Journal Article

I (don't) need to know that I can make it. Socioeconomic differences in the link between students' academic self-efficacy and their educational aspirations and decisions

Jansen, Max P., Garritzmann, Susanne, Roßteutscher, Sigrid, Becker, Birgit, Salikutluk, Zerrin

2024

Overview

Students from a high socioeconomic background show relatively homogeneous, high levels of educational attainment, whereas students with a low socioeconomic origin display a large variability in their educational careers. In this paper, we examine whether the varying degrees of students' academic self-efficacy can contribute to an explanation of this variation. Focusing on Germany's highly stratified educational system, we utilized the CILS4EU dataset to analyse the association between the academic self-efficacy of students from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds in 9th grade and their later educational aspirations and transitions. Our results show that students from non-academic families are much more likely to (a) aspire to an Abitur, (b) transition to upper secondary school, and (c) enter tertiary education if they exhibit a high level of academic self-efficacy. In contrast, academic self-efficacy shows no link to the educational aspirations and decisions of students who have at least one parent with an academic certificate. Our research is guided by the question 'to what extent do adolescents' educational and political efficacy beliefs influence their later educational and political behaviour?' Thus, the project seeks to examine what happens when adolescents of a disadvantaged (vs. advantaged) group (operationalized by socio-economic status and immigrant origin) experience success (vs. failure) in the education system: How are their personal, group, and system efficacy beliefs shaped by those experiences? As part of this, we utilize the CILS4EU data to follow students' educational pathways from age 14 to age 22 and analyse socioeconomic differences in the link between students' academic self-efficacy and their educational aspirations and decisions.

• Publisher: Cogent,Taylor & Francis Ltd,Taylor & Francis Group
• Subject: Academic Aspiration / Academic self-efficacy / Aspiration / Education Policy and Politics / Education-Social Sciences / educational aspirations / Educational Attainment / educational decisions / educational inequality / Reza Gholami, University of Birmingham, UK / Self Efficacy / Socioeconomic Background / Sociology of Education / Students / transition to tertiary education / transition to upper secondary education