This is not an exhaustive bibliography of academic research into aspiration, schooling and widening participation in Higher Education, but it does provide some useful starting points for further reading.
The following literature review will provide a list of sources with a brief explanation summarizing the relevant points and the methodologies within each of the articles. A quick link will be present after each of the titles, connecting the reader with the article. A list of keywords will also identify the article by further grouping methods.
Bradley, John and Andy Miller (2010): Widening participation in higher education: constructions of “going to university”, Educational Psychology in Practice: theory, research and practice in educational psychology, 26:4, 401-413. http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cepp20
Archer, Louise, Merryn Hutchings, and Alistair Ross. “The Value of Higher Education.” Higher Education and Social Class: Issues of Exclusion and Inclusion. London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003.
This chapter discusses “Values” within higher education, the route to higher education, and the risks of pursuing such a degree. The writer claims, “The chapter concludes by suggesting that working-class groups occupy structurally ‘riskier’ social locations than middle class groups, and this may translate into working-class perceptions of higher education participation as entailing higher costs and uncertain rewards.” This report is good because it summarizes a lot of work happening over the past 20 years relating to differing perceptions from perspective of working class participants.
Keywords: Values, Working-Class
Hollingworth, Sumi and Louise Archer. “Urban Schools as Urban Places: School Reputation, Children’s Identities and Engagement with Education in London.” Urban Studies March 2010 47: 584-603, first published on December 7, 2009
(A link to the Journal) http://usj.sagepub.com/content/47/3/584
This article uses empirical data from school children, thought to be likely to drop out. This paper shows how the schools that people attend in urban environments shape the construction of the self. This article elaborates on the idea of influencing perceptions “beyond the agent’s control,” which can intimately shape constructions of self and actions based upon those assumptions of the self. The article then continues to discuss the connection between the space of the school with education overall. By covering the history of the concept of urban education, the writer sets up a space for a theorized notion of identity to negotiate with “demonised” urban spaces with fantasy escape, defense, engagement with the school, and investment outside of the school.
A favourite quotation from this piece, “ … schools and local areas are discursively constructed, with certain urban schools becoming pathologised via the interconnection of material conditions, national ‘league table’ status and local imaginaries, which can be damaging for the children involved, impacting on their relationships to educatiuon and their identities as learners.”
Keywords: Aspiration, Values, Identity, University.
Jones, Norah, and Alice Man Sze Lau. “Blending Learning: Widening Participation in Higher Education.” Innovations in Education and Teaching International 47.4 (2010): 405-16. Print.
(Link to Article) http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riie20
This study uses multiple techniques, including questionnaires, focus groups, and documentation. The focus is on “blended learning” (meaning the use of the “the flexibility of e-learning while also maintaining human contact”) and how this has increased student participation for those students that have traditionally not attended universities. The article then analyzes the blended curriculum learning in different categories such as barriers to entry, induction, course structure, and student support. The article is very good for quantitatively measuring the level of participation as well as the distinct categories by which to judge this participation when it comes to developing “blended learning” curriculum. However, the writer is willing to admit that there are challenges while catering to less traditional students by the very nature that their needs are so diverse. This article suggests that the blended learning system appeals to students because it appeals to their value drivers within the system. The more flexible education system can potentially reduce risk.
Although the article does promote a positive perspective when it comes to blended learning, the writers do say, “There are no universal truths on blended learning; more usefully, we believe it is a case study which helps develop our understanding of blended leaning in particular contexts.”
Keywords: Widening Participation, University, Value (of flexible education)
Gale, Trevor and Stephen Parker (2012): Navigating change: a typology of student transition in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, DOI:10.1080/03075079.2012.721351
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2012.721351
This article emphasizes the changes occurring within higher education transitions. This is a helpful text for understanding the perspective of students after they have been accepted into universities. The three main “themes” deconstruct transition into “induction,” “development,” and “becoming.” The study is mostly a reflection regarding the literature pertaining to the field of student transition into higher education.
