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Chapter One Introduction
The research, the Nature and Implications of School Pupils' Part-time Employment was commissioned to establish the extent and nature of school pupils' part-time employment in Scotland and to investigate the potential for linking such part-time work to pupils' formal education. Pupils' part-time employment does not take place in a vacuum but has to be considered in the context of the wider environment within which they live if we are to achieve a full understanding of it (Bronfenbrenner 1986). A central aspect of their wider environment is their parents and their role and influence 1; it is important to understand, for example, how parents view combining part-time employment and school since this may influence the way that their adolescent child behaves in relation to part-time work.
There is considerable literature on the role and influence of parents on their children's career development which demonstrates that they (and other family members) have an immense impact on this aspect of their children's lives (see Semple 2004 for an overview). In summary, they influence aspirations and motivation; influence values and priorities about school and post-school choices (including education, training, work and self-employment); affect knowledge of educational and occupational opportunities; and provide the practical, moral and financial support that allows their children to implement their plans. Parents have been described as providing 'a general framework of aspirations and hopes for their children' and 'a space within which choices are made and validated' (Ball et al, 1998; Macrae, 1997). In the context of pupils' part-time work, parents' own experience of part-time employment when they were at school, their views on the value and desirability of mixing part-time work and full-time schooling, as well as the practical help they may, or may not, be able to offer their children to secure a part-time job, are all likely to impact on pupils' participation in part-time employment. Equally, they are one of the key groups whose opinion needs to be taken into account in respect of any decisions to make more use of pupils' part-time work experience within their schooling.
There has, however, been little research in the UK on the attitudes of parents to their children working part-time and their influence on their children's decisions in this area. (In the United States, however, researchers have begun to attend to this issue, see Mortimer 2003). The research project 'The Nature and Implications of the Part-time Employment undertaken by School Pupils', therefore included a survey of the parents as part of the Focus Studies strand of the research. The survey aimed to gather information on parents' own experience of part-time work when at school; their general opinions on the desirability of school pupils working while at school; their views on the educational value of part-time employment and whether to make more use of it within schooling; and, for those parents whose child had had part-time work, their views about the impact of this experience.
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