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

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
(Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses); only a small number of young
people planned to enter the labour market immediately upon leaving
school. In keeping with actual patterns of higher education entry (McCoy
et al., 2010), there is a clear social gradient in the percentage who intend
to go on to higher education, with significantly higher rates of intended
participation among those from professional or farming backgrounds.
Over and above the effect of individual social background, young people
who attend working-class schools are less much likely to plan to go to
higher education than those in mixed or middle-class schools, even controlling
for prior achievement and other factors. Gender patterns are also
evident with females twice as likely to plan to go on to higher education
as males from similar backgrounds. The patterns in relation to other
forms of post-school education are highly gendered too, with young men
planning on entering apprenticeships and young women planning to do
PLC courses.
Chapter One outlined potential explanations for class differences in
higher education entry, contrasting theories which focus on differential
access to cultural, social and financial resources (social reproduction
theory; see, for example, Bourdieu, 1984) with theories which look at
how young people assess the relative costs and benefits of the different
post-school options (rational action theory; see, for example, Erikson and
Jonsson, 1996). Both sets of theories provide insights to our findings but
our study points to a number of factors which are not always considered
within these frameworks, namely, the role of the school, the kinds of information
and advice available to students, and students’ own preferences
and plans.
The study findings clearly show that sixth year students differ in the
cultural and social resources necessary to support the transition to college,
in keeping with social reproduction theory (see Bourdieu, 1984).
Students in the more middle-class schools draw on the insider knowledge
of siblings and other family members in finding out about colleges
and courses. In contrast, working-class students, whose families have no
history of higher education entry, are more reliant on advice from school
personnel and on their friends in making a decision. However, some of
these students reported that staff, including guidance counsellors, had