Influence, affluence and expectations: a study on the corresponding factors impacting on the aspirations of children

Lisa Gayton

Abstract

This research focused on the aspirations of primary school age children in terms of their intended career choices and examined the corresponding factors that influence the complex development of aspirations of children. Mixed methods research was conducted, and findings compiled from interactions with a total of 16 children and their 16 respective parents across two primary schools in Lancashire. The schools selected for the research were in areas that were juxtaposed socio-economically. School 1 is set in a rural village serving a community identified as being in the top 20% nationally in terms of their socio-economic status (SES) with school 2 serving a deprived coastal town in the bottom 20% SES (English Indices of Deprivation, 2019).

The research findings indicated that the child’s location and, from a micro perspective, neighbourhood, potentially impacts on their levels of aspiration. The children from school 2 held lower aspirations and lower confidence levels in their academic expectations than their counterparts in school 1; furthermore, the data suggested parental expectations between the two cohorts also differed. School 1 evidenced a parental focus on education, exams, and employability whereas school 2’s parents tended towards a focus on emotional wellbeing and happiness. As a result of this obvious disparity, further research is recommended focusing on embedding factors such as the emotional wellbeing of children into the longstanding educational and employability focus currently evident in government ideology and policy reviewed within this study.

The study identified distinct correlations between parental expectations and the aspirations of the child. This suggests that expectations play a key role in the emergence and development of the child’s future aspirations and, again, this degree of influence requires further study to establish just how impactful or influential expectations can be. Interestingly, this study also found that 81% of the children cited ‘family’ as the sole influence on their future success however, in contrast, the parents cited ‘school’ or the ‘child’ themselves as the main influence on their future success. This indicates a need for parents to appreciate a deeper understanding of the ways a ‘family’ can impact a child’s confidence and their aspirations.

Introduction

The aim of this study is to explore factors that influence the aspirations of primary school age children by capturing the perceptions of children and their parents in terms of their aspirations, motivations, expectations, and family lifestyle. The research aimed to gather insights and examine factors that potentially impact on and influence the aspirations of the child. The rationale for this study was based on reflection and introspection related to my professional experience during my sixteen years (1999-2015) working in youth development across areas of significant deprivation. The youth strategy at this time focused on engaging young people and guiding them to develop their potential to increase their chances of educational success and securing future employment. Most of my job role was driven by government policy that required the meeting of targets in relation to the attainment of young people’s engagement in both education and in employment. Having worked at the forefront of the voluntary sector for ten years followed by leading a large statutory service for six years, I reflected on youth practice and noted that it seemed that not all young people fit the ‘expectations’ set out in educational and employment policies and programmes. For some young people, staying engaged in the educational system was really challenging.

Context of the Study

This study examined a range of research and theories on aspiration and related policy discourse from 2010 to 2019. Literature consistently evidenced a range of policy discourses that attempt to ‘raise’ the ‘low’ aspirations of children and young people, particularly in disadvantaged neighbourhoods (Field, 2011; Gorard, 2010; Baker, 2014). This strategy is also validated by several researchers who report that children and young people from low SES areas have lower aspirations than other children from more affluent areas (Kintrea, 2011; Lupton and Kintrea, 2011; Flouri et al, 2015). Taking this into consideration, I made the decision to include two schools located in areas of contrasting levels of SES for this study. I wanted to evaluate if children in areas of low SES did indeed hold low aspirations compared to those in areas of high SES. Defining aspiration is challenging with many competing perspectives debating the concept and function of aspiration and what key influences claim to shape the development of aspiration.

A simple definition by Gorard, Huat-See and Davies (2012, p. 13) describe it as “what an individual hopes will happen in the future”. The more comprehensive definitions such as Hart’s (2016) state aspiration is a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses the wider considerations of aspiration such as the freedom an individual has, to aspire, alongside their capability to achieve their aspirations. Hart (2016), a significant writer on aspiration, acknowledges the wider influences such as the political, institutional, and family influences on the development of aspirations. This multi-dimensional approach also resonates with the views of Zipin et al. (2015) who argue aspiration is a more complex and social-cultural phenomena and that the wider social, cultural, economic, and political factors must be considered when examining aspiration.

