So Tell Me What You Want: A comparison of FE college and other post-16 students’ aspirations
Authors:
Jo-Anne Baird, Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, England
Jo Rose1, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, Bristol, England
Alison McWhirter, Institute of Education, London, England
1Corresponding author. Contact
Dr Jo Rose
Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1JA
So Tell Me What You Want: A comparison of FE college and other post-16 students’ aspirations
Abstract
This study compares aspirations of students in further education (FE) colleges and non-FE post-compulsory settings. Within the context of a survey about their education, 928 students across 26 institutions were asked what their “hopes, goals and plans” were, with space for five open responses. Coding of responses was based upon self-determination theory.Career aspirations were most frequently mentioned, followed by educational aspirations (approximately one quarter of responses for each). Students from FE settings mentioned career aspirations more frequently, and educational aspirations less frequently, than students in non-FE settings. Aspirations such as personal happiness and life satisfaction were also mentioned by students. The need for FE colleges to support students in developing high aspirations was highlighted. Furthermore, a wider framework of student aspiration for use in both research and educational practice is needed.
Keywords
Aspirations; further education; careers goals; education goals
So Tell Me What You Want: A comparison of FE college and other post-16 students’ aspirations
Introduction
In the UK, schooling is compulsory from 5 to 16 years of age. Although some choose to leave education at this stage, a large proportion of young people (more than 70% of 17 year olds, and more than 45% of 18 year olds:DfE 2010) continue in full-time education. Despite the policy desire for parity of esteem between qualifications, divisions remain, with sixth form college and school education post-16, seen as the gold standard (Dearing 1996). General Further Education (FE) colleges are seen as providing a second chance for students lacking in academic skill (Thompson 2009).Differences in levels of aspiration (Thompson 2009) have been linked to the type of institution attended. Alongside this, careers support disparities have been reported (Foskett and Hesketh 1997). Political rhetoric reveals an implicit assumption that high aspirations lead to high achievement (Spohrer 2011), and placespost-compulsory educationand high levels of educational attainment at the centre of the country's future economic prosperity (e.g. Blair 1999). Nonetheless, the post-compulsory sector remains under-researched and little understood (Richardson 2007).
This study compares aspirations of students from sixth form (both schools and colleges) and FE colleges. Ittakes a broad view of the sector without focusing on a specific qualification or type of provision, and aims to illustrate the breadth of student experience across England. Data is drawn from the Centre Research Study (CReSt) project, which investigated the responses of a range of stakeholders to the 14-19 reforms programme (DCSF 2008) in 52 case institutions in England. The current study draws data from a student survey undertaken in 2010 with year 13 students.
Aspiration
Educational aspiration has been conceptualised in the literature in a number of ways; from cultural or societal phenomena, in which aspirations are seen as characteristic of a group of people or part of society (eg Baker and Brown 2008; Evans 2009), to psychological characteristics which are held by and the responsibility of the individual (seeSpohrer 2011).Strand and Winston (2008) suggest that, when constructing aspiration around education and employment, students may adopt a stance of pragmatic rationality, in which they consider contextual constraints, alongside their own disposition and abilities. As they mature, young people’s aspirations increasingly take into account specific interests and abilities, and goals are also adapted in response to environmental influences and opportunities (Hirschi and Vondracek 2009). This theme of rational decision making recurs in the literature on aspiration: Gottfredson (2002), for example, reported that aspirations become more realistic with age, with students over the age of 14 more aware that they may need to compromise or that there may be barriers to certain choices.
The discrepancy between what individuals would like to achieve (aspiration) and what they think they will achieve (expectancy) was highlighted by Boxer et al (2011), who found that some students have higher aspirations than expectations. Boxer et al suggested that reducing this discrepancy was important, but should be done by raising expectations and academic self-efficacy, rather than reducing aspiration. The idea of a “possible self”, where individuals consider what they may realistically achieve, can act as a motivator for behaviour with individuals seeking to achieve positive possible selves (such as relative success in education or employment), and avoid negative possible selves such as failure in education, or unemployment (eg Destin and Oyserman 2009).
In the educational research literature, the content of students’ aspirations have been considered in terms of the highest level of qualification that students would like to achieve, for example whether they would like to go to university, or leave school at 16, or the types of jobs or employment students hope to enter (egAhmavaara and Houston 2007; Strand and Winston 2008). Education and employment are not the only aspirations that matter to young people, however: Park, Philips and Johnson (2004) found that, when given a list of nine ambitions and asked to select their main one, the majority of young people focused primarily on life satisfaction such as being happy and having a family. Work-related ambitions featured in fewer responses. Park, Philips and Johnson did not provide an educational ambition as an option, however, and thismay have skewed the results. As other studies have shown, adolescents are highly focused on educational goals (Bathmaker 2005).
