School effectiveness and students' future orientation: A multilevel analysis of upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

Introduction: Future orientation (FO) refers to individuals' beliefs and feelings about their future. Earlier research has primarily investigated correlates of FO at the individual and family level, but it seems likely that FO is also shaped by other central agents or institutions, such as the school. Earlier studies have found positive associations between "school efectiveness" and student performance, and negative associations in relation to e.g., bullying, delinquency, and health risk behaviors. The current study investigated three teacher-reported features of school efectiveness -school leadership, teacher cooperation and consensus, and school ethos -and their links with student-reported FO. Methods: Survey data were collected in 2016 among 5131 students (aged 17-18 years) and 1061 teachers in 46 upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden, and merged with school-level register data. Two-level binary logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: The analyses showed that higher teacher ratings of school leadership and school ethos were associated with a greater likelihood of reporting an optimistic FO among students. Teacher cooperation and consensus was however not associated with students' FO. Conclusion:The indings indicate that the school environment contributes to shaping students' beliefs about their future. Thus, enhancing features of school efectiveness may be a way of promoting a positive development and brighter objective future prospects for the young, via pathways such as good student-teacher relations and academic motivation and achievement.Future orientation can be understood as individuals' thoughts, plans, motivations, hopes and feelings about their future (Stoddard, Zimmerman, & Bauermeister, 2011). Even though people orient themselves towards the future throughout their lives, thoughts and plans about the future are especially signiicant during adolescence and young adulthood, since this is when choices about education, occupation, and other central aspects of life are formed (Chua, Milfont & Jose, 2015;Nurmi, 1991). Earlier studies have demonstrated that adolescents' future orientation difers by socioeconomic background (

School ethos and adolescent gambling: a multilevel study of upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden

“…Yet another pathway could be students' future orientation. A previous study which was based on the same data material as the current study reported that a strong school ethos, as rated by teachers, was linked with an optimistic future orientation among the students [25]. A pessimistic future orientation, by contrast, has been connected with a greater likelihood of engaging in risk gambling [27] as well as other health risk behaviours [26].…”

“…Still another pathway may be via students' future orientation. A strong school ethos has been shown to be connected with a more optimistic future orientation among the students [25]. Feelings of hopelessness and a sense of a lack of future prospects may in turn make individuals more prone to risk behaviours.…”

“…The values from all responses were added to an index with the possible range 12-59, with higher values indicating stronger school ethos. The school ethos measure was originally developed for the STS, and has been used in prior studies based on the same data material [18,25]. The items were formulated with the purpose of measuring teachers' ratings of school ethos as conceptualized in the scholarship of school effectiveness [11,[16][17][18].…”

“…In order to assess potentially non-linear effects, the study sample was divided into categories of about equal size according to the value of school ethos, in order to capture schools with a relatively weak, intermediate, and strong teacher-rated school ethos. This strategy has been used also in previous studies using the same data material [23,25].…”

Future Time Orientation and Moral Self-image: An Analysis of Adolescents in Private and Government Schools in Punjab Pakistan

“…It was seen that positive future orientation can enhance student's functioning in school. It was also noted that student's school setting boost their future beliefs that can be done through progressive student-teacher relationship, educational motivation and accomplishment (Alm, Låftman, Sandahl & Modin, 2019). Previous studies confirmed the findings of the current research as the time perspectives play a vital role in determining the moral concerns (Agerström & Björklund, 2009) and (Eyal, Liberman & Trope, 2008).…”