The concept of educational aspirations

Abstract

Educational aspirations have been studied intensively by diff erent disciplines to explain educational disparities, including psychological, social-psychological, sociological and economic perspectives (Domina et al. 2011; Rojewski 2005). Yet, despite the frequent use of the term ‘educational aspirations’, which is generally used to refer to the educational goals students set for themselves, there is no single and universally accepted definition or common agreement as to what the term means (Lent et al. 1994; Quaglia and Cobb 1996; Rojewski 2005). A variety of terms like plans, decisions or preferences are commonly used – sometimes interchangeably – as they are all essentially viewed as goal terms that primarily differ along dimensions such as the degree of specifi city and proximity to the choice implementation (Lent et al. 1994; Rojewski 2005).