Keywords: Higher education, Transition, Student Perception.
Collier, Tim, Robert Gilchrist and David Phillips (2003): Who plans to go to University? Statistical Modeling of Potential Working-Class Participants, Educational Research and Evaluation: An International Journal on Theory and Practice, 9:3, 239-263
http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/edre.9.3.239.15573
This article attempts to create a statistical model for explaining who will apply to university (using multinomial logit regression). Overall, the study concluded that (for working class children) “belief in ability,” “preference for university over earning money,” “qualifications,” and “family encouragement” were the main factors driving people to apply. This is a highly quantitative study. Like the Archer article, much of the information comes from the larger “Social Class and Widening Participation in Higher Education Project,” from University of North London. The University of North London study was mixed methods (implementing 14 focus groups) as well as many quantitative methods, yet this report focuses mostly on the quantitative methods. Ethnicity, social class, and gender were also found to be significant determinants (p< .001).
Keywords: Quantitative, Perspective, Widening Participation, Gender, Ethnicity, Motivation, Working Class.
(Gender and Higher Education)
Evans, S. “In a Different Place: Working-class Girls and Higher Education.” Sociology 43.2 (2009): 340-55.
http://soc.sagepub.com/content/43/2/340.short
As shown by the title, this journal article focuses on working-class girls and their experiences in higher education. In particular, the article shows how “family-ties” predominantly influence the choices of working-class women along with the feeling that working-class individuals are “separate” from middle-class opportunities in a public space. The study used mixed methods in a south London borough (ranked 12th most impoverished borough in 2012). There were semi-structured interviews for 21 women in their final year of A-level study.
Keywords: Gender, Aspiration, and University.
Archer, Louise and Simon D. Pratt & David Phillips (2001): Working-class Men’s Constructions of Masculinity and Negotiations of (Non)Participation in Higher Education, Gender and Education, 13:4, 431-449.
(Link to the Article) http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cgee20
This study uses discussion group data from 64 young men. Hence, the study gets a “collective” notion of what men believe in the presence of other men. Nonetheless, the study is very interesting for showing how the social construction of “masculinity” influenced their decision, as well as men’s understanding of inequality. The study also gathers a lot of its information from “The Social Class and Widening Participation in Higher Education Project.” By analyzing “shared” constructions of “Anti-participation discourse” as well as “pro-participation” discourses, ideas of risk and masculinity can display differences between separate economic and ethnic groups.
Keywords: Gender, Perspective, Widening Participation.
Lasen, Michelle. “Education and Career Pathways in Information Communication Technology: What Are Schoolgirls saying?” Computers and Education. Volume 54, Issue 4. May 2010. Pages 1117-1126.
Website: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036013150900308X
This is a very important article because it highlights the importance of how gender affects not only application to university, yet also the type of program within the university. This article explores schoolgirls’ perceptions, particularly tailored to the pursuit of ICT in higher education. The gross underrepresentation of women within the ICT sector marks a very important line of inquiry. This study tries to understand the perception of young women, and why they do not want to follow these career paths although they may be better paying. What is interesting about the study is that although the female population has higher percentage going into higher education, this does not remain constant across disciplines such as ICT. This paper highlights the responses of schoolgirls within focus groups. Of course, there was a pencil survey distributed to almost 1500 schoolgirls before these focus groups.
Keywords: Gender, University, Aspiration.
Whitty, Geoff (2001): “Education, social class and social exclusion,” Journal of Education Policy, 16:4, 287-295.
(A link to the article) http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tedp20
This paper tries to cover the sociologic impact of exclusion. The most interesting part of the journal was the in the middle: a section discussing two forms of social exclusion existing at the top and the bottom (an argument originally formed by Giddens). The rich refuse to participate in education that is publically funded and the poor are excluded into entrance into private universities overall (and thereby choose not to attend). One interesting argument is that although the private funding comes in from very well-intentioned individuals to cover the costs of students, the very existence of this money gives the allure as if the private university has reached a “post-class oriented nature” by highlighting a minority of students that are within the system as opposed to the larger reality of most students not at the institution.
