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I Want to Be Someone, I Want to Make a Difference: Young Care Leavers Preparing for the Future in South Australia

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Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care

Abstract

Improved education enhances life chances. Yet very few of those who have been in the care of the State proceed to higher education (HE). In Australia, care leavers are a subset of three demographics noted by the Bradley Review (2008) as continuing to be under-represented in HE: those from low socio-economic status (SES), rural, and Indigenous students. However, little is known specifically about care leavers in HE.

In this chapter, we report on a small pilot project conducted recently in South Australia. For the project, we consulted with ten young care leavers, who told us about their experience with education and the encouragement they received, if any, to proceed onto HE. What we found was that most young people were neither expected nor encouraged to achieve academically.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the contributions and support of the ten young people who shared their time and expertize. We also thank the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide for the financial support to undertake the project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gender Studies and Social Analysis, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Dee Michell

  2. CREATE Foundation, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claudine Scalzi

Authors
  1. Dee Michell
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  2. Claudine Scalzi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Victoria, Australia

    Philip Mendes

  2. Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia

    Pamela Snow

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© 2016 The Author(s)

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Michell, D., Scalzi, C. (2016). I Want to Be Someone, I Want to Make a Difference: Young Care Leavers Preparing for the Future in South Australia. In: Mendes, P., Snow, P. (eds) Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55639-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55639-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55638-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55639-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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