Shaping the Educational Attitudes and Aspirations: The Influence of Parents, Place, and Poverty - Research Paper Example

Shaping the Educational Attitudes and Aspirations: The Influence of Parents, Place, and Poverty Introduction A number or researches across other countries have examined the extent of peer and parents role in shaping students' educational aspirations and how the students' aspirations depend on structural features of the educational systems in which they operate. In many instances, it has been stipulated by the data gathered of urban researches that there is a very high association between parent, school system, and social condition in relation to a child’s attitudes, beliefs, and aspirations (Buchmann and Dalton 2002). These researches have promoted understanding on the significant issues underlying the current economic and social status of a certain locality, which in turn help formulate methods of approaches that can alleviate the present condition of the community. The usefulness of a quality educational research assists policy-makers in promoting systematic changes and scrutinizes other policies in relation to its consequences for equality and social justice, giving emphasis on the history of these policies in education as a resource for understanding the present, and concludes with recommendations for future research in areas where contestation of official agendas is needed (Ozga 2000). Considering the above mentioned, one of the examples of social researches to reflect on is an urban study conducted by the University of Glasgow, “Shaping the Educational Attitudes and Aspirations: The Influence of Parents, Place, and Poverty”. This research proposed the relationship between the children’s aspirations and the parental circumstances, school, and opportunity structures in the neighborhood and highlighted how these support system come together to shape children’s aspirations in deprived urban areas. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the methods and research design that was employed in the abovementioned research and to draw out its strengths and weaknesses as far as the methodology is concerned. Moreover, this essay also aims to recognize the supposition lying behind the research approach in order to illustrate substantial and well-justified conclusions. Evaluation of the Research Proposal By the title of the proposal itself, it can be implied that the study centered on the influences in the shaping of attitudes and aspirations. However, considering the element of a good research topic, the title could have been more defined that it should incorporate the general subject area, e.g., (shaping the educational attitudes and aspirations of whom?) so as not to confuse the variables in the research. Hence, the title will be more interesting if it is well framed as to giving the readers an idea of who the subjects would be, what factors are going to be studied, and what is being measured at first glance. A good frame of a dissertation will generally contain the object of the study, the sample population, and the setting or the research site to give a good overview of the topic that was being studied (Sojor et.al, 2004: 30). Collecting, analysing, and disseminating the data must be given full consideration that statement of disseminations should also be included in the research proposal because these are essential to the research’s long term viability and the researcher’s credibility, as well as for the interest of an open society (Elliott,1989,p.16). The background of this research, although it presented quite a number of reference to previously conducted researches and studies is not clearly categorized. It covers broad topic materials such as introduction, statement of the problem, and review of the related literatures that were not thoroughly integrated together to make a clear description of the study. Although the overall presentation was brief and concise, highlighting different subject matters, e.g. statement of the problem and related literatures could have afforded a thought-through on the theme. This is in consideration of the fact that the review of related studies and literatures are very important in any dissertation or research study. This allows the researcher to glean on the ideas of others on the research problem he/she has chosen that he/she may quote portions of those studies or other researches as deemed relevant to the current research problem (Hyland 2000). Moreover, related literatures also certify that the research to be done is not a replication of a work that has been accomplished before, rather, it is something that is innovative to warrant the probability of finding something that is new that can contribute to the society (Anderson 1998). The case of the research proposal, however, did not present its review of related studies and literatures in a very detailed and exhaustive manner. What could have done instead is to justify the mentioned articles in a more comprehensive method that could explain why these literatures were exhausted to support the study. Moreover, if only the review of related literatures were presented in a thorough manner, the researcher could also include specific quotations from the material if these conveyed direct and crucial relevance to the study. It could have made the proposal even more extensive and dependable as to the major concepts, conclusions, theories, arguments etc. that underlie the study, and look for similarities and differences with closely related researches. Proper use of