Investigating the drivers of higher education expectations among students from low and high socio-economic backgrounds in Australia

Abstract

Educational attainment is in part determined by students’ educational expectations, which are strongly influenced by their socio-economic status (SES). This paper contributes to the existing literature by explicitly focusing on the influence of student engagement and their perceptions of teachers’ expectations for academic achievement on their educational expectations among low- and high-SES students. Using growth curve modelling, it capitalises on a unique large-scale dataset that links administrative records and longitudinal survey responses of 13,697 primary and secondary school students in Australian schools. The results show a significant and consistent gap between low-SES and high-SES students’ trajectories of expectations for higher education, highlighting the crucial role of the timing of interventions, and point to factors such as positive peer relations, interest in learning, and teachers’ expectations that may reduce this gap.