The influence of the school on the decision to participate in learning in post-compulsory education:  modelling the impact of schooling on choice.

Nick Foskett, Martin Dyke, Felix Maringe
(School of Education, University of Southampton)

Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, 13th April 2004
  
Abstract
The research reported here was commissioned in 2003 by the UK’s Secretary of State for Education and Skills to consider the influence of the school on the decision to participate in learning on completion of compulsory schooling. A national sample of twenty-four schools across the UK participated in this study.  This included focus group interviews with 1152 students aged fourteen and fifteen; interviews with head teachers; heads of year and careers advisors in each of the twenty-four schools and parental questionnaires for each student interviewed.  The research has evaluated a number of different models that support the students’ post-school decision-making.   This paper considers the findings of the project in terms of the emergent models that illuminate the impact on the schools of choice processes.   The strategic orientation of schools was found to influence the choice process for young people at the end of their compulsory schooling.   

Introduction
Participation in education at the ages of sixteen and seventeen varies across OECD member countries.  The United States has 88% of sixteen year olds and 81% of seventeen year olds enrolled in upper secondary education (Level three of the International Standard Classification of Education), while the United Kingdom has 84% of sixteen year olds and 71% of seventeen year olds in the equivalent phase of schooling. The mean for OECD member countries is 89% of sixteen year olds and 79% of seventeen year olds (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2001). 
The relatively low UK levels of participation in education and training beyond compulsory schooling are recognised as an area for improvement by the Government of the United Kingdom.   The 2002 Budget of Her Majesty’s Treasury set a “new target to increase the participation of young people post-16 in full-time education and training, including vocational programmes such as Modern Apprenticeships.” (HM Treasury, 27 November 2002).  It is within this context that the research reported here was commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Education and Skills to consider: the influence of the school on the decision to participate in learning beyond the statutory school leaving age.

UK research into the influence of schools on the process of choice in relation to education, training and careers pathways post-16 has not been extensive; yet understanding the choice process of school leavers has an important contribution to make towards matching young people’s aspirations and abilities to local education and training opportunities. This is particularly so in the current context of the expansion of participation rates post-16 and the emphasis on strategies of widening participation in post-compulsory education.  This study of 16 year olds’ career perceptions and aspirations builds on existing knowledge of how young people perceive and make choices about careers, education and training.  Recent research by the Centre for Research into Educational Marketing at the University of Southampton (Foskett and Hemsley-Brown, 1997, 1998;  Hemsley-Brown and Foskett, 1997, 1998; Foskett and Hesketh 1995, 1996a, 1996b) and by others (Hodkinson, 1995; Macrae et al,1996, Hemsley-Brown, 1996a, 1996b;  Ball et al, 1998, Brooks, 1998) has explored some of the perceptions and the decision-making processes at work in young people’s career decision-making and has traced these decisions back to perceptions at earlier ages.  From this small number of significant studies there is now some evidence of the impact of specific factors on choice and we have seen the development of a key generic model of the choice process (Foskett and Hemsley-Brown, 2001). 
The influence of the institutional context is the key focus of this research. Throughout a child’s school experience the influence of both individuals and of the culture and ethos of the school shape the choices and preferences that emerge. At primary school, head teachers are important gatekeepers to subsequent stages of education, while class teachers implant in children, knowingly or unknowingly, a range of cultural perspectives and values as well as specific career, education and labour market ‘knowledge’. At secondary school these roles continue but are added to by the impact of formal and informal careers education and guidance, and, as the child approaches 16, the promotional messages emanating from post-16 education and training providers.  This research has explored the perceptions and opinions of young people making their decisions about post-16 learning and interviewed key educational professionals who have supported them in that decision making process.

Aims and Methodology
The research project aimed to enhance the understanding we hold about the role of the school in shaping the perceptions, and hence choices of post-16 pathways amongst young people. The primary aim of the study was:

To identify the nature and influence of school-based factors in the choices of young people about their post-16 education, training and career pathways

The study, however, also seeks to contribute to wider understandings of choice and their policy implications, and so has two additional aims:

To identify implications for the development of careers education and guidance and decision-making awareness amongst pupils and students in schools.

To enhance further the modelling of pupil decision-making in education and training markets, and in labour markets.  

Methodological Issues
The study was designed as a qualitative study based in a sample of case study schools chosen to represent a broad picture of school settings in England. The total sample size was determined in part by the operational constraints of the Project, and was originally determined to be 20-25 schools across some 7-10 local education authorities (representing approximately 10% of authorities). To identify an appropriate sampling grid to enable schools to be identified, the following selection criteria were applied.
1.	All schools in the sample should demonstrate rising attainment rates at GCSE level i.e. GCSE passes at Grades A*-C should have increased over the period 1999-2002
2.	Half of the sample schools should demonstrate rising post-16 participation rates, and half should show stable or declining participation rates
3.	Half of the sample schools should have their own sixth forms and half should be schools without their own sixth forms
4.	Half of the sample schools should have high proportions of parents of high socio-economic status, as identified by data on the number of pupils receiving free school meals, while half of the schools should have low proportions of parents of high socio-economic status. The mean for England is 14% of pupils receiving free school meals, so that those schools with less than 14% of pupils receiving free school meals were deemed to have high proportions of parents of high socio-economic status.
5.	The schools should represent three groups of local education authorities -schools in metropolitan LEAs, schools in urban unitary authority LEAs, and schools in shire county LEAs

Identifying local authorities and schools to constitute the sample was undertaken through an iterative process. Using Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published data on post-16 participation rates (DfES, 2002), four Local Education Authorities (LEAs) were identified in each of the three categories (metropolitan LEA, urban unitary LEA, shire county LEA), one in each quartile of the data, to provide a broad geographical coverage within England. Within each LEA each secondary school was profiled to identify: 
a)	its GCSE attainment rate, using DfES data on GCSE attainment (DfES,2003) 
b)	the proportion of its pupils receiving free school meals, using data within the Guardian Education website (The Guardian, 2003)
c)	the presence or absence of a sixth form in the school
d)	the post-16 participation rate for the school over the period 1999-2002. This data is not available in the public domain as school level data and is published only in summary data for whole LEAs. However, the data was made available by the relevant local Learning and Skills Councils, who collect the data by school, for those schools that the research team identified as meeting all other criteria.

This process enabled the sample of schools to be identified to match the sampling grid requirements. The schools identified as appropriate to each criterion were approached directly to participate in the study, with ‘reserve’ schools and LEAs drawn in to replace those schools that declined to participate. The final sample comprised 23 schools drawn from 10 local authorities. 

Research Methods
Data collection was undertaken using the following approaches in each school in the identified sample:

a. Focus groups with Year 11 pupils. In each school two focus groups of 6 girls and two focus groups of 6 boys were undertaken.

b. Face to face semi-structured interview with the school’s senior careers teacher

c. Face-to face semi-structured interview with the head teacher

d. Face-to-face semi-structured interview with two teachers, each of whom is a Year 11 tutor.

e. Postal questionnaire to the parents of those young people in the focus group

In addition, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with the following local officers:

f. A senior officer within the Local Education Authority (LEA) whose responsibility includes transition beyond 16

g. A representative of the local Careers Service

Secondary data relating to the school, its ethos and organisation and its socio-economic context were derived from published documents and data, and will include:
•	School promotional materials, including the school prospectus and sixth form prospectus
•	Inspection reports on the school
•	DfES published data in the form of the ‘Autumn Package’ material, obtained from each school and LEA
•	Socio-economic data relating to the socio-economic profile of the school ‘catchment’ area, derived from the local LEA

Although the research has produced a number of important findings, this paper will focus on one aspect of the analysis.

