Session Information
09 SES 08 B, Assessing Students´ Motivations, Beliefs and Aspirations
Paper Session
Contribution
In most Western OECD countries, students with a migration background are characterized by significantly lower levels of educational performance and attainment than natives (e.g. Klieme et al. 2010). While this gap is commonly explained with reference to unequally distributed resources, in recent decades a significant role has been attributed to educational aspirations in the context of explaining educational disparities due to their presumed role in motivating constructive behavior and academic effort (e.g. Bourdieu 1973; Boudon 1974; Rojewski 2005). From a rational choice perspective, which assumes a prominent role in research on educational disparities, student aspirations are discussed with reference to secondary effects of social and ethnic origin (Boudon 1974; Heath/Brinbaum 2007; Stocké 2010). As concerns the situation of migrants in the educational system, they have consistently been shown to have comparatively high educational aspirations, but to be characterized by significantly lower expectations than natives (e.g. Becker 2010).
While rational choice theories assume rationally acting individuals who maximize individual utility by maximizing labor market returns and avoiding social demotion, it has also been suggested that it may be students’ life plans and preferences with respect to their future careers rather than objective possibilities of achieving significant returns on the labor market that drive students’ aspirations and ambition, and that having a “clear picture of one’s goals, interest and talents” drives people to engage into “appropriate […] educational behavior” in the present (Holland 1997: 5, 40; Gambetta 1987). These aspects may be of particular importance in the German educational system, which is highly stratified and students can leave the educational system at several different branching points. Only the highest level of attainment, though, provides access to tertiary education, and has further become a major informal entry requirement of several positions in the vocational education and training system (Federal Employment Agency 2013: http://berufenet.arbeitsagentur.de/berufe/).
In our study, we investigate whether expanding traditional rational choice models in terms of introducing students’ career plans and preferences, specifically their educational prerequisites, significantly contributes to the explanation of educational disparities. Specifically, we investigate whether high future career preferences and plans (1) systematically increase students’ aspirations with respect to the highest educational level, (2) whether high career aspirations are related to systematically higher expectations to attain the highest educational level through increased levels of academic effort, and (3) whether natives and migrants respond systematically differently to the educational prerequisites of their future career plans.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Becker, B. (2010): ”Bildungsaspirationen von Migranten: Determinanten und Umsetzung in Bildungsergebnisse“, Working Paper No. 137. Mannheim: Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung. Boudon, R. (1974): Education, Opportunity, and Social Inequality: Changing Prospects in Western Society. New York: Wiley & Sons. Bourdieu, P. (1983): “Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital”. In: Kreckl, R. (Hrsg.): Soziale Ungleichheiten. Göttingen: Schwartz. S. 183-198. Brown, S.; Lent, R. (Eds.) (2005): Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley & Sons. Federal Employment Agency (2012), online: http://berufenet.arbeitsagentur.de/berufe/. Accessed 20.01.2013. Gambetta, Diego (1987): Were They Pushed or Did They Jump? Individual Decision Mechanisms in Education. Cambridge: University Press. Heath, A.; Brinbaum, Y. (2007): “Explaining ethnic inequalities in educational attainment”. Ethnicities 7(3): 291–305. Holland, J. (1997): Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments, (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. Klieme, E. et al. (Eds.) (2010): PISA 2009: Bilanz nach einem Jahrzehnt. Münster/New York/Munich/Berlin: Waxmann. Quenzel, G.; Hurrelmann, K. (Eds.) (2010): Bildungsverlierer: Neue Ungleichheiten. Wiesbaden: Springer. Rojewski, Y. (2005): “Occupational Aspirations: Constructs, Meanings, and Application”. In: Brown, S.; Lent, R. (Eds.): Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley & Sons. 131-154. Stocké, V. (2010): „Der Beitrag der Theorie rationaler Entscheidung zur Erklärung von Bildungsungleichheit”. In: Quenzel, G.; Hurrelmann, K. (Eds.): Bildungsverlierer: Neue Ungleichheiten. Wiesbaden: Springer. 73-94
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