Researching Aspirations for Education and the Future in a High-Poverty Region

• In Event: Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: The Effects of Social Context on Education

Abstract

Australia has recently set targets for increased participation of low socioeconomic groups in higher education. However, these groups have not been strong in secondary school completion. Policy responds to this problem in terms of ‘raising their aspirations’. This paper critiques the deficit assumptions encoded in such ‘aspirations’ discourse. More significantly, the paper draws on data from the authors’ research to develop (1) a conceptual framework for sophisticated sociological understanding of how people’s subjectivities comprise complex aspirations, mixing deficit and asset senses of future prospects; and (2) a methodological approach for (a) researching this complexity of aspirations among students and families in high-poverty regions, and (b) capacitating their cultural assets for aspiring to desirable future alternatives, through education and beyond.

Authors

• Lew Zipin, Victoria University

• Sam Sellar, The University of Queensland

• Marie T. Brennan, Victoria University

• Rosie Roberts, University of South Australia

• Grant Banfield, University of South Australia