Andrew Biggart

Framing ‘Choices’: a longitudinal study of occupational aspirations among 13 to 16-year olds

Abstract The ‘framing’ of occupational aspirations and expectations are examined through a longitudinal study of 13‐ to 16‐year‐olds. The relative impact of gender, social class and area on the development of occupational aspirations and expectations is assessed, together with an examination of levels of stability between the ages of 13 and 16. While males and females tend to aspire to very gender‐specific occupations, ideas about the suitability of occupations are formed at a relatively early age and overall levels of change are quite small. Bivariate analysis highlights the impact of gender, area, social class and academic attainment on occupational aspirations. Multiple regression is used to assess the relative impact of factors associated with variation in status levels of occupational aspirations: after controlling for expected academic attainments, other factors were found not to have a significant impact on occupational aspirations. These findings suggest that the impact of area and social class op...

Educating Discouraged Workers': Cultural Diversity in the Upper Secondary School.

Through a qualitative study of the experiences of young people in the second year of post‐compulsory education in schools in four contrasting Scottish labour markets, we investigate the existence of a ‘discouraged worker’ effect. We argue that in the modem upper secondary school, which contains pupils with a range of attainment levels, it is possible to identify a number of distinct orientations to school life and suggest that the types of opportunities available within local labour markets affect young peoples decisions to remain at school. We suggest that cultural responses to the school have become more individualised and that ‘discouraged workers’ can be identified in both the middle and the lower attainment bands.

Institutional Frameworks and Structural Factors Relating to Educational Access Across Europe

In this article institutional and structural factors relating to access to education are assessed. First, the macro frameworks of institutional regulation that exert influence on the educational trajectories of young Europeans are demonstrated. Based on different aspects of these frameworks and drawing from extant research, the article presents a typology of education systems that provide varying levels of access to and accessibility of education in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom. Second, using survey data (N = 6,366) it analyzes the impact of gender and parental education on young people’s educational aspirations and early labor-market entry across the countries.

A need to belong? The prevalence of experiences of belonging and exclusion in school among minority ethnic children living in the ‘White hinterlands’

Based on a survey of 711 children in Northern Ireland, this paper explores a range of aspects of experiences of belonging and exclusion in relation to school among three main minority ethnic groups: Irish Traveller, Chinese/Asian and European Migrant children. The study examines variations between each group and how they compare to the White settled population. The findings indicate that all three groups experience lower levels of belonging and higher levels of exclusion compared to their White, settled Northern Irish peers. The experiences of Irish Traveller children were the most negative. The article adds to the dearth of data on minority ethnic children living in mainly white regions in the UK and Ireland. It argues for the need to move beyond achievement gaps in assessing minority ethnic childrens differential experiences in education and highlights the potential of belongingness as a concept for the further study of differential patterns of need and processes of inclusion.

Complex Transitions: Linearity and Labour Market Integration in the West of Scotland

Over the last couple of decades it has been suggested that youth transitions have become increasingly protracted and complex, resulting in a greater vulnerability among young people to marginalization and exclusion. Routes between school and work, which were once viewed as linear and predictable, are seen as having been replaced by a set of movements that are less predictable and involve frequent breaks, backtracking and the ‘blending’ of statuses which previously tended to be quite distinct (Chisholm, 1995; Wyn and White, 1997; du Bois Reymond, 1998; Looker and Dwyer, 1998; EGRIS, 2001). This new consensus on the changing nature of transitions is rarely challenged. However, there has not been any systematic analysis of the extent to which transitions have increased in complexity and lost their linearity, nor of the implications for young people of following non-linear, as opposed to linear, routes.

The Educational and Occupational Aspirations of Young People in Scotland and Finland.

