Moving beyond taste: desire and capability for higher education aspirations

Stephen ParkerTrevor GaleJessica Bok

Deakin UniversityAustralia

The context of aspiration

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

192 10,0663,666 5,060 1,339

14,72112,835

6,02419,853

Number of commencing domestic bachelor students, Australia, 2003-2012

Previous year

Source: DIICCSRTE Selected Higher Education Statistics, 2004-2013.

• by 2020, 20% of all undergraduate students in higher education will come from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds;

• by 2025, 40% of all 25-34 year olds will hold a Bachelor’s degree

• 25,000 new students needed each year

• Deficit based discourse of “Raising aspirations”

Aspirations for higher education

When you are the same age as your parents, would you like to have a university degree?

Strongly Agree or Agree – 67% (Central Queensalnd)Strongly Agree or Agree – 70% (north Geelong, Victoria)

“Approximately 70% (n=2,169) of respondents aspire to attend university and about 85% aspire to some form of tertiary education (university and TAFE). Only

8.2% opt explicitly for an apprenticeship. Given the low socio-economic status and culturally diverse nature of the western region, this is an important finding in

itself.” (Bowden & Doughney 2010: 118)

Our aspirations are formed within constraints

“‘That isn’t for the likes of us’, that is, we are not the people for whom this object or this activity exists as an objective possibility; as a result, this object or this activity would only exist for us as a ‘reasonable’ possibility if we were different, if we were placed in different conditions of existence … But to say ‘that isn't for the likes of us’ is to say something more than ‘it’s too expensive’ (for us) [limited resources]: the expression of internalized necessity, this formula is, so to speak, in the indicative-imperative (or ‘is-ought’) mode because it simultaneously expresses an impossibility and an interdiction [tacit rules].”(Bourdieu et al. 1990: 16-17)

“aspirations … are determined, in both form and content, by objective conditions which exclude the possibility of desiring the impossible”. (Bourdieu et al. 1990: 15-16)

University degree Male Female All

Like to have 60.0% 71.1% 67.1%

Will have 46.8% 67.2% 59.7%

Desire and possibility

In the future, when you are the same age as your parents or guardians are now, what would you LIKE TO have or own? What WILL you have or own?

For some students, particularly males, their desire to go to university is tempered by what they think is possible

Other accounts of aspiration• “The capacity to imagine futures” (Sellar &

Gale 2011: 122)• As a capability (Sen, Nussbaum, Hart)

– “Practical reason. Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one’s life.” (Nussbaum 2011: 34)

• As navigational capacity: “formed in interaction and in the thick of social life”; as a “navigational capacity” (Appadurai 2004: 67)

Aspiration as navigational capacityAppadurai 2004, The Capacity to Aspire

• Planning and working towards future goals is a form of ‘navigation’ with a ‘map’

• Requires knowledge of both a destination and intermediate stops (or nodes) along the way

• Relies on resources – economic, social and cultural – including knowledge and previous experiences of successful navigation (“archives of experience”)

• Differentiated access to resources leads to varying capacities to “navigate futures” (Sellar & Gale 2011)

‘... the map of aspirations ... Is a dense combination of nodes and pathways’

experience nearexperience distant

Different capacities to aspire

‘smaller number of aspirational nodes’

‘thinner, weaker sense of pathways from concrete wants to intermediate contexts to general norms and back again’

The disadvantaged have a…

disadvantaged advantaged

(Appadurai 2004: 69; Gale 2010)

Tour knowledge – knowledge of things as they happen

‘Tourists’ are subject to the limitations of the ‘tour guide’

Map knowledge – knowledge of things before they happen

Not just knowledge of the map but they are the cartographers themselves

Those from advantaged backgrounds tend to have map knowledge

Those from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to have tour knowledge

Map and tour knowledge

de Certeau 1984

The Australian Survey of Student Aspirations

• Questions informed by six theoretical concepts from the literature:– social imaginary (Taylor 2004); taste (Bourdieu);

desire (Butler); possibility (Bourdieu); resources (Appadurai); and sociocultural navigation (Appadurai, de Certeau)

• 258 students enrolled in 14 schools in Central Queensland

• Mostly Years 9-11• Navigational capacity emerged as a key theme

Central Queensland

University preferences

Male Female TotalI don’t know 24 55 79Central Queensland University 26 13 39James Cook University 5 18 23University of the Sunshine Coast 4 10 14University of Queensland 0 11 11Griffith University 2 7 9Queensland University of Technology 3 4 7University of New South Wales (2 ADFA, 1 NIDA) 0 3 3

A NZ University 0 2 2University of the Southern Queensland 1 0 1University of New England 0 1 1University of Wollongong 1 0 1Total 76 130 190

Some students aspire to go to universities that do not lead to their career aspirations• 9% of students aspired to be either a Veterinarian,

Veterinary Nurse, or related position • Universities such as CQ University, QUT and USC were

all incorrectly identified in student responses as offering Veterinary Science degrees

• Only a few students correctly selected the UQ and JCU as institutions offering the vet science

• “i would need to do the course for vet nurse in brisbane”

Occupation preference requires university

Perceived need to go to university to obtain

occupation

% %Male 23.3% 70.9%Female 79.6% 74.3%Total 58.2% 73.0%

Inflated view of the education required to qualify for their desired career

1. Medical doctor2. Lawyer3. TAFE Teacher4. Social worker5. IT support technician6. Dental technician7. Aircraft maintenance engineer8. Data processing operator9. Storeperson10. Cleaner

Agree or Strongly Agree

Number %Get good results at school 219 93.9Study hard 218 93.1Choose the right subjects at school 215 91.9Finish secondary school 207 88.5Go to university 168 73.0Move to another city 109 48.4Go to TAFE 100 46.9

If you were to get to do your first [job] preference, what things between now and then would you need to do?

58% selected a job that requires university

73% anticipated going to university

Only 33% of students attend a school within 50 km of a university campus

Relocation to attend higher education

* % does not total 100 as students gave more than one source of information

All*(n=213)

Male(81)

Female(132)

University/TAFE 22.4% 21.0% 26.5%

Parents/family 46.9% 46.9% 47.0%

Teachers/school 40.4% 30.9% 46.2%

Friends 14.1% 13.6% 14.4%

Internet 31.9% 22.4% 34.8%

Other 15.0% 16.0% 14.4%

Resourcing university aspirations: information

Parents with a university degree:Mothers 12.9%

Fathers 5.0%

Implications and conclusions• Navigational capacities can be resourced• There are interim steps / navigational nodes

between where students are currently located and their aspirations

• There are multiple pathways to reach desired ends

• Students should be provided with reliable information about post-school pathways, and should be made explicit rather than assumed to be self-evident

Contact: stephen.parker@deakin.edu.au

Gale, T., Parker, S., Rodd, P., Stratton, G. & Sealey, T. with T. Moore (2013). Student Aspirations for Higher Education in Central Queensland: A survey of school students’ navigational capacities. Report submitted to CQ University, Australia. Centre for Research in Education Futures and Innovation (CREFI), Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/efi/pubs/Student%20Aspirations%20for%20Higher%20Education%20in%20Central%20Queesnland.pdf