Student Aspirations: Some Misconceptions

This book is perhaps the first to investigate through a detailed empirical study which personal and social background variables, apart from the performance, are responsible for modifying the level of aspirations of the school-going students. The general assumptions are that the levels of aspiration of urban students are higher than those of rural students and that boys? aspirations are higher than those of girls and that the non-scheduled castes have higher aspirations than those of low risk takers and that internal locus-oriented students are presumed to have higher aspirations than those of external locus-oriented students. The author?s research reveals that about assumptions are not totally true. None of the demographic variables shows any significant effect on the level of aspiration. It appears that students coming from rural sectors, students of weaker sex and students of underprivileged society which have remained suppressed for a long time now have a stronger need to aspire and achieve more than their counterparts. However, risk taking is found to have significant effect on the level of aspiration. In this case it appears that risk taking criterion helps a student to achieve his level of aspiration effectively. The author?s recommendation is that the agents of socialization should plan to reinforce the process of socialization by building up necessary level of aspiration that can be adequately related to individual ability to perform irrespective of the background of the individual. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the understanding of the role of certain factors influencing level of aspiration of students in Indian setting which is undergoing rapid social and technological change.