Realistic Aspirations Research Articles

'Living in Different Worlds': Gender differences in the developing sexual values and attitudes of primary school children

A small-scale study into the developing sexual values and attitudes of 35 9 and 10 year-old children found a number of important gender differences. The girls were more willing to offer detailed, serious reflections, whereas the boys' contributions were shorter and more jokey, with a greater use of sexual slang. The family was the main source of sexual information for the girls, but friends and the media for the boys. The boys were more interested in contraception, abortion and the mechanics of intercourse and childbirth, whereas the girls were more interested in relationships and more aware of the pain that could be caused by loss of children and early pregnancy. The girls had clearer and more realistic aspirations than the boys in terms of both career and family life, and understood the dangers which drugs, alcohol and violence could pose to relationships; the boys, on the other hand, sometimes appeared insecure in their self-image, and tended, albeit in a joking manner, to link violence and sex. These findings are rich in implications both for policy and practice in sex education and more generally for an understanding of the way that a differentiated sexual identity develops in boys and girls.

Communitarianism and education

Communitarianism is a broad social philosophy combining practical project to restore traditional values with a technical account of personal identity as socially constructed. In the practical project schools are called upon to act, after the family, as a ‘second line of defense’ for social cohesion. This article argues that while there is an important general truth in the communitarian account of personal identity, schools are ill-equipped in conditions of modernity to fulfil communitarian aims. Empirical reasons why this is so are explored using an influential three-fold classification of ‘communities’ – communities of ‘place’, of ‘memory’ and ‘psychological’ communities. Disjunction between the practical project of communitarianism and its technical account of personal identity suggests a contradiction within the broad communitarian movement – a contradiction which may account for its bipartisan political appeal but which argues against realistic educational aspirations.

Young migrants of the second generation in Europe: education and labour market insertion prospects.

This paper compares the situation of second generation migrants in employing European nations with first generation migrants in the countries of origin. The study focuses on intergenerational changes in employment, unemployment, and further migration. High rates of failure, underachievement, and non-attendance are often found among migrant school children. Girls and boys show high occupational aspirations from age 10-14, but more realistic aspirations by their last year of school. Although vocational training interests many young foreigners, they usually do not get enough training to compete successfully in the labor market. Unemployment affects young foreigners more, and their employment is more unstable, unskilled, and without advancement. Indecision dominates their attitudes about return migration. The country of origin usually cannot provide employment, especially for women, and the longer young migrants have been in employing nations, the less likely they are to want to leave. Difficulty in migrating and the parental desire for superior schooling also limit return migration. On return, migrants 1) experience no continuity of employment or promotion, 2) often find that the skills they have acquired are not valued, 3) must use parallel labor market and cottage industry work to find employment, 4) find that, especially for women and young workers, the unstable employment experienced abroad also affects them on return, 5) find temporary employment or have difficulty in obtaining a job, 6) find both positive and negative views are held by employers concerning them, 7) find that family and connections are the primary means for finding jobs, and 8) discover return migration may not be an end since many second generation migrants will re-migrate for economic and social reasons. School performance, language mastery, social integration and access to training plague migrants and young nationals of similar socioeconomic background. They are unprepared to succeed in the new country and experience conflict of aspirations. First and second generation return migrants experience great frustration, since employment conditions are poor, and may be forced to migrate to a third country.

Ethnic Composition of Schools and Achievement Motivation.

An investigation of the relationship between achievement motivation and ethnic composition of schools was undertaken in order to determine if the integrated experience would facilitate achievement motivation among black students. The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule was administered to male and female high school students: 20 black and 37 white students attending an ethnically mixed school, 29 students attending a segregated school with 100% black enrollment, and 49 students attending a segregated all white school. Scores on the need for achievement subscale revealed a significant interaction (p < .01) of school system by race which indicated that students in the mixed school were more similar in their scores and closer to the national norms for that subscale than students in the segregated schools. In addition there was a main effect for race (p < .0001) which indicated that black students had significantly higher scores than white students regardless of the type of school system. There was no main effect for school system. A tentative conclusion proposed that the scores of integrated black students represented more realistic aspirations than did those of segregated black students.