Modelling the impact of schooling on post-compulsory education choices

Choice at 16 must be considered in the context of broader models of choice in education and training. No single model is ever adequate to explain the intricacies of the choice process, and three main groups of models have emerged. Firstly, structuralist models (for example, Gambetta 1996, Roberts 1984, and Ryrie 1981) view choice as a result of institutional, economic or cultural constraints over which pupils have no control.  However, structuralist models fail to explain the prevalence in some schools of pupils’ actively making decisions that are driven largely by economic imperatives. Some choices may be strongly related to the need to become successful and earn ‘loads of money’ through following a post 16 curriculum that lead to what some pupils call ‘the rich occupations’. This suggests that post 16 choices can be explained through economic or human capital models, originally developed by Becker (1975). Such models are based on the assumption that pupils will make decisions based on estimations of the relative returns associated with various post 16 options. The returns do not necessarily have to be measured in monetary terms, and indeed may be difficult to ascertain, particularly over short periods of time. Cultural reproduction and the reality of pupils’ lives and experiences the ‘street wisdom’ of young people form part of a complex web of information and experience that shapes the pupils decision making. A third group of models is based on the importance of personality and subjective judgment in the choice process. Originally proposed by Hodkinson, Sparkes and Hodkinson (1996) the theory of pragmatic rationality argues that choice is a ‘rational process that is constrained by a realistic perception of opportunities and shaped by individual personality’ (Payne 2002:13). Hemsley-Brown (1999) has endorsed this theory through her study in which she found that while pupils often gave utilitarian reasons for making choices, these were usually filtered through layers of ‘preconceptions’ emanating from influences of family background, culture and life history. This recognises that choice, while not strictly rational in the sense that it is based upon vigilant information collection, it is rational in that it occurs after some degree of search for supporting information (Foskett and Hemsley-Brown, 2001). This type of ‘rationality’ is seen in terms of promoting self interest and utilizing a base of information and life experience to arrive at decisions.  

Choice is clearly both complex as a process, and multi-factorial in terms of the range of influences that bear upon that choice. The model of choice developed by Foskett and Hemsley-Brown (2001) (Figure 1) seeks to bring together the relevant elements of the three groups of models described above into a single integrated model to show this complexity, drawing on existing research evidence about choice at all key transition points within the education and training system. The model as developed and adapted here seeks to conceptualise and represent choice, but does so with the clear provisos that:

a) Choice is not a ‘rational action’ (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992:40) in the sense of a systematic weighing up of all facts that enables the individual to make one clear unambiguous decision. The model represents a dynamic system in which all of the elements exist and all of the processes are occurring on a continuous basis. Hence the individual chooser is continuously subjected to each of the influencing elements and processes, and the psychological processes supporting choice are also continuously in operation. ‘Choice’ is therefore simply an expression of the preference that exists at a particular moment, and is subject to change and modification on any timescale. In a world of rapid and wide ranging change, young people are forced to respond to changing and contradictory information; their decision making process is therefore likely to be more volatile and consist of reflexive responses to experience.  

Figure 1	An Integrated Model of Educational Choice

b) While choice is not ‘rational action’ in a strict sense, it is also not irrational or random. Choices that are made or exercised will reflect some active process by the chooser, but that process will have been based on partial evidence, perception and circumstance rather than any rational, comprehensive and objective search for, and weighing of, evidence. 

c) The role of perception and individuality must be stressed in understanding the process of choice. There is no deterministic connection at the level of individuals between a particular set of circumstances and a specific outcome or ‘choice’ – one individual may respond to a set of circumstances in a very different way to another individual, in part because of their different personalities and personal histories. However, at the level of larger groups or populations, such individuality may aggregate up to patterns that reflect the probability of particular ‘choices’ under prescribed circumstances.

