ABSTRACT
Interviews with service providers highlighted concerns about the low expectations of many working-class girls which may serve as a barrier to educational success. The problem is complex: as we have seen in chapter 4, our own interviews with girls revealed some tensions between a widespread desire to achieve academic success, limited knowledge about the range of post-16 educational and training opportunities, and career choices which tended towards traditionally feminine (and often low-paid) occupations. The vast majority of the students we interviewed were from working-class backgrounds and the student population of all but one of the mainstream schools they attended was more or less exclusively working-class. A minority of our student sample had aspirations to attend university and seek professional employment. Notably, interviewees from black and South Asian communities tended to have higher aspirations. These girls spoke of the encouragement and support they received from their parents, and some that had encountered considerable difficulties earlier in their school careers were working to overcome these.