the literature reviews proved to be helpful in indicating the position of the study in the wide research area. It allows the reader to remember the purpose of as to why a certain research needs to be carried out, how the researcher came to choose certain methodologies or theories to work with, and how the current study adds to the research already carried out by previous groups of researchers (Belcher 2004). The literature reviews can evaluate and show relationships between the work already done (e.g. the strong connection of the studies by Tabberer (1999) poverty and low educational attainment and Turok’s (2005) influence of parents, place and poverty in shaping educational attitudes and aspirations). Considering this, the review of related literatures allows researchers to compare and contrast and show relationship between the proposed research and studies that were already made (Hinkel 2004). Evaluating the research proposal in terms of its conceptual design, it is apparent that there occurs a lesser emphasis on its own conceptual framework which could have made the paper compelling. The strong point was that the Model of Aspirational Influences follows the distinctive outline of the study and the factors shows a two-way directional relationship among the variables it holds. However, a more detailed representation of the ideas and vision of reality in the design can aid in the formulation of analysis and interpretation of data. The model presented was quite modest on its terms and it could have been specified a bit more to include underlying factors to the young person’s aspirations (e.g. qualitative and quantitative family characteristics, individual characteristics, etc.). In effect, the research framework can help the researcher to predict or make assumptions on the relationship of the given variable, thus, serves as the anchor for the study. In some with highly developed theories, this portion of the paper can be detailed and organized out of the most relevant theories or concepts that are connected with the topic under investigation (Sojor et.al, 2004: 55). In reference to the research proposal, the conceptual framework centered on the ‘Individual Characteristics’, ‘Family Characteristics’, ‘School’, and ‘Place’ and the influences of these factors to the ‘Young Person’s Aspirations’ and to quote, “…aspirations can be conceived as the product of a rectangle of influences, with the characteristics of the child, family unit, school, and ‘place’ at the corners, all subjects to the milieu of contemporary culture and society” (Turok, Kintrea, and St. Clair 2005: 5). If these concepts were properly defined as to its structure and presentation on the figure provided, then it could be a lot easier for the researcher to draw out necessary implications on the data with reference to the conceptualized ideas plotted. The research proposal employed longitudinal method of study and utilized both qualitative and quantitative measures in data gathering. Significantly, this was the most practical way to gather the data on subjects’ aspirations in terms of his/her attitudes, beliefs, and experiences (given the fact that the subjects were randomly chosen from three different locations-- London, Leeds and Glasgow) and proves to be one of the strengths of the research as the method employed was appropriate in covering the focus of the study (Sojor et.al, 2004: 51). Considering the issue of the influence of parents, place and poverty on the children’s aspirations alone, it can be concluded that other method of researches wouldn’t suit best given the following reasons; the changing social attitudes affects the parents’ perception of the current circumstances in the economic context, the dynamics of poverty are constantly varying and social mobility (in an attempt to improve social status) continuously shifting- thus the focus being inherently longitudinal. Using longitudinal approach for the research proved to be the paramount selection in employing the strategic method of the study since it addresses the issues entrenched in the subject matter that are not possible with traditional cross-sectional approaches (Hyland 2000). Other research approaches such as Cross-cultural studies and Case studies can also be used given the aims of the study. With respect to case studies for example, it employ the same strategy of intensive investigation of an individual or group (and in our case, the young adolescents, their parents and teachers) that most combine through long term observation (Sojor et.al, 2004a). By itself however, the case study will not make strong proofs of the researchers’ conclusion considering the limited sample and location (Sojor et.al, 2004b). What it needs is the support from previously recorded studies to support its findings. Given this situation, cross-cultural studies for example, can show consistency of the gathered data (e.g. the study of the influence of parents, place, and poverty in shaping the children’s’ aspirations in selected locations in United Kingdom and similar studies that will be conducted in a different country perhaps). Other means of getting confirmation, increasing credence in the interpretation, and demonstrating commonality in assertion of the research results, is the use of data source triangulation to determine if the phenomena or case remains the same at other times, in other spaces, or as persons interact differently (Stake 1995), these methods can further strengthen the validity of the results of the previously made study. The study proposes