Keywords: Social Class, Exclusion, Widening Participation.
Reay, D. “Exclusivity, Exclusion, and Social Class in Urban Education Markets in the United Kingdom.” Urban Education 39.5 (2004): 537-60. Print.
(A Link to Article) http://uex.sagepub.com/content/39/5/537
This article is very interesting because it connects the choice of students to concepts of self-identity. The article concludes that giving greater choice to students for universities can sometimes “reinforce social exclusion.” How does choice lead to a continued sense of inequality and why does this affect the poor primarily? These are two questions that this essay seeks to answer. This is a very qualitatively focused study that uses the case study method to explore students as well as their families. The report recognizes that although choice does give greater ability to go to college, certain ideas of exclusion (such as working-class colleges) manifest within the social psyche. The highlighting of social and psychological stigma associated with this segregation highlights the point that giving access to college does not necessarily create a more equal society, but can sometimes reinforce stereotypes. There is a lot of sociologic theory in this article, with ample reference to Bourdieu. These two quoted references of Bourdeiu sum up the article quite well.
“Those who have lots of red tokens and few yellow ones, that is, lots of economic capital and little cultural capital, will not play in the same way as those who have many yellow tokens and few red ones.”[1] “ … by putting off prolonging and consequently spreading the process of elimination, the school system turns into a permanent home for potential outcasts, who bring to it the contradictions and conflicts associated with a type of education that is an end in itself.”
Keywords: Widening participation, Exclusion.
Archer, Louise & Merryn Hutchings (2000): ‘Bettering Yourself’? Discourses of risk, cost and benefit in ethnically diverse, young working-class nonparticipants’ constructions of higher education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 21:4, 555-574.
Link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713655373
This article is very good because it focuses on the construction of attending university from the perspective of members of the working class consciously choosing not to participate in higher education. The methodology involved group discussion involving 109 non-participants in higher education from London. Approximately 2/3 of those within the group interviews were from ethnic minorities. As many other studies have shown, a common trend is that further education is “irrelevant” for achieving higher pay. The risks of attending as well as applying pose a threat to stability of the household. Hence, the “process” of attending school provides multiple risks that create social constructions that are not conducive to applying. The process framework gives a much better understanding of the perspective of working class individuals not attending university. By breaking the process of applying to College into stages of risk, the researcher becomes more aware of the possible pitfalls of university from a working-class perspective.
Keywords: Working Class, Higher Education, Perspective, Group Interview.
Connor, H., R. Burton, and R. Pearson. “Making the Right Choice How Students Choose Universities and Colleges.” Universities UK (1999):
(A link to the article) http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=cvcpchoi
According to this study, decisions about career path (especially school) happen much earlier than the application phase. The four main reasons include “Study subject of interest,” “to have professional career,” “to improve job prospects,” and “to gain entrance to a well-paid career.” Differences were then subdivided between different ethnic groups answers. The method is highly quantitative, using survey answers from 20,000 applicants. Methods for students gathering relevant information regarding the application were also listed. Options students used to pay for finances were also listed in graphical form.
Keywords: Aspirations, Quantitative
Voigt, K. “Individual Choice and Unequal Participation in Higher Education.” Theory and Research in Education 5.1 (2007): 87-112. Print.
(A Link to Article) http://tre.sagepub.com/content/5/1/87
This articles makes use of “expected utility theory” in order to analyze a number of qualitative studies (interviews primarily). What is interesting about this journal article is that it does not so much try to analyze education as a social phenomenon, but rather the writer tries to interpret whether or not this underrepresentation is problematic from a luck egalitarian perspective. According to luck egalitarianism, “distributions should reflect the choices that it is reasonable to hold agents responsible for, while the differential effects of ‘brute luck’ must be compensated for.” Hence choice by itself is not sufficient, since the conditions “beyond the agent’s control” can control these perspectives. This explanation of choice subdivides the construct into easier to understand notions such as probabilities, options, utility, and costs. The fascinating part about this study is how it connects economic concepts to qualitative interviews.
