WORKING class parents are just as aspirational for their children as those from affluent backgrounds, but want different things, new research shows.
Academics from Stirling University said the findings challenged a myth that families in disadvantaged areas had lower expectations.
Dr Morag Treanor, a senior lecturer in sociology at the university, went on to warn that the misunderstanding made it easier for schools to blame pupils for a lack of aspiration.
READ MORE: Inquiry launched into impact of poverty on pupils
The findings come from an analysis of 3,500 responses from the Growing up in Scotland study, which is tracking the lives of thousands of children and their families.
The Stirling University study analysed parents’ responses to specific questions from the wider study on the aspirations they hold for their children.
Ms Treanor found that all parents want the best for their offspring, but that there were significant differences in the types of aspirations families held according to their experience of poverty.
Lower-income parents were less likely to know what is possible or how to achieve it. They were also less likely to know how to support their children’s education.
READ MORE: Attainment gap between rich and poor fuelled by out of school classes
Those with an experience of living in any type of poverty were 1.6 times more likely to want their children to start a training course or undertake an apprenticeship and they were half as likely as parents with no experience of poverty to want their children to stay on at school beyond the age of 16.
For every type of poverty, parents are between 1.4 and 1.8 times less likely to believe that they can positively influence their child’s achievement at school compared to parents with no experience of poverty.
The report states: "Aspirations, even in communities struggling with
poverty, are very high. The missing element is the knowledge of how to make these aspirations real and obtainable.
"Parents living in poverty also have high aspirations for their children, but feel unable to engage with their child’s learning in the home and feel inadequate in their knowledge and experience to help.
"It is not only politicians that suggest parents have low aspirations for their children.
"Teachers too cite low aspirations on the part of parents for children’s poorer educational attainment. This has an effect on how teachers and school staff engage with children and parents living in poverty."
READ MORE: Poorer pupils falling behind as they get older
Joanna Murphy, chairwoman of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said parents generally wanted their children to progress further than they had done.
She said: “There is no lack of aspiration from parents for their children, but unfortunately there is a lack of belief that the child can, for example, go to university - often coupled with a fear of how to help the child with forms or interviews and of how much it is all going to cost.
“In my recent experience schools are familiar with what is holding their children back from reaching their full potential and know which pupils need more help."
Eileen Prior, executive director of parent body Connect, said the research had exploded the myth of a poverty of aspiration.
She added: “Almost all parents want the best for their children in life and this research shows that children, no matter what their circumstances, are ambitious for themselves too.
“Something happens during the school experience where hope and ambition falter for families living on low incomes. We need to understand why this is and what can be done to boost confidence and make courses as relevant as possible.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel