Description
This study was intended to identify and examine approaches employed by school programs, schools, and school leaders that purposefully create conditions and practices that promote student aspirations. This investigation was based on growing evidence that students’ evolving ability to express who and what they want to become may lead them to take ownership of their learning which, in turn, may lead them to higher levels of academic achievement. The researcher examined an urban school’s initiative focused on creating the conditions that build students’ aspirations. A phenomenological approach was employed to understand the perspectives directly from those who experienced what happened over a 2-year period that may have contributed to creating the conditions necessary to support students’ aspirations. This study found that schools can intentionally formalize processes and practices, and take deliberate actions to create and modify conditions that positively impact students’ aspirations. Further, advancing and sustaining these conditions requires focused actions to make the aspirations work visible to all stakeholders. Intentional activities characterized as necessary actions to modify and create conditions that support students’ aspirations appeared from this study.
