Aspirations in Science

The Aspirations in Science (ASPIRES) project was a five-year study (2009-2013) funded as part of the ESRC’s Targeted Initiative on Science and Mathematics Education (TISME). ASPIRES explored science aspirations and engagement among 10-14-year-olds in England. It comprised a quantitative online survey of the cohort and repeat (longitudinal) interviews with a selected sub-sample of students and their parents. Please note that this dataset comprises the quantitative (survey) data only, not the qualitative (interview) data.

Survey data were collected at three time points: Phase 1 was conducted at the end of primary school (age 10/11, Year 6), phase 2 in the second year of secondary school (age 12/13, Year 8) and phase 3 was administered when students were in Year 9 (age 13/14).

Two further ASPIRES studies were conducted between 2013 and 2023: ASPIRES 2 (2013-2017) and ASPIRES 3 (2020-2023) are available as separate studies.

Main topics

The 3 surveys collected a range of demographic data (including gender, ethnicity and measures of cultural capital) and attitudinal data. Topics included aspirations in science, attitudes towards school science, self-concept in science, images of scientists, participation in science-related activities outside of school, parental expectations, parental school involvement, parental attitudes towards science, and peer attitudes towards school and towards school science. Most questions used a five-point Likert-type scale to elicit attitudinal responses. Response options were on a five-point scale from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ with ‘neither agree nor disagree’ as a midpoint.  The dataset is a study of the cohort, and is not tracked or longitudinal.