The concept of aspiration is central to current policy debates about educational and social inequality in the UK. Although aspirations have long been of interest to social scientists there is still uncertainty about how much aspirations influence outcomes and the factors that shape educational and occupational aspirations. I contribute to this policy debate and area of study by examining in detail the mechanisms that shape aspirations and the meaning that young people attach to them. It is often claimed that disadvantaged young people suffer from 'poverty of aspirations'. Contrary to such claims, my findings show that the vast majority of students hold high aspirations for pursuing further academic qualifications, including those from highly disadvantaged backgrounds. I therefore question the grounds for treating 'poverty of aspirations' as a major social problem that should be tackled through interventions designed to raise them. In this mixed methods study I draw on both quantitative and qualitative sources of data. The quantitative data is from the Effective Provision Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education project (EPPSE). I examine the factors that are predictive of students holding high aspirations at the age of 14. The qualitative data I draw on is from twenty-nine semi-structured interviews with 16-18 years old from a sixth form college in East London. I contribute to the literature by showing in detail how aspirations are shaped by individual, family, school and neighbourhood level processes. In particular, I also show how important family life is in shaping aspirations and that in order to understand aspirations we should focus on the meaning young people attach to them. My findings suggest that our current models of aspirations are in need of refinement because they underestimate how high the aspirations of young people are and therefore struggle to explain how they are related to students' social backgrounds.

Thesis (Dip.App.Psych.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1978.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [142]-149).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Marshall University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains 24 p.: ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. [23-24]).

The goal of my research is to examine motivations for upper mobility vs stagnation of people in poverty. Bandura (1971) states people’s motivations do not come from their willpower and people are not trapped in their situation. However, 43% of Americans born poor, remain poor as adults and 27% of people remain near poor to poor (Pew 2013). I will examine individuals with higher upper mobility aspirations (HUMA) and those individuals with lower upper mobility aspirations (LUMA) in order to provide the salient factors contributing to the desire for upward mobility. Five hypothesis will be analyzed; (1) Individuals with aspirations for personal growth and development will be more likely to have a positive linear relationship to their agency. (2) Individuals are more likely to have a strong belief in personal motivators than belief in structural barriers. (3) Individuals with beliefs in structural barriers will not believe in having to change behaviors for upward mobility. (4) There is an association between respondent’s race and individual’s motivation for upward mobility. (5) There is an association between respondent’s gender and individual’s motivation for upward mobility. My prediction is LUMA individual’s attitudes about assimilation and structural barriers prevent them from moving upward. They will strong negative feelings towards having to change their speech and dress style to be successful. I hope provide a better understanding of the emotional and structural barriers that hinder upward mobility.

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published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Using a combined quantitative, quantitative approach this study explores the incongruence between educational attainment and labor force participation for Emirati women by posing several questions that revolve around the issue of their motivations and aspirations with regard to higher education and labor force participation. In interpreting the survey and interview responses, a conceptual framework that interweaved constructs taken from three different bodies of research was used. The three areas of research are: the expectations of women in higher education, family in the Arab world, and the importance of social networks in employment.The findings of the study showed that Emirati women have high educational and occupational aspirations but they are also ambiguous about the role of women in Emirati society. This ambiguity arose from the conflict between what the young women in the study believed they ought to achieve as a result of their education and what they perceived their society expected of them as daughters, wives and mothers. The link between education and employment for Emirati women was also found to be influenced by the close nature of the social networks to which Emirati women belong. Emirati's women's use of family or strong ties deprives them of information from distant parts of the social system and places them at in a disadvantaged position in the labor market.

This doctoral thesis features two kinds of skill-training programmes implemented in Tamil Nadu (India) drawing on 18 months of fieldwork. The first explores how Nokia recruits and trains semi-skilled youth to work as Operators, in the Nokia SEZ, in Sriperumbudur. I contrast this with the case of Project SEAM: a state-funded skill-training programme, implemented by a private firm through a public-private partnership (PPP). SEAM trains rural, below-poverty-line youth, to work as sewing machine operators in India’s burgeoning garment clusters. I argue that contemporary India’s development trajectory is characterised by the confluence between an increasingly pluralised network state and rapidly proliferating network enterprises, which work together to establish new workplaces and design and implement skill-training programmes for India’s rural poor. Skill-training is used as a lens to examine the complex, symbiotic relationship between these two actors, who drive these new initiatives. Skill development programmes are predicated on the idea that aspiration is a positive, transformative force – a view that is echoed by social scientists like Appadurai (2004; 2013). I demonstrate how the network state and network enterprise, shape and mould youth aspirations, across the skill-training cycle: transforming (within mere weeks) unemployed, unskilled rural youth – into semi skilled workers, ready to work in the manufacturing sector. Youth aspirations are consciously heightened as a marketing strategy, to maximize enrollments into skill-training programmes. Aspiration is also actively taught as a valuable soft-skill, that young people must possess, to become a part of India’s new workplaces. Through an exploration of how young people encounter such initiatives, I question the idea that aspirations are positively transformational. I highlight the tension in youth experience - between aspirations elevated by the training program, and factory work’s harder realities - to illustrate the dark side of aspiration: characterized by disillusionment, disappointment and personal failure.