Sociology, Gender and Educational Aspirations: Girls and Their Ambitions

210 Pages·2011·1.17 MB·English

by  Carol Fuller

Sociology, Gender and
Educational Aspirations
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Sociology, Gender and
Educational Aspirations
Girls and Their Ambitions
Carol Fuller
Continuum International Publishing Group
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11 York Road Suite 704
London SE1 7NX New York, NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
© Carol Fuller 2009
First published 2009
This paperback edition published 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
Carol Fuller has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identifi ed as Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-0-8264-9938-7 (hardcover)
978-1-4411-5207-7 (paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
To my aunty Hazel Page and to all the staff and
girls at ‘Southwell’.
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Class and Education 7
Chapter 3 The Low Aspirers 40
Chapter 4 The Middle Aspirers 68
Chapter 5 The High Aspirers 102
Chapter 6 Discussion: Exploring Within-Class Differences in
Aspirations 135
Chapter 7 Conclusion 159
Appendix 1 The Participants 167
Appendix 2 Research Methodology 177
Bibliography 188
Index 197
Acknowledgements
In carrying out this research, special acknowledgement goes to Tony
Walter and Paul Croll for all their patience, academic motivation and feed-
back they gave me. In addition, I would like to say a special thank you to
Paul Croll for his encouragement and support and also to both Paul and
Gaynor Attwood for providing me with the opportunity that enabled me to
complete this study and thus realize my own aspirations. Thanks too to the
Harold Hyman Wingate foundation for demonstrating confi dence in me
and funding a small part of this work.
Having never expected to go to university myself, I would like to thank
the academic staff I met who engaged me with a desire to learn and
enthused in me a passion for academic enquiry. Particular thanks go to
Roberto Franzosi and Jeff Hass. In addition, it goes without saying that
desiring to pursue knowledge is irrelevant unless those you are interested
in exploring permit it. It is therefore most heartfelt thanks I offer to the
head and the staff at ‘Southwell’. In particular, thanks go to the head of
sociology who went far beyond any expectation with the help and assist-
ance she gave me. To the girls included in this study saying thank you
seems hardly enough. Many of those included shared much of themselves
with me and were excited by the prospect that someone may one day read
about them. I thank them all for the time and the trust they gave me and
can only hope I do them justice.
Finally, I would like to thank all my family and friends for their encour-
agement and support but, more important than that, their patience and
understanding. In this respect no one deserves thanks more than my
friend Sam, for her practical assistance in the earlier years, my mother for
her words of wisdom or my father for helping out fi nancially. Loving and
special thanks go to my husband Kevin and to Alessandro, Megan and
Georgina. Without them I know for sure I could not have undertaken the
journey that I did nor have got to the end in one piece.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Introduction
A dominate concern and issue faced by government ministers and policy
makers in UK today is how to raise the higher education participation rates
amongst students from families not traditionally associated with going to
university, principally the numbers of students attending from the working
class. In attempting to devise strategies and schemes that promote both
the individual and social benefi ts of higher education the question as to
how and why educational aspirations are shaped is therefore relevant. In
an increasingly globally driven market place, skills and credentials have
become particularly important. As a result the government has introduced
a number of policies that encourage and promote a wider skills base to
ensure the UK’s competitive edge and central place on the economic glo-
bal stage. In light of a wealth of research linking social deprivation and
poor educational attainment, Every Child Matters (2003) was one such
initiative introduced with the specifi c aim of raising both the attainment
and the educational aspirations of socially disadvantaged students; the
aim being that through the collaborative efforts of professionals, commu-
nities, schools and families, all children, regardless of their background,
can and do achieve their full potential. The concept of class is clearly
central to this particular white paper and by utilizing concepts such as
social and cultural capital associated with class, government initiatives aim
to target and compensate for class shortfall with a number of different
schemes, such as, Aim Higher, Sure Start, Educational Action Zones and
Educational Maintenance Allowance. However, despite achieving some
success, research suggests that government initiatives are yet to achieve any
real progress and the targets of 50 per cent of all 18–30 years old in higher
education by 2010 is highly unlikely.
Part of this failure may well be explained by the ambiguous nature
of class itself; academics fail to achieve consensus as to a standardized