Youth perspectives of achievement: is money everything?
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Date
2015
Authors
Matope, Jasmine
Badroodien, Azeem
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
This article draws from a qualitative research project completed at Victoria High
School (pseudonym) in Cape Town in 2012 which explored 13 learners’ perspectives
of achievement and its influence on their lives and thinking. The piece problematises
and analyses taken-for-granted connections between money, achievement, youth
aspirations and views of employment (Opsahl & Dunnette, 1966). The article builds on
McClelland’s (1967: 10) view that “money isn’t everything,” that money is a motivator
for some, yet often inconsequential for others, and that its meaning mostly lies “in
the eye of the beholder”. In light of this view, the articles discusses the perspectives
of four learners at Victoria High to illustrate how they approached achievement,
aspiration and materiality according to the different social standings and worlds that
they inhabited. It was found that the expressed views of achievement by learners
went beyond stereotypical and measurable attitudes and connected in quite complex
ways with how they imagined their futures. The learners approached the notion of
achievement in developmental, cumulative, and progressive ways. An interpretive
qualitative paradigm using the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Arjun Appadurai was
employed to highlight how the youth’s various capitals and aspirations respectively
influenced their notions of achievement.
Description
Keywords
Achievement, Aspiration, Money, Youth, Social class, Materiality, Materialism
Citation
Matope, J., & Badroodien, A. (2015). Youth perspectives of achievement: is money everything?. Perspectives in Education, 33(3), 58-71.