This paper reports on a project in the North of England that looks at the college-to-university decision-making processes of non-traditional students through the conceptual lens of 'Possible Selves', as initially developed by Markus and Nurius (1986) and applied to higher education by Harrison (2018), Henderson (2019) and others. Our data involves…

While students of immigrant origin often face difficulties during their school career, their educational aspirations and expectations have been found to be relatively high. Less is known, however, about the aspirations and expectations of students of migrant descent in more recent countries of immigration. Furthermore, occupational expectations…

Although research has investigated the association between pathological gaming and academic performance in adolescence, the complexity of the relationship has not been thoroughly examined. This short longitudinal study aimed to investigate the interactions between pathological gaming, academic self-efficacy, academic initiative, and academic…

Hmong adolescents face many challenges during high school, particularly college and career readiness. School counselors are trained professionals who can help. This transcendental phenomenology study explored the lived experiences of six Hmong adolescents and how they make sense of college and career lessons in a group work format over six weeks.…

This research aimed to reveal the decisions of master's students about whether to pursue their doctoral degree or not and the factors affecting these decisions. The participants of this research, in which the basic qualitative research design was used, consisted of 28 students (19 female and 9 male) in different parts of the educational sciences…

This article examines international student mobility (ISM) as a process of "aspiration on the go" for African students in China--a burgeoning yet under-researched international student flow. Drawing on 15 months of fieldwork at a Chinese university, we present ethnographic case studies of African students that unveil their varied…

This paper examines the experiences of a group of 16- to 18-year-old students in two publicly funded London schools who did not conform to expectations and rejected university as a post-school destination. The students' experiences offer insights into how current Higher Education (HE) policy in England combined with a competitive school market…

The way in which young people's post-school intentions and pathways reflect their social background has been the subject of a good deal of research. However, much less attention has been paid to social differentiation in the amount and kind of career guidance information received by young people and its role in reinforcing or ameliorating social…

We previously proposed that science capital (science-related forms of cultural and social capital) can be used as a theoretical lens for explaining the patterned nature of aspirations and educational participation among young people aged 11-16. Building on these findings, the present article investigates whether science capital is related to…

This study assesses students' motivation for the pursuit of higher degree in the field of Education. Due to their current low-income status (mean value of less than $2 day) and their desired income (mean value of $500 per day) 10 years after acquiring the degree, it is instructive and tractable to examine the income effect of their motivation.…

This article reports a study that investigated secondary school students' higher education aspirations (towards university studies, ISCED 6 and above) and how these differ between student groups as well as how these are impacted by values of education. Panel data of more than 300 secondary school students in two countries, Luxembourg and…

Both students and parents have expectations about students' academic future. The present study analyses the influence of both sets of expectations when students are at age 15-16 on the level of education achieved by students when they are 23-24 years old. For this purpose, a structural equation model is estimated by three-stage least squares,…

The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions and expectations of German language students, especially in terms of receptive skills. This study asks two main questions: (i) what are the expectations of students towards learning German and (ii) how are students' perceptions of German learning, especially reading and listening, the data…

Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examines the college expectations of high school students in Hanoi, Vietnam. Findings from a survey of approximately 4,000 students and interviews with 76 students, teachers, and school leaders revealed that the majority of students planned to apply to college. However, rural students had significantly…

Formal education has all too often been portrayed as a means of achieving social and economic mobility, there is a need to address the unequal footing for adolescents in the Global South attempting to achieve social mobility through education. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Sri Lanka, this article considers the impact of upward…