[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-595476-105":3,"doc-detail-595476-en":81,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":99},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","australian-universities-review-opinion-preparation-and-aspiration-heather-brook","Australian Universities' Review Opinion - Preparation and aspiration - Heather Brook","","Explores how Australian universities’ increased incentives to recruit low socio-economic status (SES) students shape debates on targeting, recruitment, and retention. Using Heather Brook’s personal experience as a former low SES student, it critiques familiarisation and aspiration-raising strategies, including the proposal to embed entitlement and enthusiasm early. Brook links her interpretation of university access and equity policies to her teaching and student interactions, arguing that her academic path would not have been smoothed by current approaches.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/australian-universities-review-opinion-preparation-and-aspiration-heather-brook/595476/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/australian-universities-review-opinion-preparation-and-aspiration-heather-brook/595476.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Well Done","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What policy change increased universities’ focus on recruiting low SES students?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"A stated outcome of the Bradley Report is that Australian universities gained new incentives to enrol students from low socio-economic status.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the author connect her experience to her teaching on university access?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The author’s past experience as a low SES student influences how she teaches and interacts with students, and it shapes how she interprets policies on university access and equity.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does the author doubt current aspiration-raising or familiarisation programs?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The author believes the specific types of activities being advocated would not have helped smooth her own academic path, even while acknowledging such programs may still have value.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},595476,1792274154,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",{"doc_id":79,"user_id":84,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":85,"doc_module":4,"category_id":86,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":87,"file_id":88,"file_url":89,"file_type":90,"file_size":91,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":92,"language":93,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":94,"faqs":95,"seo_title":96,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":97,"read_time":98,"preview_page_count":4},5909892210082,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/56001069da27c9f41e8?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1789614185077863061",8,"A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nOPINION  \nPreparation and aspiration  \nAccess to higher education for working-class students  \nHeather Brook  \nFlinders University  \nOne of the outcomes of the Bradley Report (Bradley et al. 2008) is that Australian universities have a new incentive to enrol students from low socio-economic status. Consequently, a flurry of (mostly administrative and pedagogical) interest is growing around knowledge concerning the targeting, recruitment and retention of low socio-economic status (SES) students (CSHE 2008; Priest 2009) . Some academics from working-class backgrounds recognise, in the current debate, an opportunity to break a long silence—or rather to challenge the ways that we have been persistently and sometimes insidiously silenced. For me, at least, this is both political and personal: ‘political’ because access to education is a fundamental social good that is at present distributed in very uneven ways (Furlong and Cartmel 2009) and personal, because I am a university teacher who was once an low SES student.  \nI know that my experience as an erstwhile low SES student affects my teaching and interactions with students, but it also influences the way I interpret ideas about the implementation of policies regarding university access and equity. At a recent conference, for example, I heard a lot of discussion about raising the aspirations of low SES students. It seemed that every speaker thought this needed to happen at an earlier age, until eventually the debate settled on how to embed a sense of entitlement to and enthusiasm for higher education in primary school children. The following reflections consider my own experience in relation to two strategies advocated as means to  \n84 Preparation and aspiration, Heather Brook  \nincreasing the enrolment share of low SES students: first, raising aspirations (as early as possible), and second, familiarisation programs. Sad to say, I doubt the kinds of familiarisation or aspiration-raising activities being currently advocated would have helped smooth my own academic path. Having said that, I would not care to imply that such programs are never useful, or that they should not be implemented. I’m sure that my story isn’t typical. (But then, whose is?)  \nI never thought of our family as ‘poor.’ We weren’t poor.There were lots of things we didn’t have,but food and shoes and a warm bed were guaranteed, and I took them for granted. Never being destitute—and never being denied something that really mattered—was one factor among many that slowed any sense I had of class consciousness. My intelligent, capable parents offered measured encouragement for whatever interested us, having had little opportunity or support themselves. My mother finished a year 10 commercial stream, and in her family was considered over-educated.When my siblings and I started school, mum worked part-time—first in a mechanic’s office, and then as a teacher’s aideat a local primary school—again, as a part-time, casual employee. In school holidays, she earned nothing at all. My father started a year of ‘technical school’ after primary school, but hated it and left to work as a messenger boy at the port. He served in the Navy during the latter part of World War II, and when the war ended, worked as a shoe salesman. Later, after he’d met my mother, he joined the Commonwealth Public Ser  \nvol. 53, no. 1, 2011  \nA U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nvice under a scheme to support returned servicemen, and worked there (very unhappily, suffering chronic mental health problems) for most of the rest of his life. He remained at ‘entry-level’ in the public service for many years because he had not completed highschool. In order to move up to the next salary band, he completed adult matriculation, but never moved far up the wages ladder. In the long run, stealing money was more appealing to my dad than earning it, and he initiated a number of wildly c","cbCaiuzNSTD9M42X","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuzNSTD9M42X","pdf",112249,5,"English","# Preparation and aspiration\n## Policy debate and strategies\n## Personal experience and class consciousness\n## Family background and educational outcomes","[{\"question\":\"What policy change increased universities’ focus on recruiting low SES students?\",\"answer\":\"A stated outcome of the Bradley Report is that Australian universities gained new incentives to enrol students from low socio-economic status.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author connect her experience to her teaching on university access?\",\"answer\":\"The author’s past experience as a low SES student influences how she teaches and interacts with students, and it shapes how she interprets policies on university access and equity.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author doubt current aspiration-raising or familiarisation programs?\",\"answer\":\"The author believes the specific types of activities being advocated would not have helped smooth her own academic path, even while acknowledging such programs may still have value.\"}]","Australian Universities' Review Opinion - Preparation and aspiration - Heather Brook | PDF",1792081217,13,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":100},[101,105,109,113,117,121,126,129,134,137,141],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":92,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":122,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":123,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":125},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":86,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},30,"research-report",{"id":130,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":131,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":133},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":135,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":136},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":138,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":139,"show_sort_weight":138,"slug":140},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":142,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":143,"show_sort_weight":92,"slug":144},19,"General","general"]