The professionals interviewed in this study reveal a universal commitment to post-16 education and training, with a preference for academic post-16 pathways and an orientation towards university education as the predominant perspective. However, there are differences in the attitudes and preferences to post –16 education and training and these translate into schools adopting different strategies and educational interventions to support young people in their decision making about post-16 education and training. This section examines the organisation, structures and cultural aspects of the school, and how head teachers, teachers, and career teachers translate these into educational interventions related to post-16 education and training. The attitudes and preferences of educational professionals inevitably produce different structures and curricula activities.  Educational practitioners acknowledge sources of tension between the values of the educational aspirations of the school and the cultural experiences and perceptions of some young people.  Although there exists broad support for the government’s aims to increase participation in post-16 education and training in all the schools surveyed, the attitudes and preferences of individual schools are textured and broadly reflect the cultural contexts and situation of individual schools.  

Despite the general feeling of indifference expressed by pupils about the role of their head teachers in the post 16 choice and decision processes, it was clear from the data that the different schools that took part in the research could be grouped into four broad categories. The categories are not discrete entities but represent a quadrant of school strategic orientations at whose extremes can be identified typical characteristics that distinguish them from others. However, the styles can also be seen as representing a ‘field of forces’ interacting with each other at all points within the field to differing degrees, with the centre representing an exact balance of the influence of the different styles. The four strategic orientations are shown in Figure 2 below followed by a brief description of each type using illustrative quotations from the interviews and focus groups. 

Figure 2: Quadrant of School Strategic Orientation

School

Student 

Function

 Policy

School

1. School/Image orientation  
Schools with an school/image orientation tended to be schools with sixth forms in high SES localities with a strong academic tradition and a focus on university entrance. In these schools, success is measured by the quality of A-level passes, often displayed at accessible points in the school. In one such school, the names of pupils who have progressed to Oxford and Cambridge since 1974 are displayed on two large notice boards just as one enters the main reception area of the school. The essence of this school is clear – it is a school which expects the highest possible academic standards and which prides itself in its pupils progressing to enter leading universities. What was interesting about this school was the convergence of expectations and perceptions between teachers, the head teacher, and pupils. The head teacher summed up the aims of her school this way: 

The school expects all its students to go to university and we always have a large percentage doing law, medicine, engineering and dentistry in some of our best universities. So this has ceased to be a priority for us. What drives us at this school is the idea of excelling in everything we do. Although there is ongoing debate among pupils and parents about the Oxbridge focus and the two boards outside, we will only stop the practice when the boards have no more space to write more names.

Pupils in this school echoed similar sentiments while emphasizing the very academic nature of their school.

The option of leaving school at 15 does not exist in this school. It is an unsaid expectation that we proceed to sixth form. We are one happy family here and we are all confident that the school will do their best to achieve success. This year everyone is coming back. There is no point going elsewhere. Our concern is to do well and we are hated in this whole town for that.

Such schools offer very few alternatives to pupils at 16 and their curricula are often entirely academic. Lately, responses to learners’ needs have been addressed through consortia arrangements with other providers, but the numbers of pupils opting for these subjects remains very low. School/Image focused institutions channel choice very narrowly through guaranteeing academic success essential for university careers.

In summary these ‘school/image-focused’ organisations have a strong culture or ethos focused on high academic achievement that permeates all its activity. It may be that the parents and students share this goal, but it is not in any sense negotiated. A typical school in this category draws from a ‘catchment’ of parents and pupils of high socio-economic status, and has its own sixth form. There is an expectation that school includes years twelve and thirteen, and students will continue at the school post-16. In such a school there are minimal connections with mediating agencies or school inputs that provide information, advice or guidance on options other than staying on at the school. The students acknowledge and largely accept that the school has expectations of them to stay on in the sixth form and recognize that their school’s advice is not impartial. These schools have high participation rates post-16 and large numbers of students looking towards higher education.

