Can families in low-income contexts "pull themselves up by their bootstraps?" In rural Gambia, caregivers with high aspirations for their children, measured before the child starts school, invest substantially more in their children's education. Despite this, essentially no children are literate or numerate three years later. In…

Addressing Latinx student underrepresentation in STEM requires an assets-based reimagining of STEM experiences and pathways that facilitate student success. Drawing on data from two qualitative studies of Latinx students pursuing STEM majors, findings reveal that Latinx students draw on at least six distinct forms of cultural assets to facilitate…

In the last decade, Colorado has increased its efforts and requirements around postsecondary and workforce readiness through the implementation of Individual Career and Academic Plans (ICAP) in high schools (CDE, 2009; CDE, 2014; CDE, 2020). Although based on career development research, no studies have inquired as to the meaning students make…

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered how we learn, work, and live. This qualitative research aimed to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational and occupational aspirations of young Canadian adults. All close to 29 years of age, sixteen participants took part in one-on-one semi-structured interviews conducted through…

According to Eccles' expectancy-value model of achievement motivation, students' expectations and values relate to their performance and are influenced by goals and identities. When specific identities are important to an individual the tasks associated with them will have value and the individual will be motivated to act them out. This study…

The interest in educational and professional aspirations of students transiting to post-secondary education has gained prominence in academic debates and policy agendas internationally. Political interventions for raising aspirations quite often draw on narrow instrumental and rationalistic assumptions of individual decision-making that, as we…

Postsecondary education is associated with achieving economic self-sufficiency and other positive outcomes. Young people in foster care face challenges pursuing postsecondary education, which can lead to them being less likely than their peers to enroll in college and less likely to earn a degree when enrolled. One federal initiative meant to…

This study examined the long-term effects of perceived educational and career barriers due to sexism and racism in college students' pursuit of postgraduate education (PE) and how such effects were different across gender and racial majority/minority groups. With a sample of 2,717 undergraduate students, results from multinomial logistic…

As collaborative transnational education models are increasing in number globally, this study provides a snapshot of motivations for newly enrolled students at microcampuses in China, Cambodia, Jordan, and Indonesia. This research centers on the influence of country choice for students. We apply Nye's (1990, 2004) concept of soft power on student…

College and Career Readiness (CCR) programming during early high school years assists students with planning for effective post-school transitions. Group interventions that address CCR for early high school students permit school counselors, career counselors, career specialists, or teachers to engage with a large number of students at one time…

Learning and skills have important economic, social and individual benefits. Yet for decades the United Kingdom (UK) has lagged behind comparator countries, particularly for intermediate skills. This is first report of Learning & Work's Ambition Skills programme which looks at where the UK is on track to be by 2035 and explores the changing…

In this study, we use a narrative inquiry approach to present the stories of two Latino males attending community colleges in the Great Plains region of the United States that includes the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, popularly referred to as "flyover states." The purpose of this inquiry, part of a larger study in an area of the…

The Prospective Students Survey is one of the Graduate Management Admission Council's (GMAC) keystone research programs. The global graduate management education (GME) community has relied on data from this survey to gain insights about candidates' decision-making processes when considering and applying to graduate business schools since 2009. The…

The Prospective Students Survey is one of the Graduate Management Admission Council's (GMAC) keystone research programs. The global graduate management education (GME) community has relied on data from this survey to gain insights about candidates' decision-making processes when considering and applying to graduate business schools since 2009. The…

This mixed-methods study employed a typological approach and an Expectancy-Value framework to understand nontraditional prospective teachers' motivational beliefs, teaching motivations, and goals for choosing a teaching career. All participants (N=88) were nontraditional prospective teachers, graduate students enrolled in a Master of Arts in…