- Title
- New possibilities for engaging school teachers in widening participation: professional development to support student aspirations
- Creator
- Prieto, Elena; Sincock, Kristina; Patfield, Sally; Fray, Leanne; Gore, Jennifer
- Relation
- Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 51, p. 167-193
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00592-7
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Access to higher education remains elusive for many young people despite substantial investment in outreach interventions, most of which target students in underrepresented equity groups. This paper explores an alternative approach to widening participation in Australia that focuses on teacher professional development to support student aspirations. We examine school teachers’ responses to a course designed to develop their conceptual understanding of aspirations and provide a framework for developing aspirations-related initiatives with their students and colleagues. The course pilot was evaluated drawing on surveys (N = 49) and interviews (N = 21). Teachers reported that they gained the following: (1) access to robust evidence of factors affecting aspirations; (2) relevant theoretical perspectives to conceptualise aspirations in new ways; and (3) insights on practical strategies with which they might nurture student pathways to higher education. To support widening participation in higher education, we argue that the scope of current outreach initiatives offered by universities must broaden to capitalise on the untapped potential of teachers.
- Subject
- student aspirations; teacher professional development; widening participation; equity; SDG 4; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1499000
- Identifier
- uon:54586
- Identifier
- ISSN:0311-6999
- Rights
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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