Kasser and Ryan (1996) also worked with broader notions of aspiration, building uponDeci and Ryan’s (1985) self determination theory. Intrinsic aspirations, they suggested, were those which appeal to people’s inherent nature, and might include a focus on meaningful relationships, personal growth, community contributions. Fullfillment of such goals can result in increased wellbeing (Niemec, Ryan and Deci 2009) due to satisfaction of our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Kasser and Ryan 1996). Extrinsic aspirations, (around wealth, fame and image) are more related to the receipt of reward or praise, and are generally a means to some other end. This index can be problematic because the intrinsic / extrinsic distinction may be ambiguous: for example a person may want a particular career because the work is both inherently interesting to them (intrinsic) and financially advantageous (extrinsic). Nonetheless, it can serve as a useful starting point for considering aspirations beyond the standard approaches asking about levels of qualifications and types of jobs that people are hoping to achieve.
Studying in Further Education – students’ educational experiences
During the academic year 2007-08, there were 3.5 million students in post-16 provision (excluding higher education), the majority of whom studied part-time (DCSF 2009). Around a third of these students attended full-time courses and the vast majority of these were aged between 16 and 18 (DCSF 2009).
Students undertaking post-compulsory education have a wealth of institutional andcourse choices. In 2009, there were approximately 444 institutions operating within the post-compulsorysector in England (DCSF 2009). The vast majority of these (approx 300) were general Further Education colleges, offering a broad range of vocationally-oriented provision often alongside some standard A-level courses in a single setting. Across all course types, success rates were reasonably high with 67% of students achieving at level 3. Around a quarter of post-compulsory institutions in the UK (95; DCSF 2009) were sixth form colleges or schools offering post-16 provision (sometimes referred to as 11-18 schools). These were primarily focused on general academic qualifications (specifically A levels) and progression to university, rather than vocational options. Sixth form colleges, although originally linked to schools, may now stand alone as institutions. Seen by many as a “high quality option” (Foster 2005, p18) these colleges are characterised by high success rates.Finally, fewer than 50 colleges throughout the country offer specialist post-16 education focused either on a particular subject (such as art school or agricultural college) or offering a specialist service, such as disability support (DCSF 2009).
Central to understanding the differential impact of post-16 education providers is an understanding of the institutional context of learning. Bloomer and Hodkinson (1999) suggest that the culture of a college can have an impact upon student aspiration. Comparing two post-16 education providers (one sixth form collegeand one general FE college) the researchers found that, over the course of their study, learners came to share an overarching set of dispositions towards learning that varied between institution types. The sixth form provided a tight-knit community where students were all striving for a similar goal, as one student explained,
“Everybody is in the same boat. We all want to go to university. Everybody is stressed, and we share it,” (Bloomer and Hodkinson 1999, p25)
At the FE college, the culture was more fragmented due to the heterogeneous nature of provision. As such, strong divisions between academic and vocational students were apparent and students placed a greater importance on their own learning. Rather than the subject or qualification studied, this suggests an effect simply from the context in which learning takes place; the culture of the provider.
Intake for the sector as a whole is socially stratified, with fewer low SES students choosing to continue into post-16 education. Crawford et al (2011) showed that students from lower SES backgrounds were more likely than those from higher SES backgrounds to attend FE colleges, and less likely than students from higher SES backgrounds to choose to attend sixth form colleges or 11-18 schools, for post-16 education. Furthermore, Foster (2005) found that general FE colleges had a much higher percentage (56%) of students from the two lowest socio-economic classes than either sixth form colleges (42%) or 11-18 schools (41%). Findings from Thompson (2009) reinforce this result. For sixth form colleges and 11-18 schools, attendance was equally likely across social classes for high achievers, leading to the suggestion that students who achieve well at 16 actively rejected general FE colleges. Thompson suggested that the middle classes largely avoid general FE colleges “unless forced there by school failure” (p41). In contrast, low SES students who fail at school often choose not to enter post-compulsory education and it is only those who have achieved highly whoconsider sixth form collegeas an option. As Baker and Brown (2007) put it, working-class young people see the choice as educational participation or not, rather than a choice between institutions (see also Reay 2001).
The finding of social stratification in terms of numbers entering post-compulsory education suggest that these choices may be shaped by cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986; Reay 1998; Green and White 2007). Cultural capital refers to the symbolic actions, ideas and preferences which a person can use in social action. Middle class parents may be more aware of how the post-compulsory education sector is run and of the differential impact of attending local institutions or of course choices and, as such, they may be better equipped to support their children during this process. Variations in levels of cultural capital may also explain the socially stratified student intake of the different providers. The divisions within the sector have been shown to be driven by a division between academic and vocational provision. Furthermore, where those from lower SES backgrounds do have knowledge of different options, they may still feel unable to step out of classed roles (Reay 2001).
