Often second generation young adults and their immigrant parents aspire high and towards general education despite a modest socioeconomic background. Little is known about the interrelation between educational aspirations and institutionally co-structured educational pathways. These interrelations are particularly important in an early tracking…

In this report we explore how and why undergraduate students' career and education plans changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that when students changed their plans, they were more likely to pursue employment instead of graduate education. Students reported that their plans changed due to not being accepted into graduate school,…

Scholarship underscores the experiences of Appalachian students who must confront a social reality that consistently expects less from them because of their circumstances and the narratives surrounding their social context (Collins, 2020; Piene et al., 2020). Traditionally, the Appalachian people have been viewed by educators from a deficit…

This study examined how Latina/o undergraduate students' graduate and professional degree aspirations change during college. Using longitudinal data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine factors associated with aspiring to earn a degree beyond a baccalaureate.…

Motivational currents, a relatively new concept in the field of language learning, has contributed to understanding how long-term motivational energy can be sustained among learners. Despite such critical contribution, little is known on how one of its core elements called vision, a vivid image of one's future self, can be sustainable in such a…

This study detected and analyzed changes that took place in students' attitudes toward their future education and occupation after completion of the 3-year orientation to work-life through Grades 7 to 9 in different regions in Finland. The changes in the correlations of attitudes were seen as both precursors and consequences of the students'…

This article posits that when children are encouraged to aspire, they can become aware of a new world of choices and opportunities. Children should be supported to aspire in all areas of their lives. Of interest is children's capacity to aspire to attend tertiary education. Literature shows that children cannot aspire to attend higher education…

A qualitative based study was undertaken to explore the impact of teacher professional conduct on learner experiences and performance in three poor primary schools in a disadvantaged community in Cape Town, South Africa. Data was gathered through individual and focus-group interviews, observations and document reviews. The paper uses the…

The need to "raise aspirations" among young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds has been prominent in UK policy debates over the last decade. This paper examines how this discourse is negotiated and contested by teachers and pupils in a Scottish secondary school. Interviews, group discussions and observations were…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

While prior studies have examined the efficacy of career and technical education (CTE) courses on high school students' outcomes, there is little knowledge on timing of these courses and a potential link to student outcomes. We asked if the timing of these courses predicted differences in the likelihood of dropout and on-time high school…

This formative program evaluation and research study uses multiple methods and mixed paradigms to describe and evaluate the eighth grade Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program in a suburban middle school in Minnesota. The problem motivating this study is the persistent achievement gap among student groups as defined by racial,…

The high demand for scientists and engineers in the workforce means that there is a continuing need for more strategies to increase student completion in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. The challenge lies in finding and enacting effective strategies to increase students' completion of STEM degrees and in recruiting…

Growth curve modeling was utilized to examine change in the educational aspirations of adolescents from early high school through to three years beyond high school, as a function of gender and other adolescent characteristics. Significant gender effects were found for level of education aspired to, rate of growth, and degree of acceleration: boys'…

This article outlines a project called "LifeLab," developed by researchers at the Education School, Faculty of Medicine and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Southampton (UK), to promote a science-oriented approach to health literacy among teenagers. The main purposes of "LifeLab" are: (1) to improve…