Abstract:
The research investigates family and community factors that encourage Tasmanian rural students to continue with education/training beyond the compulsory years of schooling. Rural post-compulsory education participation has attracted research interest for decades. The continuing under-representation of the rural population in higher education and the fact that the degree of rurality of a region still impacts on the post-compulsory educational aspirations of its residents, so on participation, remain as challenges. Previous research indicates the importance of family and community factors. The research reported here utilises the concept of social capital developed by Bourdieu (1986) and used in educational research by Coleman (1988). Using qualitative methods and a grounded theory approach, several indicators of the level of social capital held by rural students, their families and local communities are examined to determine their usefulness in understanding variations in the nature, amount and quality of encouragement to pursue educational aspirations these students receive. Preliminary findings suggest the students sampled formed into four natural categories based on whether or not they had a clear goal for their future/career, extent of their consultation with others about their career options/choice, extent of encouragement received from others and whether or not their post-Year 10 path had been a smooth one.