industry & research
campusreview.com.au
It takes a village
New research looks at the
influence of community on
university aspirations.
By Kate Prendergast
E
qual access to post-school pathways
has been a focus of the government,
which is perennially concerned about
developing a robust future workforce to
carry the nation forward. A more subtle
aspect of this idea of equal access is equal
aspiration. How attractive is the idea of
university to young people across Australia,
and what’s behind the differences?
A recent project undertaken by the
University of Newcastle, and funded by
the Australian Government Department
of Education and Training, considers
the extent to which communities have
anything to do with it.
The authors found that where you grow
up does have a powerful influence – but
not a determining one. They argue that
community should be considered as a
interrelating factor alongside the individual,
home and school in informing young
people’s decision-making about their
post‑school goals.
Released in a paper called Community
Influence on University Aspirations: Does
it Take a Village…?, eight communities
were taken as case studies, spread
across a range of socioeconomic levels,
from the lower SES remote community
of Olearia, with a high proportion of
Indigenous Australians and high levels
of unemployment; to the predominantly
white and affluent town of Damperia.
A central finding of the report was
that many young people have their
sights set on university, no matter what
community they come from. Although
this aspiration is much more prevalent in
higher SES communities (77 per cent in
Damperia, and 30–50 per cent in lower
SES communities), the authors are at pains
to point out that across all communities,
aspirations were “higher than existing levels
of educational attainment”.
In Muellerina, for instance, young
people’s intention to go to university was
up to five times the percentage of residents
who have a university degree.
This finding “challenges the simplistic view
that young people from target equity groups
have low aspirations for their futures”, said
lead researcher Professor Jenny Gore.
“Rather than focusing on raising
aspirations, it may be more productive to
consider how these ambitions might end
up being eroded or compromised, and
what could be done to better support
students’ aspirations.”
While avowing its usefulness, the authors
recognise that the concept of ‘community’
is hard to pin down. They use the theory
of collective socialisation to understand
how these broad social groups influence
the education pathways of young people
– a system in which “societal norms are
established, cultivated and then enforced
by adults within a community”.
In privileged communities like Damperia,
where there is a high population of parents
with degrees, it has become normalised
that a person pursue a university degree,
with certain expectations and values
attached to this chosen path. University is
therefore “linked with the lived experience
of middle-class identity and social
advantage; almost like a rite of passage for
young people who already have access
to international travel and opportunities to
visit prestigious university campuses”.
Yet even in disadvantaged communities,
norms and expectations can be disrupted
by what the authors call ‘critical events’. In
Excelsa, the authors note that these events
can present themselves in “serendipitous
encounters with university role models
within the community more broadly,
school-based initiatives, and having access
to a university campus which has prompted
a number of adults to pursue a degree
later in life, thus beginning to establish a
university-going culture among adults”.
A further key finding to the project was
how aspirations differed between genders.
Overwhelmingly and across communities,
females are more interested in going to
university than males, who are more likely
to be attracted to TAFE.
The report concludes by offering
recommendations for communities and
higher education providers to engage
younger people to help nurture post-
school knowledge and aspirations, with
the aim to increase participation rates
among disadvantaged communities.
These include outreach initiatives and
community scholarships – but also a more
pressing need to dismantle structural and
geographical barriers, such as internet
access and public transport. ■
17