An exploration of the aspirations and future orientation of adolescents from low-income families.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Fehily, Orla, ; Schlösser, Annette
- Source
- Educational & Child Psychology; Mar2020, Vol. 37 Issue 1, p118-135, 18p
- Subject
- Teenagers
Educational attainment
Secondary schools
Ability
Poor people
- Language
- ISSN
- 02671611
Aim: Literature suggests that young people living in low-income households are likely to have lower aspirations than their peers. Facilitating aspirations has been suggested as a possible means of preventing intergenerational cycles of low attainment and subsequent disadvantage. This research explored how a group of young people from low-income families perceived their aspirations to have been informed and influenced. Method: This study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Ten young people were recruited from a local secondary school. Self-driven photo elicitation was used with the resulting images providing the basis for semi-structured interviews. Findings: Three super-ordinate themes and eight sub-themes emerged from the data. Themes describe narratives, interests and talents informing aspirations, support of others and expectations of success. Limitations: Difficulties in finding a school from which to recruit and subsequent negotiations with the participating school led to a student administrator being present for the interviews. The implications of this on the results is discussed. Conclusions: Results suggested that participants had concrete and realistic ideas about what they wanted to do in the future and were hopeful about their ability to achieve those aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]