Negotiating and contesting ‘success’: discourses of aspiration in a UK secondary school

Abstract

The need to ‘raise aspirations’ among young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds has been prominent in UK policy debates over the last decade. This paper examines how this discourse is negotiated and contested by teachers and pupils in a Scottish secondary school. Interviews, group discussions and observations were analysed by drawing on Foucauldian discourse analysis. The analysis exposes contradictions and silences inherent in dominant discourses of aspiration, most notably the tension between the promise and the impossibility of ‘success’ for all. It is argued that attempts to reconcile this tension by calling on young people to maximise individual ‘potential’ through attitude change silence the social construction of ‘success’ and ‘failure’. The paper concludes with suggesting ways in which schools could embrace the contradictions underpinning dominant ‘raising aspiration’ discourses and adopt a more critical-sociological approach in working with young people.

Keywords:

• aspirations
• success
• young people
• discourse
• education policy
• Foucault

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Matthew Clarke, Stephen Parker, Morgan White and the two anonymous referees for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In 2010, the Minister for Universities and Skills, David Willetts, announced that the funding for Aim Higher would cease in 2011. Efforts of ‘raising aspirations’ would continue through access agreements and a national scholarship programme (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2010). Similarly, the Coalition government did not renew funding for the Inspiring Communities and expressed the hope that the projects would be continued through ‘local partners’ (Communities and Local Government, 2011).

2. Several commentators have pointed out that over the course of his life, Foucault’s focus shifted from a concern with historical constellations of knowledge to disciplinary practices and finally to the ways in which individuals govern themselves (see Downing, 2008; Kendall & Wickham, 1999; Mills, 2004); this turn to the subject can be seen as a reaction to the criticism a neglecting individual agency and resistance (Fraser, 1989; Hoy, 1986; McNay, 1994).

3. This might reflect public assumptions that young people adopt celebrities as inadequate role models (see Allen & Mendick, 2013).

4. S2 stands for the second year in Scottish secondary schools.

5. Pseudonyms are used throughout this paper.

6. Scottish school leaving qualification. Entry to higher education requires completion of several ‘Highers’.