The influence of parents, places and poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations

by Keith Kintrea, Ralf St Clair and Muir Houston (University of Glasgow) published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in October 2011

This report aims to better understand the relationship between young people’s aspirations and how they are formed.

There is a high degree of interest among politicians and policy-makers in aspirations, driven by two concerns:

• raising the education and skills of the UK population, and 
• tackling social and economic inequality.

High aspirations are often seen as one way to address these concerns, but how aspirations contribute to strong work and educational outcomes is not well understood. Based on longitudinal research in three locations in the UK, the report investigates aspirations and contributes empirical evidence to the debate.

The report:

• examines the nature of aspirations;
• explores how parental circumstances and attitudes, school, and opportunity structures come together to shape aspirations in deprived urban areas; and
• argues that the approach to intervention should be reconsidered.

Hazel’s comment:
I came across this report in a secondary source and thought, “I’m sure I’ve already done this – I read all the jrf blog posts”. But I can’t find it so thought I’d better do it again on the understanding that twice is better than not at all.

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