2. Student-centered orientation
Schools driven by pupils’ needs and post 16 markets tend to place great emphasis on ‘taking pupils along the lines of their natural disposition’. In such schools, there was usually a very emphatic denial of the fact that the purposes of the school were more paramount than those of its pupils. Reacting to the question about whether the needs of the school superseded those of pupils in aspects of post 16 educational choice, many of the staff in these schools were very assertive in their denials and emphasised the unethical nature of such practice. The nature of response to this question, however, varied between schools, from strong denial by staff in schools in low SES localities, and particularly those with no sixth form, to mild and almost apologetic denial from staff in high SES schools.  A typical response reflecting the school’s sensitivity towards post 16 market diversity came from the head teacher of a Shire county low SES school with rising participation:

In terms of career pathways, I don’t think that (the school pushes its agenda ahead of pupils’ wishes). We try to provide the best information and the best support for the pupils to achieve their ambitions and aspirations. We obviously will guide them…We don’t particularly gain one or the other from the ultimate destinations that they pursue. Therefore it’s not particularly in our interest to push them in a particular direction. There isn’t any great reward or kudos for the school to actually push them in a particular direction.

However, it was sometimes felt that smaller schools with a limited curriculum could be perceived by pupils as exerting an influence towards specific choices.

The comment could arise with regard to option choices because the pupils may not understand the complexities of the option choices, and that being a small school, we can only run a certain number of courses and it is not possible to provide for every individual combination 

Some staff felt that the situation had changed over the years as a result of changes in funding policies. While in the past funding was directly related to numbers of pupils enrolled, the formula today allows not only for retention but for outcome as well. Thus schools no longer see it vitally important to ‘push’ pupils into enrolling at all costs. The head of careers in a school with sixth form in a low SES locality and with rising participation had this to say:
 
Seven to ten years ago, when the funding depended on the number of bums on seats, we had no choice other than to actively influence pupils to remain in the school. But with changes in funding, we have nothing not much to benefit. The head has a business to run and I feel for him, but we don’t benefit a thing recruiting pupils who will drop out because they have not been matched to their abilities.

Staff in schools with no sixth form emphasized the need for making information as widely available to pupils as possible, and some of these schools contributed towards meeting the search costs by bussing pupils to open days/evenings at post 16 provider institutions. In addition, pupils in these schools also reported much more positive support and guidance from their teachers and careers guidance staff during their decision times. Such schools, therefore, appear to have greater market sensitivity and operate more on the basis of the needs of their pupils. Consequently, they are seen, not just by the pupils, but by parents as well, as ‘emphasizing all choices equally’. In the parental questionnaire, the highest percentage of parents identifying that schools stressed all post-16 choices equally came from those in low SES environments. 

This second category of school orientation can be described as ‘student-centred’. Typically these schools do not have their own sixth form and are not perceived to promote any option other than some form of post-16 education and training. There are many mediating agencies, and students are exposed to a rich network of information, guidance and advice from diverse sources. These students report a wide range of events and activities introduced by the school to support the students in their decision-making. There would appear to be a structured whole-school commitment to supporting students in their decisions about post-16 pathways. The students perceive the school as impartial and focused on what is best for them as an individual. Students in these schools were very positive about their school and the learning activities, advice, guidance and support that is provided.

3. Functional/ administrative focused schools
In functional/administrative focused schools there is less mention of the strategic focus of the institution, with greater emphasis placed on day-to-day operational management, procedures, and the roles of specific groups or individuals. Frequently interviewees in such schools indicated that ‘I don’t deal with that aspect of the school and would find it inappropriate to make a meaningful comment on the issue” (Head of Year 11 in a school with no sixth form in a high SES locality). Apart from suggesting a streamlined management focus, such comments also imply that management in these schools is highly regimented and that only those directly dealing with certain aspects were qualified to comment on identified subjects. Thus such schools tended to have careers support and advice demarcated through a small number of pathways such as PSHE lessons or an interview conducted through the Connexions Service. Pupils in these schools tended to perceive their support coming from one or two key individual teachers or career advisers linked to the school. Invariably, the careers service enjoys a very high profile and is highly valued by the pupils. Conversely, pupils do not consider anyone else in the school as being particularly significant in their choices and decision making. In such schools, teachers, head teachers and class tutors were often seen as unimportant in influencing pupils post-16 decisions.

