Differences between post-16 trajectories of young people from lower socio-economic groups

Institute for Education Policy ResearchStaffordshire University

Kim Slack and Heather Eggins

Equitable access to HE

An Important International Policy

IAU Policy Statement on Access 13th General Conference 2008 ‘Access and participation in higher education are

essential for the empowerment of all, especially those often excluded.’

The Statement calls on governments to develop:

‘targeted strategies and policies to increase access to, and success in higher education by individuals who are traditionally under-represented by:

social background economic status gender ethnic origins disabilities low quality of prior schooling

The Context of the Research

Concern with the need to analyse the relation between social structure and inequalities in access to higher education

Concern to examine and understand the relationships between family background structure,

the changing education and occupational profile and social status of their parents

and the changes in the impact of various family background factors.

Social Class and Participation in HE

Social Class and Participation in HE

Strong Association between class background, participation and university type…

Which disappears when account is taken of other factors such as examination grades

Social Class and Participation in HE

The effects of class on participation come earlier

So, therefore examine life history of students from similar backgrounds who have taken different routes.

The project Urban area with high levels of deprivation;

low achievement compared to national figures; low staying on rate

Interviews with 28 young people who:Had a family history based locallyAttended local schoolsAchieved at a level which would have enabled

them to progress to HEHad followed different routes post-16

THEORETICAL ASPECTS

Self-efficacy

Disposition to learning

Communities of Practice

Self-efficacy is: The judgement we make about our ability

to perform a specific task A key element in determining behaviour Not necessarily related to self-concept Influences and is influenced by human

behaviour and environmental factors

Bandura emphasised the interplay with the environment, theorising that personal, behavioural and environmental factors influence self-beliefs which then inform and shape behaviour and subsequent environments.

Self-efficacy displayed in the capacity to self-regulate learning

APPROACHES TO LEARNING

DEEP LEARNING

Attempts to understand the whole Linking new ideas to existing knowledge or

concepts Beginning with the intention to understand Supports higher quality learning outcomes

SURFACE LEARNING

Attempts to memorize key facts and figures rather than underlying patterns in the argument

Beginning with the intention to reproduce

information

Approach to learning ....

Is not fixed Is a relationship between the student and

what is studied which may change over time

The perceived learning environment is the crucial factor in determining the approach taken

Communities of Practice A shared enterprise understood by all members Practice which develops around a specific

activity or area of knowledge which generates relationships and a sense of shared identity

located within a specific cultural context and may reflect certain values inherent within that culture

form part of this context but may also be much more dynamic in that they both draw on and shape this context

Rachel…

What did you learn about yourself in those (school) years? That I could keep improving myself. Keep on taking all this knowledge in and keep working my way up to another level. Keep improving myself and keep all my good marks up. Still keep in the top sets.So it’s really important to you to keep in the top set?Yeah.Would you have been gutted if you’d have dropped marks?Er… yeah I think I would, yeah. If I’d have come out of the end of it with really bad GCSEs it would have been a disaster.

Rachel…

‘It was just … the teachers were more on your level and …... you felt like you could go and talk to them about things. Whereas I couldn’t at (name of first school) I was so petrified of them that I couldn’t go and approach them’‘I think all teachers you see them as being quite posh and lah de dah. But then on another way, especially a few teachers at (name of second school), who were very … you know you feel like you could go and talk to them about anything. You felt like the support was there. You hadn’t got to go home and worry about it… … keep it all in your head. You felt like you could go and talk to them’

Rachel…

‘I think it was just ‘cos i knew I had my little circle of friends. I knew everyone who was staying on. We all got on really well and I just thought ... we all sort of supported each other and you’d got that support network of friends. andI think once I’d got up there...... once I knew everyone who was going to go to (name of her school) would be going up to the (school) sixth form, that was good because you’d got that little support network there still.