to complete by the end of year 2010 from its preparatory work since year 2006 that puts it under classification of a longitudinal study. As these types of studies are ideal way to examine consistencies and inconsistencies in attitudes, experiences, and aspirations of the subjects and the resource persons over time, this is also time consuming and precarious (Stake 1995). Given the fact that it covers long stretches of time, the paper proposed do not indicate fallback if and when their randomly chosen subjects along with their resource persons disappear in mid study which is one of the possibilities in longitudinal researches. Say for example, in a sample population of 50, what would be the assurance of these respondents to remain until the completion of the study? Factors affecting attrition includes death, mobility, transfer of schools, and sometimes, loss of interest in the research (Buchmann and Dalton 2002). And given the scenario, the proposed research was not able to identify its fallback for the unforeseen event which is quite crucial in making the longitudinal study. Another aspect to consider is how that data is proposed to be gathered. Like any other researches and dissertations, the main dynamics of the writing effort rests heavily on the different activities from preparation to interpretation of the data that will be gathered. The different approaches to research and studies have its equal share of risks and challenges to be taken into consideration (Hyland 2000). The research proposal indicates that qualitative and quantitative methods will be employed for data gathering with the use of questionnaire and face-to-face interviews. Now, there are a number of pitfalls that may trap the researcher/interviewee in disseminating the needed materials. For example, the researchers may unknowingly react differently to male and female subjects or support persons (parents and teachers). They may develop certain biases over the respondents in both conscious and unconscious ways. Researchers, like everyone else, are complex people with feelings, attitudes, and ideas of their own and their reactions to different subjects (e.g. short and tall subjects/support persons, subject who speak with an accent, or subjects who remind them of someone they particularly like or dislike) may distort the data they have gathered. Moreover, researchers are also susceptible to self-fulfilling prophecy, that no matter how objective they try to be in their research, there is always a chance that they will find what they want to find and may unwittingly overlook contrary evidence (Joffe 1999). This possibility of self-fulfilling prophecy was not taken into consideration in the research proposal nonetheless. In addition, subjects may behave differently (have different attitudes and views, overly analyze and critically modify the situation) than they would otherwise just because they know they are being studied. Under observation, it has been noted that people are apt to try to make impressions- to act as they think they are expected to act, say as they are expected to say, indicating a possibility that the presence of the researcher/interviewee may cause them to change their views and attitudes (Gormly 1993: 145). Therefore, taking the face-to-face interview method into consideration, there was no clear indication as to how the researcher will manage to eliminate the possibility of the subjects and resource persons to give misleading answers either to alleviate or aggravate the reported situation. Given the fact that questionnaires may contain sensitive items, still the researchers have to generate what the study needs to deliver. Whist the vagueness of a questionnaire and the issue of sensitivity and threat, the researcher have to make sure the subjects fully understand the question as they might lead to underreporting and over reporting by participants (Cohen, Manion, Morrison 2000: 265). Their honest disclosure can have a big impact on the results of the survey and interview and as per paper proposal, there is no fallback for this possibility. Nevertheless, it can be construed that the primary reason of considering the parents and teachers to be resource persons that can be asked by the researcher is well accounted to the fact that children do spend a lot of their time in family and in school. Observable behavior and attitudes are more likely noted by these resource persons since they are the ones who accompany the children in their daily way of life and therefore know more about the children’s aspirations, beliefs, and ambitions. Interviewing the subjects of the study can also give the researcher a good background on how these children draw out realization from their world, the concepts that they have learned, and the mind-set that they have over their present situation, and most importantly the feelings that were generated as being brought about by the current living situation (Gormly 1993). There is a view that those experiencing the issue should be involved in decision making itself (parents’ and teachers’ views on the purposes of the study) but one thing to consider, however, is the possibility that that teachers are more likely to change their behaviors and attitudes if they have been involved in research that demonstrates not only the need for such change but it can be done—the issue of “ownership” and involvement that finds its parallel in management literature that suggest that the closest to the problem are in the best possible way to identify it and work towards a solution (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2000: 230). Overall, the research proposal was deemed timely, important, and relevant to the present days. Timely because there has been a lot of observable cases of intergenerational transmission of poverty and the educational attainment of children in less advantaged areas remains consistently worse than average despite the continued effort and initiative to improve school system (Turok, Kintrea, and St. Clair 2005). Important and relevant since it promotes social understanding of the existing social problem on education and employment in the context of how children’s aspirations are formed in relation to their ambition to pursue better education. The study also attempts to uncover the underlying foundation of the support people attitude in relation to how these factors come together to shape the aspirations of children in lesser advantaged areas. The approach of this research proposal was in the light of a positive paradigm that proposes to explain and predict a certain observable situation. It emphasizes an approach that studies social phenomena (e.g. raising aspirations can improve educational attainment, raising skills, enhance employability and boost career trajectories) and gives importance to research methods focusing on quantitative and qualitative analysis, surveys, and interviews. The approach used depicts a causal relationship between factors, e.g. the present living condition of the subjects, the support people’s attitudes and views, and the children’s attitudes and beliefs such that these factors come together in shaping the children’s aspirations in education. Hence, relating these causal factors directly to the current government plans in order to develop a system that will work for both parents and the school. This shows that the goal of the research proposal was to develop the law of general understanding of the pressing issue on education among lesser advantaged families by discovering necessary and sufficient conditions that can support their aims. If these pressing concerns were made known through the available evidence in consideration of this research, then it would be easier for the appropriate department in the government to make the necessary modification in the current educational system to support the less advantaged families (Ozga 2000). Research is based on the assumption that careful, systematic, enquiry into a publicly acknowledged, valid problem will be seriously considered by policy makers and others with influence in educational matters and the merits of the best interpretative research are that it offers the possibility for both teachers and administrators to open up issues for debate that are left unexamined (Shipman 1985: 52). There is much strength in this study. In the terms of its fundamental purposes, it has been carried to embark upon the issue on improving educational attainment among less advantaged minority as well as the challenges that are faced by the government to address these concerns. More so, it also attempts to address the issue on how the formative years of the children are being taken into consideration in terms of the kinds of support they get from their families and the school system and how their parents’ and teacher’s mold and influence their attitudes and aspirations in life. This kind of research is fundamental in achieving the social justice through the strong influences of such researches on the policy makers. In addition to other practical strengths such as the use of longitudinal approach, it demonstrates that although it has some risks but overall it the most appropriate method to measure changes in beliefs and opinion of the sample over time. Overall, the research proposal is constructed with a clear directional goal to contextualize the present situation of the few less advantaged families and has provided quite a comprehensive and detailed methodology as to how the proposed data will be gathered and then utilized to bring justification on the presentation of the described predicament. References: Belcher, D. 2004. Research in teaching writing. Annual review of applied linguistics 24, 70-106. Buchmann, Claudia and Dalton, Ben. 2002. Interpersonal influences and educational aspirations in 12 countries: the importance of institutional context. American Sociological Association. Cohen, Louis, Lawrence Manion, Keith Morrison, Keith R. B. Morrison.2000. Research methods in education 5th edition. RoutledgeFalmer. Gormly, Ann V. 1996. Understanding psychology. New York. Random House. Heider, F. 1958. The psychology of interpersonal relations, New York, Wiley Hinkel, E. 2002. Second language writers’ text: linguistic and rhetorical features. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hyland, K. 2000. Disciplinary discourses and social interactions in academic writing. Harlow: Pearson Education. Joffe, H. 1999. Risk and the other. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Ozga, Jennifer. 2000. Policy research in educational settings: contested terrain. Open University Press, Buckingham. Stake, Robert E. The Art of Case Study Research. 1995. Thousand oaks, CA: Sage. Publications. Shipman, M. D. 1985. Educational research: principles, policies, and practices. Routelegedgefarmer. Sojor, Henry A., Valentino Sitoy, and Bernadette Olis. 2004. Thesis/Dissertation Writing: a guide. Dumaguete City. Print. Turok, Ivan, Keith Kintrea, Ralf St.Clair.2005. Shaping the educational attitudes and aspirations: the influence of parents, place, and poverty. Read More