From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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154 From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School I think they should do it like he should tell you what’s on this week and if you are interested in that go, if you are not just go and study. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake) Teacher Expectations and Guidance Provision Research has shown the nature of guidance provided can reflect the expected pathways to be taken by young people, with higher education being seen as the ‘automatic’ route for those attending middle-class schools (see, for example, McDonough, 1997, on the US context). Research on Irish young people by McCoy and Byrne (2011) highlights how within some disadvantaged school contexts, guidance can be more focussed on specific post-school options, such as further education, which are considered more ‘appropriate’ and require fewer ‘points’ in the Leaving Certificate exam (McCoy and Byrne, 2011). In the current study, some students from working-class schools similarly felt that their guidance counsellor had low expectations of them, reporting that they felt they were capable of much more in terms of post-school education and employment opportunities. In Barrack Street, instead of spending too much time on the CAO application process, many students felt that guidance counsellors overemphasised PLC courses and, as a result, they felt discouraged from applying for third-level courses: For people who want to go onto college like they [are] just shoving PLC courses down your neck. Like there’s nothing wrong with PLC courses and all but if you have your heart set on college like and someone’s telling you PLC courses all the time and telling you that you won’t get into college like. Actually saying you are not going to get into college, don’t bother trying like or anything like. …That’s why I don’t even talk to her [guidance counsellor] about college, I just do it myself now. (Barrack Street, girls’ school, working-class intake) The same group of students felt that their guidance counsellor ‘put them down’ and felt that she was surprised to see so many of them applying to go to college through the CAO process. They felt that everyone should be given ‘an equal chance’ and her role should have been to encourage them:
Guidance and Decision-Making in Sixth Year 155 I can’t even talk to my guidance counsellor. Just, she just puts me off every time I go to her like so I’ll do it myself. And she shouldn’t be doing that, she should be encouraging you. Like when we were doing the CAO she was like ‘this is a joke I haven’t seen this many people filling out CAOs in all my life’… you know … in the room. Basically putting you down like. … There was 20 of us or something and she was like ‘wow this has never been like this and all’. As if to say to people like ‘what are you doing this for?’. Like she should give everyone an equal chance like, whether you are able for it or not like. If they want to do it, let them like. (Barrack Street, girls’ school, working-class intake) These comments are particularly relevant in light of the working-class profile of Barrack Street school and raise an important issue around teacher and guidance counsellor expectations and the lack of information on, and attention given to, higher education entry in working-class schools more generally (see McCoy et al., 2010). Findings also show that a mismatch of expectations between students and staff existed in other schools. In Argyle Street, a socially mixed school, for example, some students felt that their guidance counsellor discouraged them from applying for what they wanted and argued that they should be ‘realistic’ about their course choices: But the career guidance counsellor always puts us down as well, like she’ll tell us … She doesn’t even say what if to me like, she says ‘I don’t think, you have to be realistic [name of student]’, I go ‘what do you mean realistic that’s what I want, I’ll work for them points if that’s what I want to do’. ‘Ah but you have to be realistic why don’t you go for this’, I don’t want to go for that like you know what I mean, because what I want to do is not in a PLC course, you know what I mean. (Argyle Street, coed, socially mixed intake) This echoes McCoy et al.’s (2010) finding that students attending the same school may be subject to very different expectations from staff, depending on their prior achievement.
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The Economic and Social Research In
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FROM LEAVING CERTIFICATE TO LEAVING
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CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures
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Contents vii 5.3.3 Always Wanted to
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x From Leaving Certificate to Leavi
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xii From Leaving Certificate to Lea
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction Curr
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Executive Summary xvii centrate on
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Executive Summary xix to higher edu
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Executive Summary xxi Such a focus
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2 From Leaving Certificate to Leavi
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10 From Leaving Certificate to Leav
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Chapter Two CURRICULUM, TEACHING AN
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Chapter Four LEAVING CERTIFICATE EX
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100 From Leaving Certificate to Lea
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REFERENCES Airasian, P.W. and Madau
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References 241 Grodsky, E., Warren,
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References 243 Mickelson, R.A. (199
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References 245 Smyth, E. and Calver
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Current debates about senior cycle
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