In this article our focus is on the persistent gendered divisions in educational routes of young people who choose a vocational path after compulsory education in Finland. We analyse how gendered subjectivities are constructed within the practices of educational and vocational guidance and within student cultures in the comprehensive school, as…

What early experiences attract students to pursue an education and career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? Does hands-on research influence them to persevere and complete a major course of academic study in STEM? We evaluated survey responses from 149 high school and undergraduate students who gained hands-on research…

The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) is designed to support undergraduate students' professional development as future scientists. Juniors, seniors, and postbaccalaureates who attended ABRCMS during 2008-2011 were emailed a link to an online questionnaire in which they reported their experiences at the…

This research investigated the linguistic and educational socialization of Sudanese refugee-background youth in Australia. The study focussed on exploring Sudanese-background secondary school students' career aspirations, motivations and obstacles. The research used a mixed-method approach including a survey conducted with students studying in six…

This paper problematizes dominant discourses of social mobility. It begins by discussing social mobility from a philosophical perspective before examining current policies on social mobility in the United Kingdom, drawing on data from both recent mobility studies and the contemporary labour market. I then broaden out the discussion by exploring…

This paper takes as its starting point the concept of concerted cultivation as coined by Annette Lareau. It examines whether a focus on concerted cultivation adequately captures the various practices observed in young women's experiences of being privately educated in four schools in one area of England. We suggest that a variety of practices of…

Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African American male youth in an urban high school setting perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama's election gives students a sense of hope despite the persistent…

While experiences of students with disabilities transitioning from high school to college have been well documented, the influence exerted by selected factors on these experiences is less well understood. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, the influence of selected risk and resilience factors on the short-term postsecondary…

This study examined the career, social, and academic self-appraisals and educational aspirations of first-year college students of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. Participants included 72 first-year students of Black, Asian, and White ethnicities. Career self-appraisals were significantly different for Black and Asian students when compared to…

This article examines Ecuadorian students' attempts to contest immigrant stereotypes and redefine their social identities in Madrid, Spain. I argue that academic tracking plays a pivotal role in the trajectory of students' emergent ethnic identity. To illustrate this process, I focus on students who abandon their academic and professional…

Parents' aspirations and expectations are communicated to their offspring. Children internalize their parents' aspirations and accept some of the expectations while rejecting others, all part of the developmental process and identity-consolidation. When the aspirations and expectations of youth and parents are incongruent, the outcomes…

This phenomenological study explored the impact of marital expectations and socio-economic status on post-secondary educational and professional goals of Northern California Asian Indian immigrant women both before and after marriage. For the purposes of this study, 15 Southeast Asian Indian immigrant women from the Sacramento metropolitan region…

The PhD experience is often a transition from student to future faculty member, which involves considerable learning and development (Glaze, 2002; Hockey, 2004). Using a lifelong learning perspective (Jarvis, 2009), the purpose of this article is to explore, through a reflective self-study, my process of learning throughout the PhD degree. In this…

Survey data suggest that for many young Russians their aspirations and values are not appropriate for having a successful career, and contribute to the gap between their educational experiences and the requirements of the economy. This in turn prevents them from contributing to the modernization of Russian society. (Contains 1 note.) [This article…

The principle focus of this article is to understand the influence of socialisation in the family on the success of girls at school. Eight low-income families with children of both sexes in the city of São Paulo, Brazil were studied through interviews and observation methods. It was found that socialisation in the family favoured in girls, and not…