The Academic - Vocational divide
Although post-compulsory education is provided within a single sector, strong divisions between academic and vocational learning as a result of institution specialisms have been reported. This division, and its differential impact upon students within the sector, is further compounded by the levels of esteem each type of education affords. Perhaps in response to its strong history within the UK, academic study is seen by many as a quality option achieved by only the most successful students (Foster 2005). In contrast, vocational options are seen as an educational route for those who cannot achieve academically or as a second chance for those who have previously failed (Thompson 2009).
Bathmaker (2005) suggested that this is symptomatic of a wider issue; that governmental rhetoric regarding the importance of academic qualifications (e.g. Blair 1999) has resulted in the UK becoming a ‘knowledge society’ where students feel they need academic qualifications in order to gain a career and where, in turn, occupational aspirations are increasingly towards professional careers rather than manual or unskilled jobs. This focus on academic qualifications inevitably affects the esteem afforded to non-academic pathways within the sector. The Dearing report (1996) found that attitudes about the inherent worth of the different qualification types are also pervasive, suggesting that the separation between the institution types in the post-compulsory education sector is still seen by many as one of ‘able and less able’. In terms of qualifications, A levels were seen as having long life and innate quality while vocational qualifications remained little understood. Wolf (2011, p8) goes further, concluding from a national analysis of vocational qualifications that many of them are dead-end, in terms of educational or economic progression.
Perhaps as a result of the esteem afforded by the different qualifications, Bathmaker (2005) also found differences in teacher perceptions of the students on either academic or vocational pathways. Talking specifically about GNVQ students one teacher said,
“The students we’re getting are perhaps not as academically able as A level students and they can’t do as much as an A level student probably could do at the first go,” (Bathmaker 2005, p88)
This distinction between the academic ability of students was widely cited even with regard to equivalent qualifications. For vocational students, other skills were seen as more important than academic ability including attendance and time management suggesting that the completion of a GNVQ was seen as a test of effort rather than of ability. Interestingly, despite this view of vocational students as lacking academic skill, teachers cited Higher Education as the goal for all students further suggesting that this ‘knowledge society’ view is impacting upon learning trajectories.
The current study asks students about their aspirations – or “hopes, goals and plans”, without confining responses to education or employment. We sought to find out what students considered their aspirations to be and whether this varied by institutional setting.
Method
Sampling
This research was part of the Centre Research Study (CReSt) 14-19 project, looking at responses to policy reforms in 14-19 education in 52 schools, colleges and other centres in England. Participating centres were selected as a cross-sectional representation of different types of educational provision available for 14-19 year olds in England, taking into account 'location, deprivation, size, intake, outcomes, denomination, and subject specialism' (Gorard et al 2008, p3), and included a range of schools, sixth form colleges and general FE colleges. Specifically, data for this paper was drawn from a Year 13 student survey completed in Spring2010.
Of the 43 centres that included delivery of post-16 education, 26 centres returned a total of 928 year 13 student survey responses (a 60% response rate by institution). The exact population of year 13 students in these institutions is unknown;nonetheless this is a sizeable sample. The types of institution in the sample can be seen in Table 1.
Insert Table 1 about here
Instruments
The student survey incorporated measures used in previously published studies. Analysis of the questions related to aspiration only is presented in this paper. Question 14 asked participants to outline their goals, hopes and plans. The question was an open ended, short-answer question enabling flexibility in student response, based on Eccles (2009) but modified to allow participants to include current aspirations. Participants could respond in up to five different spaces (a-e), resulting in a potential total of 4,640 responses. Overall 2,227 blank responses were recorded. Most of these occurred in the later spaces (see Table 2) with 27% of respondents (n=256) not listing a single aspiration in any space.
Insert Table 2 about here
Data Collection and Participants
The survey was administered online using Surveymonkey. The survey requests student names: the reason for this (in order to match responses with national attainment data) was explained to participants to avoid resultant lower levels of disclosure. To avoid a skewing of the sample due to multiple submissions, responses which duplicated name and date of birth were removed from the sample, leaving only the final response with those details.
Questionnaires were delivered electronically to designated project advisors at each centre in the form of an email containing a link to the survey. The email asked advisors to choose a mixed ability sample of 50 year 13 students to fill in the survey, suggesting that tutor groups were used as a sampling method. In the event, some institutions over-sampled students and others under-sampled. The method used also means that some case institutions have submitted large numbers of results (one sixth form college accounts for over 14% of the total data, n=134) while others sampled very few participants. The Special Education centres only returned 14 surveys in total although these institutions are much smaller in size and this response rate represents most of their population of Y13 learners.
Alongside this, the overall response numbers by institution type show that similar numbers of surveys were collected for general FE colleges and 11-18 schools. However, Table 3 also shows that the FE college sample is made up of just six institutions, while the sample of 11-18 schools includes data from 15 institutions.
Insert Table 3 about here
Table 4 shows demographic information for the sample when divided by type of institution. In total 928 year 13 student responses were collected. Participants were aged between 16 and 20, with a mean age of 17 years and 11 months. Nearly seven percent of students did not answer this question.