In this paper we examine subjective aspects of social reproduction in two countries: Finland and Scotland. Our aims are twofold. The first is to examine the extent to which individual actors are able to meaningfully negotiate opportunity structures through contrasting the future orientations of young people in two different societies. The central question here relates to the extent to which individual subjectivities are conditioned by social locations rather than being shaped through a process of exploration and negotiation. Second, as the two countries have different systems of education, vocational training and careers counselling, we wanted to determine the extent to which institutional arrangements shape subjective orientations. In America, the widely tested Wisconsin model of status attainment (which is used to measure social mobility and includes indicators of socio-economic background and educational attainment as well as aspirations) has highlighted the significance of the relationship between subjective processes and labour market outcomes (Sewell and Hauser, 1993), but we have little knowledge of the ways in which subjective orientations are affected by institutional arrangements and models of careers counselling. Sinisalo (1993), however, has argued that across different cultures there are strong similarities in vocational interests. If institutional structures and models of careers counselling are significant, then given the differences in the educational systems of Finland and Scotland, we would expect to find strong variations in the aspirations of young people. If, on the other hand, the aspirations of young people in the two countries are very similar, this would suggest that these arrangements are of little significance.

A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluation of an After-School Prosocial Behavior Program in an Area of Socioeconomic Disadvantage

A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the effects of a prosocial behavior after-school program called Mate-Tricks for 9- and 10-year-old children and their parents living in an area of significant socioeconomic disadvantage. The children were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 220) or a control group (n = 198). Children were compared on measures of prosocial behavior, antisocial behavior, and related outcome measures. The trial found adverse effects on four outcomes among the intervention group compared to the control group: antisocial behavior increased on two different measures (d = 0.20) and (d = 0.18), child-reported liberal parenting increased (d = 0.16), and child reported authoritarian parenting also increased (d = 0.20). In addition, parental participation was significantly associated with several program outcomes. It was concluded, that group based after-school behavior programs may have the potential to cause iatrogenic effects and must be designed, piloted, evaluated and implemented with a high degree of care.

National Youth Policy in the UK: Trends, Issues and Evaluation

The chapter aims to give a broad overview of some of the recent developments in mainstream national youth policy in the United Kingdom. It is divided into three main sections: it begins by giving an introduction to some of the emerging trends within national youth policy in the UK, before going on to outline the nature of some of the key policies, while the final section examines some of the evaluation evidence over the effectiveness of mainstream youth policy.

Comparative Analysis of Misleading Trajectories

The preceding chapter described the structural diversity of transition systems from a macro-perspective. This chapter consists of the reports from three cross-country working groups which had the objective to identify general aspects of misleading trajectories. Each report synthesises descriptions of national or regional transition systems with analysis of commonalities and differences in terms of the risks young people face in their transitions to work. The data for comparative analysis: institutional structure of transition systems, their ideological foundations and political developments, and the biographic perspectives different trajectories imply for the young people involved, was drawn from the national reports. Both group discussions and group reports were initiated by the written feedback produced by group members regarding the main differences from their individuals perspective (see also Chapter 1.3). However, the group reports differ in the perspectives in which comparative analysis evolves. The first group report comprises Italy, Great Britain and West Germany and takes an inductive approach. The second report refers to Denmark, Spain and East Germany and deductively applies the concept of the segmented society to these contexts. The third report describes an intermediate approach. Sensitising concepts derived from the relation between the modernisation of transitions and the disadvantage policies addressing the most vulnerable groups are introduced with regard to Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the situation of migrant youth in Germany. Each of these reports has been produced jointly by the team members involved and therefore does not only function as one section of the overall book structure but may be considered as an individual piece of work in its own right.

Leading or Misleading Trajectories? Concepts and Perspectives

In this chapter we unfold the theoretical concepts applied in and resulting from the cross-country working groups in which national perspectives have been comparatively analysed. Due to the different approaches taken by the groups different concepts have been central. These concepts will be integrated into a theoretical framework which will allow us to define and to distinguish trajectories leading to social integration from misleading ones in a wider perspective. The writing of this chapter took a period of one year involving the whole network group (for the persons involved see preface).