These schools generally have no sixth form and are more likely to be in low SES and metropolitan areas. Their strength lies in the utilisation of external mediating agencies, such as incorporating colleges’ marketing activities and materials into the corpus of post 16 agendas. Despite the low key involvement of the school, such schools are often seen as the most impartial when it comes to influencing pupils’ decisions and choices. 

To summarize the third category, described as ‘functional/administrative’, the task of careers related advice and support are demarcated through a small number of pathways, such as PSHE lessons or an interview conducted through the Connexions service. Students in these schools perceive their support coming from one or two key individual teachers or advisors linked to the school. The Connexions service has a high profile and is subject to high expectations on the part of the students. Whether or not students have realistic expectations of the Connexions service is open to question, but what was clear was that the service did not meet the high expectations of students in these schools. In these schools, supporting decision making about post-16 does not appear to be a high priority, and it appears almost as if it has contracted out the responsibility of particular functional roles of selected staff. Teaching staff, other than specialist careers staff, were not reported by students to have influenced their decision-making. These schools generally do not have a sixth form and are more likely to be in low SES and metropolitan areas. External mediating agencies, such as the marketing activities of colleges, were more likely to have an impact on student decision-making than the activities of the school. It is in these schools, where the approach to post-16 was more routine and low key, that students were most vociferous in their recommendations for improving the school’s support with their post-16 decision-making.  

4. Strategic/policy orientation
These schools were predominantly student centred in their primary orientation, and policy orientation was very much a secondary focus for the school.  However such schools shared the following characteristics.

Firstly, head teachers and staff tended to focus on policy issues related to issues they were asked to respond to in interview. Key policy aspects that were constantly referred to and that were considered as having an impact on pupils’ post 16 choice and decisions included the proposed 14-19 curriculum, Key Stage 3 testing, and a range of initiatives such as the ‘Aim Higher’ and ‘Pathfinder’ programmes.

Secondly, and related to the issues of the 14-19 curriculum, school staff who talked about this new initiative raised issues of resources and what some referred to as ‘prolonging the agony of those not naturally disposed to further study beyond the compulsory age’ (head teacher of a school without sixth form in a low SES locality). In some cases, it was not clear how the curriculum was to be organised and what comparative emphasis was to be placed on traditional academic subjects and vocational courses. Head teachers remain sceptical about the prospects of pupils who take vocational subjects and consider that universities continue to place a premium on academic subjects in their recruitment and enrolment practices:
Yes we can offer more vocational subjects beyond 16. But post 16 education has been traditionally seen as a stepping stone towards university and universities have to change many of their traditions and consider the value of vocationals on an equal footing as academic subjects.

Thus staff in schools do not see the 14-19 curriculum as adequately bridging the gap of inequities abounding in the HE sector, and pupils are seen as being unequally educated for an unequal system. 

Thirdly, testing at Key Stage 3 was an issue that received strong negative comments from a number of staff. It appears that staff in schools are in favour of testing at key transition stages such as the end of Key Stages 2 and 4, and less happy with testing at non transition stages such as the end of Key Stage 3. In particular, national tests at the end of Year 9 are seen as increasing emotional stress among both pupils and staff, as well as ‘eating into valuable teaching time’. Pupils were in agreement, expressing sentiments such as ‘we end up knowing more about how to pass tests than knowing the actual subject matter’. Teachers and head teachers appear to be more in favour of continuous assessment at non transition stages. Thus pupils are seen as being adversely affected by the strenuous testing regime in schools and that the cognitive gains accrued from such testing are seen as lower as those likely to be gained if schools were left with more time to teach their subjects. Ultimately, post 16 choices are therefore being determined on the basis of ‘false cognitive criteria’ as pupils tend to continue with subjects they have good grades in.

