| Abstract [eng] |
The aim of this paper was to find out whether larger schools have better non-cognitive outcomes and whether the transfer of children from a rural school would increase outcomes (on a personal level) and future expectations. Four hypotheses were tested: 1) A student who is better embedded in the school community (higher participation and identification rates) will have higher expectations for the future; 2) Pupils in a very small rural school will have lower expectations than pupils in a larger school; 3) Participation and identification will be higher in a larger school than in a very small school; 4) Pupils transferred to a larger school will have higher expectations about their further education and their future after some time than they had in the very small school. Qualitative methods were used to investigate non-cognitive aspects. The same pupils in grades 5-8 were studied for almost a year: semi-structured interviews were taken from them while they were still studying in a rural school, and less than a year later the same pupils were interviewed again in a new large school in a big city, and the responses were compared. Interviews were also taken from the "old-timers" of the larger urban school - pupils who have been there longer. Important finding in phase one of the interviews is that expectations for the future are strongly shaped by the example set by family and relatives, as well as by parental involvement in the child's education. When children talk about their plans, they almost identically echo their family's choices. Phase 2 shows that children's access to extracurricular activities has improved, with increased engagement and workload, but the aspects that need more time - motivation to continue their education and expectations for their future careers - have not changed. Children also receive less individual attention from teachers and the aspects related to being in a group - identification with the community, trust, number of close teachers - have decreased. Comparing the responses of students from rural and urban schools, students from urban schools are more active, more involved in school activities, more likely to take initiatives and contribute to decision-making. Students in the urban school are more articulate about why it is important for them to be part of the community, but the strength of the community itself is rated lower than in the rural school. Pupils have higher expectations for their future, and some of the pupils' answers clearly indicate a link between activism, expectations and what they expect from school. In general, the answers of school pupils paint a picture of a more confident, ambitious pupil. Disruption effects have been observed among relocated pupils: identification with the community, trust, number of close teachers have decreased as well as marks for some pupils. Economic theories and empirical data from research on school consolidations indicate that 1) these effects are temporary and should diminish over time; 2) children who move to a new school are more affected. More data is needed to test whether the first assumption is also true - one year is an insufficient time frame. Pupils from a bigger school have higher aspirations for the future. Theory says that collective expectations should influence expectations of the individual. This assumption predicts that over time expectations of the relocated students should increase. However, it is not entirely clear how long it will take for expectations to change, how it will change, and most importantly, what other conditions are needed to change expectations? For example, what is the impact of a child's socio-economic status? One possible avenue for further research could be on how to change already formed and established expectations, the extent to which schools can counterbalance the influence of the family, and how collective expectations work. It is important that further research focuses on SES control. |
