This article examines the educational trajectories envisioned by immigrant-origin youths. The mixed-methods research draws upon quantitative (N = 445) and interview data (n = 112). Whereas most prior research focuses on educational achievement or educational attainment of immigrant-origin youth, this article focuses on their outlooks concerning…

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 concentrates on the transition from comprehensive school to the upper secondary level from the viewpoint of migrant background girls. Emphasis is on understanding the "bounded agency" and the ways in which gender and family background are expressed in the modalities of the agency. Previous studies show that ethnic minorities…

In this paper, we develop an information distortion model (IDM) of social class differences in self-beliefs and values. The IDM combines psychological biases on frame-of-reference effects with sociological foci on ability stratification. This combination is hypothesized to lead to working-class children having more positive math self-beliefs and…

The present study examined the extent to which mothers' and fathers' expectations for their offspring's future education, their level of education, and adolescents' academic achievement predict adolescents' educational expectations. To investigate this, 230 adolescents were examined twice while they were in comprehensive school (in the 7th and 9th…

Provides a brief overview of the Finnish educational system and examines the effects of family educational and socioeconomic background on access to and success in higher education. Data on 1985 and 1990 secondary school graduates and young adults indicated that children tended to aim at the same sort of education and jobs as their parents. (MDM)