Children's Lives, Children's Futures: A Study of Children Starting Secondary School (Continuum Studies in Educational Research) PDF
Preview Children's Lives, Children's Futures: A Study of Children Starting Secondary School (Continuum Studies in Educational Research)
Children's Lives, Children's Futures A study of children starting secondary school Paul Croll, Gaynor Attwood and Carol Fuller Continuum Studies in Educational Research continuum Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane, 11 York Road Suite 704 London New York, SE1 7NX NY 10038 www. con tinuurn books. com © Paul Groll, Gaynor Attwood and Carol Fuller 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Paul Croll, Gaynor Attwood and Carol Fuller have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 9781847062697 (hardcover) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Croll, Paul. Children's lives, children's futures: a study of children starting secondary school/ Paul Croll, Gaynor Attwood, and Carol Fuller. p. m. - (Continuum studies in educational research) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-84706-269-7 (hardcover) 1. Education, Secondary-Great Britain-Case studies. 2. School children-Great Britain- Case studies. 3. Social adjustment-Great Britain-Case studies. I. Attwood, Gaynor, 1948- II. Fuller, Carol H. III. Title. IV. Series. LA635.C77 2010 373.180941-dc22 2009020105 Typeset by BookEns, Royston, Herts. Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King's Lynn Contents List of tables vi Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Children and the future 21 3 Educational futures: children's intentions for educational participation 39 4 Children's ocupational choices 59 5 What children think about schol 81 6 Children as learners 1 7 Early exits and negative atitudes 135 8 Present and future: schools, structure, agency 147 Appendix 1: The research project 171 Appendix 2: Supplementary tables 175 References 181 Index 185 This page intentionally left blank Tables 2.1 What children want for their futures 23 2.2 Parental occupation and what children want for their future 25 2.3 Influences on the future 27 2.4 Parental occupation and influences on the future 28 3.1 Intentions for participation post-16 40 3.2 Reasons for post-16 decision 42 3.3 Do you think you wil go to university? 50 3.4 Reasons for university decision 52 3.5 Post-16 plans for children who plan to go to university 56 4.1 Ocupational plans: most frequent choices 61 4.2 Socio-economic status of ocupational choices 63 4.3 Parental occupations of children choosing the professions or skiled trades 65 5.1 The importance of schol 84 5.2 Enjoyment of schol 86 5.3 Perception of teacher commitment 8 5.4 Schol as a dificult environment 89 5.5 Schol and friendships 91 5.6 Rejection of schol 92 5.7 The best and worst things about schol 94 5.8 Group diferences in atitudes to school 108 6.1 Pupil effort and the importance of success at school 113 6.2 Perceptions of atainment 116 6.3 Perceptions of parent and teacher expectations 121 6.4 Setting, average school attainment and children's self-ratings and atitudes 129 7.1 Characteristics of leavers and non-leavers 137 7.2 Attitudes to school and employment of leavers and non-leavers 138 7.3 Number of negative responses to attitude statements 142 7.4 Negative responses in specific areas 144 viii Tables 8.1 Educational and occupational plans and school attainment level 151 8.2 Educational and occupational plans and set 153 8.3 Consistency of educational and occupational plans, school attainment level and set: children planning to stay on post-16, go to university and have a professional or managerial job 154 8.4 Gender, socio-economic status and ethnicity and educational and occupational intentions and parental views 155 8.5 Educational and occupational plans and parental views and expectations for examinations and employment 163 8.6 Socio-economic status, parental views and ambitious educational and occupational plans 165 A3.1 Parents' views and staying on post-16 175 A3.2 Friends staying on and staying on post-16 175 A3.3 Parents' views and university 176 A3.4 Friends going to university and plans for university 176 A3.5 Parental occupation and reasons for not going to university 176 A3.6 Consistency of school and university intentions for children planning to go to university 177 A3.7 Future intentions post-16 and for university 178 A6.1 Learner identities: self-perceptions of performance at primary and secondary schol 178 A6.2 Learner identities: performance and relative performance 178 A6.3 Seting and comparative performance 179 A7.1 Mean numbers of negative statements supported 179 A7.2 Negative responses to school 179 Preface Children spend a significant proportion of their lives in school. Indeed, in some respects, for children in England and similar societies, school can be seen as the defining feature of childhood and of the way that children are connected to the wider world, and as a key link between childhood and later adult life. In this book we are concerned with how children experience and feel about their lives in school in the present; how they see their educational futures in school and elsewhere; and how they view the relevance of school for various aspects of their futures. The book is focused on a sample of children in England as they begin their secondary school careers at the age of 11 or 12. It is mainly based on a large-scale nationwide survey, involving both questionnaires and interviews, which we conducted in 2007. The research was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES 062 23 0204) which we are pleased to acknowledge here. We have benefited from the help and advice of many people whom we either consulted with regard to the study or who worked with us on carrying out the survey. Diana Moses, David Malvern, David Drew MP, Ray Priest and ESRC referees and assessors all made helpful and insightful suggestions with regard to the research. Our colleague Kathryn Last, from the University of the West of England, made a major contribution to data collection, and her interviewing skills are reflected in the quality of the interview material collected from the children. We have also had valuable administrative support from Margaret King and Julie Matthews. Our principal thanks, however, must go to the head teachers, teachers and, most of all, the children in the 15 schools which took part in the study. We had an exceptionally high response rate from the schools we approached to take part in the study, reflecting a commitment within schools to valuing the perspectives on school of their pupils. We also had considerable help from teachers who facilitated the administration of the questionnaires and the conduct of interviews. We were pleased that the children seemed to enjoy taking part in the study and very much appreciate the care most of them put
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