Commentary: Mind the gap — Divergent expectations about university degrees among youth could have domino effect

Expectations remain high for a university degree in Singapore.

The Youth Survey 2023 conducted by TODAY finds that many youth (76 per cent) expect their (future) children to have a degree and believe that a degree remains necessary to achieve success (69 per cent).

However, what is concerning is the data that also shows an appreciable gap in expectations between class groups:

Youth who reside in private housing more likely expect their future children to have a degree (82 per cent) than youth in public housing (75 per cent).

The difference becomes even larger with respect to household income. Youth who report a household income of at least S$20,000 are more likely (95 per cent) than youth with household income under S$20,000 to expect their future children to have a degree (76 per cent) — a difference of 19 percentage points. 

What might explain this class gap in expectations? I offer three reasons:

First, unequal resources.

Wealthier parents can do more for their children, including to dream bigger on their behalf.

In her book Unequal Childhoods, University of Pennsylvania sociologist Annette Lareau observes that wealthy parents are better able to channel strategic resources, such as enrichment classes, that allow their children a leg up on the future.

By contrast, less well-off parents have to rely more on the national system, including schools and teachers, to make up for the shortfall in home resources.

ON AUTOPILOT

Second, the persistence of transgenerational family scripts.

The concept of “normal biography” by pedagogy scholar Manuela Du Bois-Reymond provides an useful lens for understanding what this means.

She refers to “normal biographies” as linear, anticipated, and predictable pathways, marked by unreflexive transitions — often gender- and class-specific — that are rooted in established life worlds. These are driven by an absence of decisions, where a journey that begins on separate paths for different groups traverses mechanically into the future.

In other words, the groups are on autopilot, heading towards destinations neither are surprised by.

As such, their definition of what is “normal” differs considerably: Wealthier parents expect their children to go on to university, which they see as only natural. The decision to go to university is practically a non-decision. To not go is inconceivable. Less privileged families have horizons that are more limiting. For them, certain possibilities are unthinkable, and social class can spell social closure.

In their jobs, groups such as blue-collar workers define “success” differently, calling attention to seniority, know-how, and danger faced at work. They also draw strength from therapeutic narratives, citing the respectability of a job well done, and the warmth and support of family members.

In conversations, I’ve heard similar stories that suggest an acceptance of the status quo: A child qualifies for university; and the parents say: “Why university when polytechnic is good enough?”

Or a boy who makes it to a more “prestigious” school such as Raffles Institution; and his parents say: “But we are not them.”

CLASS AS CONDITIONING

Third, separate milieus mean that each class has their respective culture with attendant codes that are unfamiliar to other groups.

In turn, the bifurcation of everyday life and experiences includes a socialisation process that bequeaths on each class a notion of what is possible. In other words, class has a conditioning effect on expectations and behaviours.

Some scholars believe that the underprivileged have become accustomed to facing barriers in life — what they term “learned helplessness”. Wealthy families, by contrast, inhabit biographies of choice, and see the future as expansive and filled with possibility.

But why is it important to close the gap in expectations?

First, research finds that when parents expect less for their children, this translates into their children imbibing lower aspirations for themselves.

A plethora of studies confirm that parental expectations are key to children's academic success. When parents hold high expectations, children receive higher grades and persist longer in school.

High parental expectations also develop social resilience in children — in fact, they can even buffer the influence of low teacher expectations on student achievement.

Second, a university education remains very important in today’s knowledge economy, which means that those without a degree can expect to face more challenges.

Today, employers continue to place a premium on degrees as signalling the new “skill set” that has become important in the wake of a shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. In this new economy, demand for skills in areas such as digitalisation, automation (robotics), and artificial intelligence, has widened the wage gap between high-skilled and low-skilled labour in many industries.

Third, if wealthier parents continue to expect more and less wealthy parents less, over time it grows a class gap in expectations and outcomes at the societal level, which snowballs into a potential loss of social cohesion on a national scale.

Unequal expectations reinforce class rigidity into the next generation by way of unequal and divergent pathways that connect past, present, and future. What begins as unequal expectations can eventually result in unequal outcomes, accentuate differences between groups, and give rise to a society of “us versus them”.

CLOSING THE GAP

But how might we close this gap in expectations?

One strategy would be to give disadvantaged youth a better start in life by closing material gaps — providing them with financial support, and access to good learning environments.

An equally important alternative is to mobilise the power of social relationships, specifically by promoting social mixing between class groups. 

Research tells us that social mixing is especially valuable for disadvantaged groups, as contact with more privileged groups can facilitate access to important resources.

A simple example is the mentoring that occurs in the context of voluntary tutoring. Academic skills are being transmitted, but so are other forms of guidance, such as developing in children a sense of efficacy and self-belief.

Within the family, a parent’s belief towards their children can motivate them to dream up bright futures for themselves.

Outside the family, mentors can likewise positively influence the milieus and social worlds that the less well-off have grown accustomed to. Through social mixing, they empower disadvantaged youth to re-imagine their normal biographies as biographies of path-disrupting possibility.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Vincent Chua is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. His research centres on social networks, education, race, meritocracy, and national formation.