The wider context to this study highlights there is 12 million children in the United Kingdom, of these, 4.7 million children are in primary education (The Office of National Statistics, 2019). According to BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association, 2019) there are 16,769 primary schools across England with 644,348 pupils in Year 6 aged 10 and 11 years old studying the KS2 curriculum. On reflection of these statistics, this is a small-scale study given the time constraints of the researcher.

A more detailed overview of the two schools is useful here to set the context of the study. School 1 is based in a small rural village in the Ribble Valley area of the Northwest of England. The total population of this village is 410 people. Research shows a high proportion of local jobs are based in the private sector due to the international manufacturing industry provided by British Aerospace (BAE) systems nearby (Census, 2011). There are 114 pupils enrolled at the school of which, for 34 of these children, English is not their first language. Interestingly, of the 114 pupils there are just 4.6% eligible for free school meals. The gender of the children is in line with the national average at both schools (Ofsted, 2018). Both schools are state funded, mainstream primary schools. In contrast, School 2, is in a large northern coastal town with a population of 25,939 of which, 24,905 are from white ethnic backgrounds. There are only three pupils at this school where English is not their first language. According to Ofsted (2016) it is a larger than average primary school with a total of 504 pupils. It is important to note that there are 41.8% of these pupils eligible for free school meals. According to Ofsted (2016) the proportion of disadvantaged pupils is more than twice the national average. The local economy of the area has been impacted by a long-term decline in the fishing industry and the closure of a large, industrial ICI manufacturing plant (Census, 2011).

Literature Review Theme 1 - Policy and the Positioning of Aspiration

Hart (2016) is an insightful and significant contributor to research on aspiration and she highlighted many policy discourses that have positioned aspirations solely in terms of educational attainment and or employment (Hart, 2016 citing HEFCE 2003, 2005, 2012; DFES 2003, 2006; Watts and bridges 2004; Watts 2006; Hart 2012). This is significant as it could be limiting the potential of aspiration if we consider only the benefits to aspiring within the realms of educational attainment, gaining employment, earning money, and improving the economy as policy appears to present.

Literature Review Theme 2 - Education and Aspiration

The second emergent theme was the links found between aspiration and educational attainment. Low aspirations are often presented as a major barrier to closing educational attainment gaps or improving social mobility. (Baker, 2014 citing Blanden et al., 2011). Baker reported that aspirations are regularly used to justify why policy interventions are not more effective. Interestingly, both Gorard (2012) and Baker (2014) argue that there is little evidence to suggest that interventions designed to raise aspirations narrow the education attainment gap for individuals at all. Baker (2017) claims that aspirations may be shaped by society and societal expectations. Young people without qualifications and those who do not actively pursue higher education are regularly positioned as failures (Baker, 2017 citing Reay, David, and Ball, 2005; Skeggs and Loveday, 2012). In Baker’s (2017) study of semi-structured interviews of 29 young people in a sixth form school within a disadvantaged area, a finding was that aspirations are closely connected to the formation of individual and group identities. This study also highlighted the importance of the moral meaning young people place on aspirations. Many of the young people’s aspirations were based on ideals of what young people ‘should do’ for a ‘good life’. Baker termed this ‘moral inter-personal duties’ and evidenced that young people often chose aspirations based on what they ‘ought to do’ or that would help them to be the person they ‘should become’. This was further supported by Giddens (1991) and Stahl (2015) who reported aspirations are highly moralised and are also connected to the young person’s sense of self-worth. These findings shaped my data collection tools to include questions about the children’s individual motivation and confidence alongside their educational experience and expectations.

Literature Review Theme 3 - Aspiration and the Wider Context

The underlying narrative of the policy makers has been to ‘raise’ aspiration to improve educational attainment and meet the requirements of the job market (Holloway and Pimlott-Wilson, 2011). Archer, Hollingworth and Mendick (2010) found that the context in which aspirations emerge may impact on the levels of aspiration. Interestingly, they questioned if young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are fundamentally low in their aspirational aims or whether their expressions of aspiration are limited by circumstances. They found young people’s self-efficacy, self-esteem, confidence, and motivation are all affected by circumstances that may lead to reduced expectations, or an unwillingness to express their genuine aspirations. Supporting this perspective, Kintrea et al. (2015) found a core distinction between children’s ‘ideal’ aspirations and their ‘realistic’ aspirations. The ‘ideal’ aspirations were if there were no constraints surrounding the child and the ‘realistic’ aspirations were the children’s expectations given their perception of individual constraints and the local social influences. Interestingly, household income and class may also be influential factors to the decisions young people make about their aspirations, Archer et al (2010) identified a barrier to higher ambitious aspirations among disadvantaged young people as the need for that young person to leave school early and contribute to their household income. Reay (2001) cited in Kintrea 2015 highlighted this may be termed as a working-class loyalty that may conflict with the young person’s attraction to social mobility and the pressure to achieve and move up the class boundary and achieve social mobility (Kintrea et al., 2015 citing Archer, Hollingworth and Mendick, 2010).