Keywords: Aspiration, University.
Ball, Stephen J., Jackie Davies, Miriam David, and Diane Reay. “‘Classification’ and ‘Judgment’: Social Class and the ‘cognitive Structures’ of Choice of Higher Education.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 23.1 (2002): 51-72. Print.
(A Link to the Journal Article) http://www.jstor.org/stable/1393097
This is a very interesting article drawing off of a lot of theories connecting to Bourdieu (especially classification and judgment), using a mixed method approach. The data from the study draws a lot of information from an Economic and Social Research Council Study, which interviewed and surveyed families from six different schools. Rather than simplify, the interviews show that the process of choice is more complicated than the reader originally thought, due to the varied answers of participants (especially highlighted on page 56). What distinguishes this articles from the others is how it categorically labels students as “ranking aware” or “ranking unaware” when they were asked to rank the prestige of different universities.
Keywords: Judgments, University, Aspiration, Mixed Method.
Wilkins, Stephen and Farshid Shams & Jeroen Huisman (2012): The decision making and changing behavioral dynamics of potential higher education students: the impacts of increasing tuition fees in England, Educational Studies.
Link to the article http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03055698.2012.681360
This study attempts to find the impact of the increasing price on education, and how this changes the decision making process of students. The method used a survey to asks year twelve students to fill out questionnaires. Additionally, there were two focus group discussions. After a primarily quantitative analysis, the writers conclude, “In sum, the data seem to point at increasing anxiety regarding the financial issues in English higher education, affecting the study choices of all students.” Hence, student considered cheaper higher education, while others thought of postponing education.
Keywords: Financial, Perspective, University.
Anneliese Dodds (2011): The British higher education funding debate: the perils of ‘talking economics’, London Review of Education, 9:3, 317-331
Link to Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14748460.2011.616324
This article was a good background article to understand the dimensions of the economic arguments brought up in the previous article. By defining and exploring the “producer” and “consumer” ideologies suggested in the policy debate, the article creates a new understanding of higher education from the perspective of political economy. Although this article only briefly references students perceptions, the articles provides a good background analysis of language emerging within the public policy debate of “student choice.” This exploration of how Higher Education Insitutions (HEI’s) deliberately seek to liberalize can create a greater understanding for the root causes of some of the perceptions of students when they approach an educational experience looking more and more like a “marketplace.”
Keywords: Higher Education, Marketization.
Noble, John and Peter Davies (2009): Cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30:5, 591-605.
Link to the Article: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbse20
This article attempts to do something quite challenging: a quantification of cultural capital for students. From the categories set up within their scale, they found that there was a statistically significant link between the cultural capital of the student as well as whether or not the students attended university. What is most important about this work is the fact that there was a scale determined to show the differences of social capital. The labeling and process by which it was created is quite interesting and could potentially help in other contexts. The quantitative analysis was interesting because there were correlations set up between parents’ cultural capital, students’ cultural capital, parents’ occupation, parents’ education, and students’ predicted grades of the students. The reasoning for not going to college is quite shortsighted, yet the development of the scale is interesting by its very nature.
Keywords: Perspective, Widening Participation, University, Cultural Capital.
Harrison, Niel and Richard Waller (2010): We blame the parents! A response to ‘Cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education’ by John Noble and Peter Davies (British Journal of Sociology of Education 30, no. 5), British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31:4, 471-482.
Link to the Article: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbse20
This article is a critical response to the previously mentioned article. As a critical article, it analyzes the quantitative methodology, casting doubt on the sampling and survey instruments. Although the Noble and Davies piece produces a very interesting finding, a study of this article would provide a solid foundation for understanding the pitfalls within the argument.