Michelle…

because I had a different upbringing to them. They used to get away with murder at home and I wouldn’t get away with half of the things that they’d do. Like my mum and dad always said I wasn’t allowed through the gate. I knew they used to go out and play in the streets. I mean go and hang about on corners and things. I was never allowed to do that so I never went.… you know you have your tea and do your homework and then you go meet your mates. You’re not allowed hang about on the street. You either go in the house, or their back yard or you come home. Not hang about the streets.

Michelle…

‘I thought I was quite a good student. I always went. I never had a bad attendance at anything. And I’ve always give me best and to be honest I’ve never failed anything. I might not have walked away with the best grades but I’ve never failed’. …None of us are thick, we all walked away with GCSEs that will get us a job. But that’s what we worked for. We went to school, we didn’t truant. We weren’t angels but we did what we were told’.

Michelle…

That’s another thing I can remember, at primary school, cos I was no good at my 7 times table she made me stand up in the middle of the room and do my table and now I can waffle that on now! The new teacher that I had used to sit with me …and say to me this is how you do it, you’d only have to stick your hand up and say I don’t understand and he’d go through it again. He wouldn’t bite your head off where the other teacher would.

Rebecca…

My confidence dropped a lot...I just wasn't bothered about doing anything. Lost the will to do anything to tell you the truth.I did all my school work but not to the best of my ability.  A few teachers kept me behind and talked it through.' My parents "pushed me to doing plays and to speaking up in class because the teacher used to write 'Rebecca is very quiet, keeps herself to herself.' " 'I'm just safe at the moment, living with my parents and paying them board and I've got a job that's steady.'

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN:

Disposition towards learning

Self-efficacy

Communities of Practice

Disposition towards learning

Community of Practice

Self-efficacy

Fitting in – creates a sense of

personal meaning

I can really understand

this…

I’m an insider

High in ability to integrate socially in academic environment

High in academic ability

SCHOOL

HE

Approach

to learning

Disposition to learning +ve academic

RACHEL

C o P

Academic & social

Self Efficacy

MOTHER “Bright”

Explicit link of post 16 qualifications

includes emphasis on HE

Academic qualifications will help get a good job Standard of behaviour

“Bright” Top set

Good relationship with teachers

“Achiever”

Message about ability

Standards of behaviour & proactive relationship with school

Perception of local labour market

“Less academic”

Qualifications will help get a better job Standard of behaviour Message about

ability

High in ability to integrate socially in work related environment

Low in academic ability

SCHOOL

APP

Approach to learning

Disposition

to learning

-ve academic

+ve academic

MICHELLE

C o P

Social

Self Efficacy

PARENTS

Work ethic

Lower set Less able Poorer relationship with teachers

“Good girls”

Child’s behaviour & passive relationship with school

Perception of local labour market

Low in ability to integrate socially in any new

environment

Self-efficacy in academic ability

hinges on ability to achieve social

integration

SCHOOL

WORK

Approach to learning

Disposition to learning

-ve because of social problems

REBECCA

C o P

Delayed social integration

Self Efficacy

PARENTS “Less able” and lacking the confidence to integrate socially

Work ethic includes explicit link of post 16 qualifications to aspirations

Qualifications will help get a good job Emphasis on increasing confidence and social

integration

Lower set Disrupted relationship with teachers

“Striving to belong”

Message about ability

Child’s behaviour & passive relationship with school

Perception of local labour market

Offers a new approach to considering the factors involved in an individual’s decisions

Aligns with other contemporaneous research which is using data from the European Social Survey to develop an Inequality Index

Namely the work of the Education Policy Centre, Charles University, Prague

- 2010 publication of ‘Tertiary Education Between Origin and Destination’

The contribution of the research to policy on widening participation

Change in the character of inequalities ‘As tertiary education has entered a mass

and even a universal phase, inequalities have become more subtle and less discernible as they changed their focus from quantitative to qualitative characteristics.’

Who is more equal? Access to tertiary education in Europe Koucky, Bartusek and Kovarovic (Prague 2009)

THE FINDINGS AIM TO BRING NEW PERCEPTIONS TO

‘ Develop and strengthen admission policies and practices that emphasis the potential of each applicant and address equity of access and successful participation.’

IAU Policy Statement on Access 2008