RESEARCH
Research questions
The following questions will be addressed in this research:
- What is the nature of pupils’ educational aspirations at three transitional periods of Croatian elementary education?
- How do pupils’ educational aspirations develop over the course of three transitional periods of Croatian elementary education?
- How do new circumstances and requirements posed by the educational system at transitional periods affect pupils’ educational aspirations?
- In what ways and to what extent do pupils’ educational aspirations differ between pupils at different stages of elementary education?
- What are the differences in the patterns of change in pupils’ educational aspirations over three transitional periods of Croatian elementary education?
- In what ways and to what extent do individual, parent, class and school-related factors determine pupils’ educational aspirations at three transitional periods of elementary education?
Methodology
The present project will employ a fully integrated mixed model design, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather necessary data. The decision to apply a mixed model over a mono-method design was made with the belief that a diverse and integrated methodological repertoire is needed in order to adequately and effectively explore the nature, determinants and change of pupils’ educational aspirations at different time periods of elementary education. This choice was also deemed appropriate in order to best present and explore the diversity of perspectives of the relevant actors influencing pupils’ educational aspirations, namely parents and teachers. The qualitative phase of the research will centre on an in-depth exploration of educational aspirations through a series of staged semi-structured interviews conducted over two academic years with participant triads made up of a pupil, his/her parent and teacher. The quantitative phase will consist of the repeated administration of a pupil questionnaire at three different time-points over two academic years. The research will focus on the educational aspirations of pupils from three different age cohorts at three transitional points of Croatian elementary education (the introduction to elementary education: 1st and 2nd grade; transition from class to subject teaching: 4th and 5th grade; phase of completing elementary education prior to the transition to secondary education: 7th and 8th grade). Pupils from the youngest cohort will participate in the qualitative phase of the research only.
Sampling
Pupils from the City of Zagreb elementary schools will participate in this research. Five schools will be purposively selected for participation in the qualitative phase. For the 1st grade cohort, 12 triads consisting of a child, his/her parent and his/her class teacher will participate in the research. For the 4th and 7th grade cohorts, six triads consisting of a child, his/her parents and his/her class teacher and/or homeroom teacher will participate. In the quantitative phase of the research, stratified random sampling will be used for the selection of 20 schools. In each of the twenty participating schools, all 4th and 7th grade pupils will be invited to participate. The same pupils will participate in all three rounds of questionnaire administration (A, B and C).
Data collection time-points
Data collection points in the qualitative and quantitative phase of the research as well as their proposed timing are presented in the following table.
Legend:
QUAL - qualitative phase of the research
QUAN - quantitative phase of the research
T1-T4 - data collection points in the qualitative phase of the research
A, B, C - data collection points in the quantitative phase of the research
Conceptual framework
In this research, large number of determinants of pupils’ educational aspirations will be measured on four levels: pupil level, parent level, class (peers) level and school level. The levels are shown on the figure below. Detailed list of determinants is available here.
