Provides a profile of mothers' and children's educational expectations and whether these change over time.

Summary

The research shows that the educational expectations of parents and children are important factors in predicting children's educational achievements and occupational outcomes. This chapter provides a profile of mothers' and children's educational expectations and whether these change over time. It investigates the relationship between mother and child expectations; the impact of individual, family and school factors on expectations; how educational expectations relate to children's academic performance; and whether children with higher expectations are more motivated to learn than children with lower expectations. The study finds that high educational expectations are associated with socioeconomic advantage, child gender, overseas background, independent and private schools, and NAPLAN test performance.