1. Determinants of Post Secondary Aspirations of Secondary School Students Mark Bowden (with James Doughney) Economics and Finance

2. The Motivation Widening participation in university. Low socio-economic - ethnic backgrounds? The student’s decision. Rational? or cultural bias.

3. The Objective Using binary logit model:- Identify the key variables Estimate the marginal effects. Boudon or Bourdieu?

4. Summary Economic (Boudon) and Cultural (Bourdieu). SES more important for students with ethnic background. Access to internet appears important.

5. Theory Structure: Social systems constrain individual behaviour. – Bourdieu (1973): unconscious decisions- cultural capital – Boudon (1973): conscious decisions- dependent on socio- economic background.

6. Theory (cont) Non-English speaking- stronger support from parents Greater proportions of females than males

7. Determinants From Standardised Residuals Mean = -0.00053 Std Deviation = 1.003 Goodness of Fit H-L Statistic p = 0.3973 Andrews Statistic p = 0.5408

8. Marginal Effects Parent completed university2.9% English not spoken at home11.8% Catholic School9.1% Independent School8.9% Views of Teachers7% Views of Parents10%

9. Marginal Effects Internet at home14.9% Female9.8% Lose touch with friends-3.6% Only for the wealthy-3.7%

10. Revised Model From Standardised Residuals Mean = -0.0028 Std Deviation = 1.009 Goodness of Fit H-L Statistic p = 0.4173 Andrews Statistic p = 0.61.30

11. Marginal Effects Not English & high SES 13.6% Not English & low SES 7.7% English at home & high SES 1.4%

12. Model Specification Without the socio-economic status variable Goodness of Fit tests rejected at 10%. Omitted Variable: School results; other variables?

13. Acknowledgements Denise Bett, manager of the former Equity and Social Justice Branch, Victoria University and leader of the Aspirations Online Project Team Kate O’Rourke, Kathryn O’Rourke, Katia Honour, and Peter O’Callaghan, Aspirations Project Officers

14. References Boudon, R. (1974) Education, opportunities, and social inequality; changing prospects in Western society, New York, Wiley. Bourdieu, P. (1973) Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction. In Brown, R. (Ed.) Knowledge, education, and cultural change : papers in the sociology of education. London, Tavistock Publications Limited. Foskett, N. & Hemsley-Brown, J. (2001) Choosing Futures: Young people's decision- making in education, training and careers markets, London, Routledge Falmer.

15. References Marks, G. N., Cresswell, J. & Ainley, J. (2006) Explaining Socioeconomic Inequalities in Student Achievement: The role of home and school factors. Educational Research and Evaluation, 12, 105 - 128. Nash, R. (1990) Bourdieu on Education and Social and Cultural Reproduction. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11, 431-447. Nash, R. (2005) Cognitive habitus and collective intelligence: concepts for the explanation of inequality of educational opportunity. Journal of Education Policy, 20, 3-21.