Leanne Fray

Unpacking the Career Aspirations of Australian School Students: Towards an Evidence Base for University Equity Initiatives in Schools.

ABSTRACT Demand for higher education in Australia has doubled since 1989, increasing the number of students from diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. Equity targets have seen a proliferation of programs and interventions aimed at encouraging school students, particularly those from low socio-economic status backgrounds, to participate in higher education. However, little is known about the specific occupational interests of school students upon which targeted strategies might effectively be designed and implemented. This paper examines school students’ aspirations for specific careers that require a university education, in relation to student background and school-related variables. The analysis draws from a study of 6492 students from Years 3 to 12 in 64 New South Wales public schools. We found a complex array of factors relating to interest in different careers. Year level at school, gender and prior achievement were stronger predictors across many careers than factors such as SES, Indigenous status and school location. We argue that rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to encouraging participation in higher education, outreach activities should be targeted to take account of student diversity and inequalities that foster differing aspirations.

When higher education is possible but not desirable: Widening participation and the aspirations of Australian Indigenous school students

Indigenous students remain vastly under-represented within higher education in Australia. While aspirations have been a key focus of the widening participation agenda, the aspirations of Indigenous students have largely been overlooked. Drawing on survey data collected as part of a mixed methods longitudinal study conducted with students in Years 3 to 12 (n = 6492) from New South Wales government schools, this study investigated the occupational and educational aspirations of 432 Indigenous school students. While we found that Indigenous and non-Indigenous students held similar occupational aspirations, Indigenous students were much less likely to aspire to attend university. Most starkly, high-achieving Indigenous students were significantly less likely to aspire to university than their high-achieving non-Indigenous peers. Given this evidence, we argue that both the possibility and desirability of higher education must be addressed if the widening participation agenda is to meet equity targets for Indigenous students.

Australian School Student Aspirations for Military Careers: Traditional Perceptions in Shifting Contexts

Modern military organizations are making a concerted effort to recruit a more diverse range of people, with the role of women in the military at the forefront of debate. In Australia, in response to the changing role of the military and with the aim of positioning the military as an “employer of choice” for women, females are targeted as early as high school. Using data from a study of 6,492 Australian school students in Years 3–12, we examine student aspirations for military careers. Student aspirations were influenced by traditional perceptions of the military as a primarily masculine enterprise. Key reasons for student interest included dominant notions of masculinity, familial military experience, career options, and enlistment benefits. We argue that current views of the military among school children signal the need to shift such perceptions to appeal to a wider range of people and attract a more diverse workforce.

The burden of expectation in widening participation

‘Widening participation’ is a wellestablished discourse within the medical education field. Indeed, mirroring the sociodemographic diversity of the broader population is posited as a goal of medical education to an extent unseen in any other discipline. In this issue, Kelly-Blake et al. contribute to this agenda by presenting a scoping review addressing two key areas: the rationales espoused by undergraduate medical schools for increasing under-represented minority (URM) participation and the actual approaches utilised by such institutions. The authors map 137 US articles published between 2000 and 2015. They identify physician–patient concordance and ‘value’ derived by medically underserved populations as the two key rationales, and early interventions to attract and recruit URM students as among the major approaches currently employed to widen participation. The authors conclude that the narrow pipeline to medical education for URM students contracts further as these students move from university in that they are largely expected to provide medical care for URM populations.