Development and Determinants of Students‘ Aspirations in Elementary School.
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich., (December 2017)Abstract
The impact of educational aspirations on educational career paths, as well as its socially stratified emergence, has been a crucial topic in inequality research since the 1960s (Sewell et al, 1969). However, most studies exclusively focus on aspirations of adolescents or their parents. Qualitative Research has shown that by the age of ten, children have already acquired specific ideas about their educational goals. These early aspirations are not a simple replica of their parents’ position (Helsper et al, 2007). Further quantitative results have confirmed that children influence the school choice at the critical transition from elementary to secondary school and thereby contribute to persistent social disparities (Wohlkinger & Ditton, 2012; Wohlkinger, 2014). Therefore, children must be acknowledged as active participants in educational decision-making processes and further knowledge on the determinants of early aspirations is crucial.