Harrison and Waller provide an insightful analysis, summed up with recent figures as well, “The latest official figures (HEFCE 2010) speak for a considerable improvement in higher education progression from areas with traditionally very low participation rates, while progression from lower socio-economic groups appears largely static (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2009). This provides prima facie support for the view (for example, Raphael Reed, Gates, and Last 2007) that situated social capital lies at the heart of the widening participation issue rather than the limited account of cultural capital that Noble and Davies advance.”
Keywords: Perspective, Widening Participation, University, and Cultural Capital
Moogan, Y.J., S. Baron, and K. Harris. 1999. Decision-making behaviour of potential higher education students. Higher Education Quarterly 53: 211–28
This article highlights the decision making process for candidates about to apply to university. Although this article may not focus exclusively on low-income students, it is good at explaining the values needed for a “successful” application to a university. Questions as to whether these beliefs would apply to others from different backgrounds are still up for debate. The interesting framework for the process comes down to a progression on page 214, going from problem recognition, to information search, to evaluation of alternatives, to “purchase,” to post-purchases evaluation. Throughout this entire process, the values are shaped by the advice of parents and teachers. This article treats the decision of a university with the same language as purchasing a good, which can sometimes be problematic. However, the process orientation of decision-making is an interesting universal framework of any choice, which can help explain motivation in Higher Education. The methodology implemented a longitudinal study of 19 students. Explanations of “how students were made aware” of university often influenced the process.
Keywords: Perspectives, University, Aspiration.
Lesley Pugsley (1998): Throwing your brains at it: Higher education, markets and choice, International Studies in Sociology of Education, 8:1, 71-92 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0962021980020018
This article is very helpful for explaining the consequences of the “marketization” of higher education on the perspectives of youth going through the choice of which Universities to attend. It uses Bourdieu’s theory of educational inequality, quite well (dividing it into five levels). This research is mostly qualitative, drawn from a longitudinal study of “sixth form” students. A survey was distributed to 710 sixth form students, while 90% planned on going to higher education. The interviews are conducted with 20 major families (and are the focus of this study).
Keywords: Qualitative, Marketization, Higher Education
Martin, Andrew. “Should Students Have a Gap Year? Motivation and Performance Factors Relevant to Time Out After Completing School.” Journal of Educational Psychology. 102(3):561-576, August 2010.
This article explores the perception of students, and the factors leading to why they would consider doing a “gap year.” Although this may not be exclusively about young adults within the UK from low-income backgrounds, it is very good at explaining the different perceptions of students regarding university at this particular instant in their lives. Hence, it is a good study for understanding motivation and perceptions of young adults as they approach higher education. The study is fairly expansive (with 2502 high school students), uses structural equation modeling to find particular correlations. According to the study, low motivation and low performance were main indicators for uncertainty of plans after college. However, the claims that these are more significant than demographic variables seem quite interesting. Of course, people from working class backgrounds may not have the ability to “take a gap year.” Overall, very interesting for understanding student perceptions.
Clegg, Sue. (2011): Cultural capital and agency: connecting critique and curriculum in higher education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32:1, 93-108
Link to the article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2011.527723
This article is a good follow-up article for the previous article discussing the role of cultural capital in shaping perspective. This paper shows how simply looking at cultural capital from the perspective of the student could potentially limit the analysis, calling for a more advanced notion of cultural capital connecting to community and family capital. The widening notion of disadvantage as “resilience” opens the discourse to common definitions of “scarcity” or “lack.” The emphasis on curriculum also introduces a very important elaboration. Additionally, the paper discusses the importance of “institutional habitus.” The final sections discuss “curriculum” and the “pedagogies of the personal.” One favorite quotation is a reference Bernstein’s “educational transmitission:” the performances to which they (disciplines) give rise are directly linked to instrumentalities of the market, to the construction of what are considered to be flexible performances … From this point of view their identity is constructed by the procedures.”
Keywords: Sociology of education, curriculum, perspective, Higher Education, Working Class.
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Raising Apiration in Oxford City Schools 