The politics of aspiration: neo-liberal education policy, 'low' parental aspirations, and primary school Extended Services in disadvantaged communities
Sarah Holloway
Helena Pimlott-Wilson
2134/13803
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_politics_of_aspiration_neo-liberal_education_policy_low_parental_aspirations_and_primary_school_Extended_Services_in_disadvantaged_communities/9481997
Geographical research on education has grown rapidly in both volume and scope during the
first decade of the twenty-first century, and one relatively new theme to emerge from this
growing literature is that of education and aspiration. Much of the nascent interest in
aspiration concerns access to quality schooling and University education. In this paper by
contrast we highlight the importance of studying the ways aspirations are (re)produced within
the school community. Our empirical focus is on low-income England under New Labour.
Here we pursue a two-fold approach: firstly examining how education professionals define
parental aspirations for primary-aged children as low; before secondly considering their
alternative understandings of appropriate aspirations and the practices through which they
seek to promote these, both in school and through the use of Extended Services for parents
and children. In conclusion we highlight the importance of inward and outward geographies
of education which ‘recouple’ schools with their social context, and discuss the moral and political ambiguities involved in practices designed to raise aspirations.
2013-12-10 16:44:55
Geography
Education
Aspiration
Parenting
Class
Welfare reform
Earth Sciences not elsewhere classified