Adolescents who become pregnant during their secondary education experience a range of challenges that intersect and limit their opportunities to complete schooling and take up university places. One approach to addressing this issue at an Australian regional university is through the Tertiary Preparation Pathway (TPP) which has been delivered…

The study was premised on the concern of the migrant African parents about their children's lack of aspiration for higher education after completing their secondary education in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia. There appears to be little understanding of, or confusion around, the different pathways available to higher education in…

Educational and career aspirations can be shaped by the expectations of significant others, including parents, teachers and peers. This study examined career discussions with significant others and how discussions about university or vocational education supported post-high school pathways. A mediation model examined the role of gender, year…

The notion of 'raising aspirations' to widen participation in higher education and increase attainment has dominated policy discourse globally for the past decade. Projects and campaigns that aim to increase participation and attainment in education therefore typically focus on student aspirations. This is certainly the case in the Tasmanian…

Positive school experiences increase school satisfaction and educational aspirations and are important developmental opportunities for adolescents. Associations between time-varying school-based arts participation, students' school satisfaction and university expectation were investigated using data collected from 1,215 students in 29 Western…

Adolescent aspirations have been extensively researched, particularly in the contexts of higher education and the workforce. This paper extends research by exploring how the educational and career aspirations of rural adolescent girls relate to their other future goals. It demonstrates how exploring aspirations, both within and outside of the…

The promise of the new underpins much educational reform discourse, from utopian strands and grand gestures to more formulaic rhetoric found in declarations of new policies for new times. Informed by genealogical and feminist approaches, this essay introduces some conceptual frameworks for analysing such expressions of hopefulness and newness in…

In this international, longitudinal study, we explored gender differences in, and gendered relationships among, math-related motivations emphasized in the Eccles (Parsons) et al. (1983) expectancy-value framework, high school math participation, educational aspirations, and career plans. Participants were from Australia, Canada, and the United…

Adolescent participation in extracurricular activities is associated with numerous positive outcomes, yet the mechanisms underlying this relationship are largely unknown. This study had two goals: to investigate the association between participation in extracurricular activities and indicators of positive and negative development for Australian…

Student motivation during adolescence has become an increasingly important issue for educators and researchers. Using a goal theory perspective, researchers have investigated a range of goals (including achievement goals, social goals and future goals) that influence students' desire to achieve at school. The present study examines the range of…

A moderation-mediation model was constructed to examine relationships among adolescents' cognitive "habitus" (their cognitive dispositions), learning environments, affective outcomes of schooling, and young adults' educational attainment. Data were collected as part of a longitudinal survey of Australian youth (4,171 females, 3,718…

In this longitudinal study, relationships were examined between educational aspirations and educational attainment for Australian young adults from different ethnic and social status backgrounds. Participants included 6,811 (3,547 women and 3,264 men) young adults (mean age = 20.3 years) who were in Year 9 when the study began. In the analysis,…