Abstract
Improved education enhances life chances. Yet very few of those who have been in the care of the State proceed to higher education (HE). In Australia, care leavers are a subset of three demographics noted by the Bradley Review (2008) as continuing to be under-represented in HE: those from low socio-economic status (SES), rural, and Indigenous students. However, little is known specifically about care leavers in HE.
In this chapter, we report on a small pilot project conducted recently in South Australia. For the project, we consulted with ten young care leavers, who told us about their experience with education and the encouragement they received, if any, to proceed onto HE. What we found was that most young people were neither expected nor encouraged to achieve academically.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the contributions and support of the ten young people who shared their time and expertize. We also thank the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide for the financial support to undertake the project.
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Michell, D., Scalzi, C. (2016). I Want to Be Someone, I Want to Make a Difference: Young Care Leavers Preparing for the Future in South Australia. In: Mendes, P., Snow, P. (eds) Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55639-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55639-4_6
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