Postsecondary Aspirations and Choices of Native and Foreign-Born Adult Learners in the Toronto District School Board

• In Event: 66.080 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 66.080-2 - Equity and Accountability in a Major Metropolis: An Exploration of the Toronto District School Board

Abstract

Though at one time considered a marginal aspect of education studies, the unique pathways of adult learners has become a research topic of interest in recent years. Existing studies have primarily focused on adult learning at the post-secondary level or adult education programs for low-skilled immigrants, for the most part overlooking continuing education as a strategy employed by native-born and immigrant adults for updating credentials towards accessing post-secondary education (PSE). Our research addresses this gap in the literature by investigating PSE outcomes for Canadian-born and immigrant adults who seek to upgrade their credentials through continuing education at the secondary level or at adult day schools through the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

The overarching research question examined in this project is: “What are the PSE pathways pursued by adult learners enrolled in Continuing Education and their correlates?” In answering this broad question, we also examine how these pathways differ between immigrants and non-immigrants. Two data sets are employed in responding to this broad question. The first dataset derives from the TDSB Continuing Education Survey that includes 640 students enrolled in Grade 12 English in March 2011. A second administrative dataset consists of approximately 13,000 who were in the adult day schools in 2008-9. Researchers tracked backwards to identify whether any of these students had also been registered in 2007-8 as an adult student and tracked forward to look at applications to post-secondary institutions in Ontario over 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11. Of particular interest in our analysis of the survey dataset is the identification of factors that predict the post-secondary goals or intentions of continuing education students. However, In order to identify factors that predict the actual post-secondary educational choices made by continuing education students we employ the administrative dataset.

Preliminary bivariate analyses using both datasets have revealed that in terms of aspirations, native and foreign-born adult learners do not vary. As a whole, over half of all survey students aspired to college, while a quarter aspired to university. Perhaps most importantly, analysis of variance failed to find any significant differences in these aspirations among students by region of origin. When we look to the administrative data set to examine actual pathways, the story is rather different. Only 2 percent of students overall confirmed university, but this group contained no students from the Caribbean and Latin America. Around 17 percent of all students confirmed college, but stark differences existed between the different regions of origin groups. Around 22 percent of African and Asian students confirmed college, compared to just 12 percent of non-English Europeans and 13 percent of Caribbean and Latin Americans. Thus, there are significant differences between aspirations and outcomes for all students, regardless of region of origin – at least in the short term. Analysis by region of origin has revealed that these differences do not exist at the aspirations stage, but at the outcomes stage of confirmation to PSE. In this paper, multivariate analyses are used to flesh out what individual and neighbourhood factors contribute to these differences in PSE outcomes.

Authors

• Paul Anisef, York University

• Karen Robson, York University

• Robert S. Brown, Toronto District School Board

• Lisa Marie Newton, Toronto District School Board