College bound: School, family and society in the constructions of students' post -high school futures
Encouraged to strive for more and greater accomplishments after high school in order to attain future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing labor market, students today nearly universally aspire to college attendance. School and societal support for such aims have led to normative “college f...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-2001
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Encouraged to strive for more and greater accomplishments after high school in order to attain future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing labor market, students today nearly universally aspire to college attendance. School and societal support for such aims have led to normative “college for all” thinking, despite the limited ability of some students to realize their goals. This study examines students' constructions of their post-high school plans and outcomes in a school environment where “college for all” beliefs predominate. Beginning with a conceptual model that connects background characteristics and home and school cultures to the attitudes and behaviors that direct students' paths, this research seeks to extend explanations of college attainment based primarily on demographics or on performance and plans. Analyses address the roles of personal and institutional habiti, values, school attitudes, effort, and preparatory behaviors, along with background characteristics, grades and post-high school plans, in activating students' choices as well as delimiting their opportunities. OLS and logistic regressions on student level data frame thinking about the significance of cultural information for successful post-secondary attainment. While home cultures sometimes reinforce and support the promotion of achievement that students experience at school, many lower status students experience mixed messages about their plans in a “college for all” environment. As a result, although achievement values, efforts, and planning in school mediate the socioeconomic backgrounds that students bring to high school and affect students' plans, performance and proximal educational outcomes, these variables cannot fully explain successes and failures in college attainment, particularly when home and school cultures do not correspond. Even in an exemplary case, “college for all” norms provide insufficient support for students who must overcome the cultural constraints of disadvantaged backgrounds. This research suggests that students who experience mixed messages about postsecondary education do not easily fit into the guidance models that “college for all” schools espouse, putting them at a disadvantage for future success. They hold conflicting educational values and exhibit inconsistent college-preparatory behaviors. Therefore, investigation into the processes of social capital formation at school is recommended. |
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| ISBN: | 9780493458915 0493458913 |