Fourthly, staff who talked of Pathfinder and Aim Higher programmes appeared to be suggesting that such programmes were already addressing issues of post 16 choices in direct and indirect ways. The main concern was the fact that these programmes, despite their stated intention to target pupils at risk of leaving school at 16, tended to deliver more benefits to those who were otherwise likely to move on to further education or training post 16.
The Pathfinder programme is aimed specifically at those pupils who find it difficult to focus in school and who, without sufficient guidance would drop out and create wastage to the system. Experience has shown that students who have the natural ability respond to these initiatives more than those who really need them 
(Head of Year 11 in a school with no sixth form in a low SES locality)

There is thus a danger that some of these national or regional initiatives aimed at providing support to the vulnerable segments amongst pupils in schools may not be meeting their intended goals. The disadvantaged in schools continue to suffer the burden of inequality. Although this research did not specifically focus on these programmes, it appears that despite their goals, educational institutions continue to provide unequal experiences to learners whose ultimate destinations serve to underline the inequities characterising schools as microcosms of society. 

Conclusion
The orientations identified above emerge from the analysis of the responses during one to one interviews and focus groups. The orientations do not represent types of people or schools, nor are they labels that suggest fixed qualities or absolutes that determine the influence of, and actions by, the schools. The relationships between the individuals, the institutions and the particularities of the social and economic context are more fluid and open to change than would be suggested by simple taxonomies of schooling.  In social theory terms such an approach is consistent with the structuration theory of Giddens (1993). The discussion illustrates how individuals that make up the community of the schools interact with the social, economic and political context of the school and tend to produce different types of responses and emphasis in their approach to post-16 education and training pathways. These responses are open to change - they reflect the relationships between the community of staff and students of the school within a particular cultural, market, economic and geographic situation.  Indeed, the teachers interviewed openly report different approaches to post-16 information, advice and guidance that they had experienced and participated in as members of staff in other schools. The discussion teased out some key themes and points of emphasis provided by individuals as they respond to the circumstances of their school. The themes that emerge include: a focus on the needs of individual students; an orientation to the reputation, ethos and tradition of the particular school; an awareness of, and sensitivity to, the external policy environment and strategic influences on schooling; and, finally, a more managerial focus on the internal functions, roles and systems within the school.  Clearly, all schools are concerned with all of these issues.  The research conducted here suggests some schools are experiencing push and pull effects that locate the organisation closer to one or more of these particular orientations. These, in turn, create different impacts by schools on student decisions to participate in post-16 education and training.  

Student centred schools, without their own sixth form, would appear to be most likely to provide timely, impartial information, advice and guidance to their students.  More significantly, student oriented schools were also more likely to provide students with a rich experiential dimension to support careers and college decision making. These schools provided their students with more direct experience of post-school options rather than simply furnished them with information.  The research here identifies a continuum from secondary information towards direct experience that has parallels with the distinction that Ball and Vincent (1998) and Archer (2003) make between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ information that impacts on student choice.  A rich network of information and experience that is tailored to the individual needs of students is required to support their decision making process.  This study has shown that student choice is tempered by a world of rapid change, uncertainty and risk. What is needed are educational responses that are sensitive to the reflexive way in which students make their decisions and how they operate when faced with complex choices in the transition from compulsory schooling to learning and earning. 

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Note

This paper reports some of the methodological issues and emerging findings from the research project “The Influence of the School in the Decision to Participate in Learning Post-16”, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) from the research team based at the School of Education, University of Southampton. The Project is funded for the period January 2003-February 2004, and the final report will be published in Spring 2004. The ideas and comments presented here do not necessarily represent the final conclusions of the Project, but are emerging ideas presented for discussion and comment.

Correspondence

Professor Nick Foskett, School of Education, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK  (E-mail nhf@soton.ac.uk)