Findings and Conclusions

Children’s levels of aspiration did appear to be impacted by socio economic status (SES). The findings evidenced that school 1 (upper SES) had 57% of children with aspirations towards the highest professional categories compared to school 2 (lower SES) with just 22% however, those in school 2 recorded a reduced number of fears about the pressure of exams and having to meet parental expectations with school 1 participants more motivated and confident about passing their GCSEs and progressing to university. Baker’s (2014) theory of the moral meaning people place on aspiration and that motivation to do what they ‘ought’ to do to be a good citizen also offers some explanation for why the children feel strongly about doing well in education and their future.

A notable difference between the schools was the levels of parental aspirations for the children. School 1 evidenced a parental focus on education, exams, and employability whilst school 2 returned parental responses that focused on emotional wellbeing and happiness. As a result of this obvious disparity, further research is recommended focusing on embedding factors such as the emotional wellbeing of children into the longstanding educational and employability focus currently evident in government ideology and policy. A blend of the two approaches maybe co-dependant factors in supporting the children to develop more holistically. A future study would prove useful here, perhaps by widening the sample across several schools in areas of differing SES and examining further factors such as parental occupation and their experiences in education that may impact on parental aspirations for their children. This elevation in scaling may offer a wider, richer data set, one that provides more reliable findings.

The study also identified distinct correlations between parental expectations and the aspirations of the child. This suggests that expectations play a key role in the emergence and development of the child’s future aspirations and, again, this degree of influence requires further study to establish just how impactful or influential expectations can be. Interestingly, this study also found that 81% of the children cited ‘family’ as the sole influence on their future success however, in contrast, the parents cited ‘school’ or the ‘child’ themselves as the main influence on their future success. This indicates a need for parents to appreciate a deeper understanding of the ways a ‘family’ can impact a child’s confidence and their aspirations. My findings align to Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’ theory of cultural roots where family is claimed to be a primary influence on their child’s future. Bourdieu attributes habitus theory to the reason that young people strive to be successful and do what they ‘ought’ to do to gain success and secure upward mobility in society (Bourdieu, 2010, quoted in Hart, 2016, p.330).

A range of factors impacting aspirations must be considered alongside socio-economic status; notably, the children in both schools felt safe in their neighbourhood, were confident in their educational progress, and were all motivated to learn. All the children acknowledged it takes hard work and effort to achieve their chosen aspirations. The wider contextual factors examined in this study were neighbourhood, experience, family lifestyle and the availability of resources such as IT, transport and adequate living expenses were examined in this study but not identified by as an issue and were therefore not considered a notable influence on aspiration in this study.

This study aimed to provide practitioners and educators with insights into the complexities and influences that shape children’s aspirations to enable them to effectively engage and support our next generation of young people to become healthy, thriving, and happy. An increased focus on the more holistic emotional and social wellbeing of our children could help each child reach their individual potential to live a happy and fulfilling life. This research aligns to the views of Zipin et al., (2015) in that aspiration is a complex and social-cultural phenomena that needs understanding on a wider social, cultural, economic, and political context. Hart (2016) insightfully evidences that aspirations are vital to human development but also highlights if we continue to raise aspirations then we need to develop effective strategies to support the pursuit of those raised aspirations. Brown (2010) warns that the continued policy strategy of raising aspirations of children may be creating generations of disappointed young people unable to fulfil their earlier aspirations of university or that ‘dream graduate job’ (Brown, 2010). The researcher hopes that further research will enhance our understanding of a more multi-dimensional view of aspiration to identify strategies and more effective policy intervention that reduces the inequality in wellbeing, health, education and in wider society for our future children.

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