Attitudes to school and intentions for educational participation: an analysis of data from the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England

Abstract

The paper investigates the attitudes of young people in England towards schooling and education and the relationship of these attitudes to intentions for educational participation and to various background characteristics of the young people. It provides an example of secondary data analysis through using the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England–a large-scale, government-funded panel survey of pupils moving through the secondary school and into employment or further education and training. The size of the sample, starting with 15,000 young people, enables a detailed analysis of small sub-groups within the data while interviews with parents mean that pupil attitudes and intentions can be related to family characteristics. The results show that young people are very positive about their schools and share the values of the education system, although a small minority expressed much more negative views. Negative views were strongly associated with plans to leave education at 16 although there were negative pupils who nevertheless planned to continue participation and positive pupils who planned to leave. The most negative pupils included both males and females and young people from all social backgrounds. However, most ethnic minority groups were under-represented among those expressing negative views.