to
leave after ‘O’ levels. It was 1951, the first year of the
new exam structure. All of the boys in this class - maybe
15 - were scholarship boys and from the working class.
Everyone left at the first opportunity as far as I recall and
I was the only child that stayed on into the sixth form.
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3
By the time I entered the Sixth Form I was reasonably
well integrated and was captain of the football and cricket
teams and also a school prefect of which there were only
8. I took ‘A’ levels and probably had the best overall
performance of any of the candidates from the school.
But at no point was there ever a discussion with myself or
my parents about next steps, and whereas others were
applying for university, no attempt was made to interest
me in also seeking a university place. Nor was any
attempt made to discuss future careers - it was as if they
didn’t care what happened… it was left to the experience
of national service in the Army to open up the possibilities
of University education, a purely random process rather
than the deliberate activity of the school (as it ought to
have been even in the early 1950s).
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The social context of schools…
1. Think about a school you know well. How
would you describe its expectations and
aspirations for pupils?
2. Do you think that the school’s location plays
a part in shaping these aspirations?
3. Do you think that there are different
aspirations for different groups of pupils?
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Could more be done in schools to minimise
negative peer effects on pupils’ aspirations
and motivation?
“Another feature of our sample group is that
they are all placed in a low mixed-ability set.
This factor in itself may contribute to their lack
of motivation and self-esteem as they are
labeled as ‘failures’ before they have even
started.”
(Special Study - Teacher trainee 3. Source: Gazeley
and Dunne, 2005, Addressing working class
underachievement, page 16)
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School practices Raises or
lowers
aspirations?
Reason?
Setting by ability
Parent
consultation
Alternative
curriculum
Identification as
Gifted and
Talented (G&T)
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Home background…
Differences in the educational outcomes
experienced by working class and middle class
pupils are sometimes attributed to differences in
aspirations:
“These gaps are not mainly caused by the
education system itself, which goes a long way to
reduce them. They arise principally from what
happens outside school, and before a child reaches
school. They reflect a variety of factors including
the aspirations and support of parents, of social
peers and local communities.”
The Stationery Office, 2009, New Opportunities Fair
Chances for the Future, p.47.
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“The home learning environment is just
as effective in disadvantaged
households as in more affluent
environments – but good practice is less
likely amongst poorer families.”
DfES, (2006), Social Mobility: Narrowing
Social Class Educational Attainment Gaps,
p.51.
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“Many mothers in our study struggled
to understand the work brought home
by their children.”
Gillies, V. (2006), Working class mothers and
school life: exploring the role of emotional capital,
Gender and Education, 18,3, pp.281-293. p.287.
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“Parents were engaged in protracted and
wearying battles with the schools, and in
some cases the wider schooling system, to
ensure that what they believed to be the
needs of their children were properly catered
for.”
Gewirtz, S. Dickson, M., Power, S., Halpin, D. and Whitty, G.,
(2005), The deployment of social capital theory in educational
policy and provision: the case of Education Action Zones in
England, British Educational Research Journal, 31, 6, pp.651 –
673. p. 664.
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Working with parents…
• Who decides how parent professional
relationships should be conducted?
• Are these relationships generally seen from
the parent’s point of view?
• Are the behaviours that are associated with
‘supportive parents’ always made explicit?
• Does it matter if some parents and pupils are
disadvantaged by professional expectations
about what a ‘supportive parent’ will do to
support a child at school?
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Some concluding thoughts…
1. Expectations and aspirations are not
separate
2. Schools play a part in the formation of
pupils’ and parents’ aspirations: the
attitudes, life experiences, perceptions
and practices of teachers matter
3. Schools play a part in ensuring that
aspirations are sustained
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References
• Cabinet Office, (2008), Aspiration and attainment amongst
young people in deprived communities.
• DfES, (2006), Social Mobility: Narrowing Social Class
Educational Attainment Gaps.
• Gazeley and Dunne, (2005) Addressing working class
underachievement, Multiverse
• Gewirtz, S. Dickson, M., Power, S., Halpin, D. and Whitty, G.,
(2005), The deployment of social capital theory in educational
policy and provision: the case of Education Action Zones in
England, British Educational Research Journal, 31, 6, pp.651 –
673.
• Gillies, V. (2006), Working class mothers and school life:
exploring the role of emotional capital, Gender and Education,
18,3, pp.281-293.
• The Stationery Office, (2009), New Opportunities Fair Chances
for the Future.
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