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

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning 39
more likely to be taking foundation or ordinary level than other students.
Their lack of choice may thus, at least in part, be attributable to their
take-up of subject levels at junior cycle.
Among those who reported having some degree of choice, Maths
teachers play a significant role in providing advice on which Maths level
to select, with 69 per cent of the cohort deeming them ‘very important’ or
‘important’ (Figure 2.9). In keeping with the findings of previous research,
informal sources of information, especially parents, are found to be important
in educational decision-making, with mothers deemed somewhat
more important in the process than fathers (McCoy et al., 2006; Smyth et
al., 2007). Formal guidance is seen as playing a less significant role than
the advice of the Maths teacher or parents, with 4 per cent deeming the
guidance counsellor ‘very important’, and 20 per cent ‘important’, in selecting
Maths level. The influence of friends in the decision-making process
is at a similar level to that of the guidance counsellor.
Figure 2.9: Importance of different sources of advice in deciding
Maths level (%‘very important’/’important’)
Maths teacher
Mother
Father
V. important
Important
Guidance Counsellor
Friends
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
%
The reliance on different sources of information varies somewhat by student
characteristics. Parents are an important source of advice across all
groups in terms of gender, social class and prior achievement, a pattern
that was also evident at junior cycle (Smyth et al., 2007). The guidance
counsellor is seen as somewhat more important by male than female students.
Lower-achieving and working-class students were more reliant on