本研究之目的主要在了解原住民族群背景與教育期望之關聯性，以及不同原住民族學童間自我教育抱負，是否會因背景不同而有所差異。研究樣本是以「台東縣教育長期追蹤資料庫之建立──國中小學生學習狀況與心理健康追蹤調查」2003年學生學習與生活狀況問卷作資料分析。此問卷共回收有效樣本為2,913人，包含本研究原住民學童912人。
研究主要結論如下：1.不同原住民族群間學童的教育抱負沒有顯著差異，但原住民女童的教育抱負比男童高；2.父母對女生的教育期望比男性學童高，而單親家庭與寄親或隔代家庭下的兒童，所知覺到的父母教育期望比完整家庭低，且家庭收入愈高父母親教育程度愈高，學童所知覺到父母對其之教育期望也愈高；3.父母對子女的教育期望與教師對學童的教育期望，是影響原住民學童教育抱負的最重要因素；4.學童知覺教師對不同原住民族群學童有不同的成績期望。

The purpose of this study was to understand the education aspiration of aboriginal students, as well as how the aspiration is influenced by demographic variables and expectation of parents and teachers. Data of a sample of 2913 students, in which 912 aboriginal students included, were drawn from a longitudinal survey study. There are four major findings: (a) Students from different aboriginal tribes do not show any significant difference in educational inspiration; but girls have higher inspiration than boys. (b) Parents have higher education expectation toward girls than boys. Students from disadvantaged families, e.g., single-parent or foster families, perceive a lower expectation from their parents than do the students from families with intact structure. Besides, the higher the family income and parents' education, the higher educations expectation the children perceived from their parents. (c) The educational expectation from parents and teachers has important influence on the educational aspirations of aboriginal students. (d) Aboriginal students from different tribes perceive that teachers hold different academic expectations to them because of their race background.