The current study describes preliminary findings from the Xavier University of Louisiana Mobile Outreach for Laboratory Enrichment (XULA-MOLE) project, which is a collaboration between Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA), a Historically Black and Catholic University, and participating 9th-12th grade classrooms in the central New Orleans area…

Challenges abound in providing accurate and useful information to prospective and declared psychology majors about their career options and how to make decisions that will lead to satisfying and rewarding postgraduate lives. One component of this challenge is that by majoring in psychology, career affordances (i.e., the opportunities and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence Ghanaian tertiary students' career choices. The paper explores the dimensionality of the career choice factors within the Ghanaian context and also ascertains their degree of influence on students' career choices. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs survey…

The graduate labour market is highly competitive but little is known about why students vary in their development of employability. This study contributes to the literature by applying goal-setting theory and the job demands-resources model to investigate how motivational processes influence students' proactive career behaviours. We tested four…

The United States has been experiencing an information Technology talent shortage for several years. This has caused employers to be creative in finding talented computer related talent. Many colleges have trending declines in enrollment in computer related majors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics and Department of Education Statistics reveal some…

Female university graduates tend to have less career success than their male counterparts. Career optimism is considered a crucial predictor of future career success, but little is known about predictors of career optimism. Based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), we hypothesised that both perceived lecturer support and perceived career…

Policymakers and industry representatives have called for an increase in the number of engineering graduates, but many students, even in their final year of their programs, remain unsure of their plans to enter engineering as a career. The research question guiding this study is: how do changes in students' perceptions of the field of engineering…

This study examined the implication of the Algebra Connection Essay in a developmental algebra course. Undergraduate students (n=18) in four Intermediate Algebra courses were administered a pre-attitudinal survey prior to receiving information on the essay about their chosen or desired program of study. After submitting the essay, the students…

The present study examined the role of social class in the career decision-making of undergraduate students attending a private university. Grounded theory was used to describe the process of social class and undergraduates' career interests and plans. Interviews with undergraduate students (N = 21) resulted in four categories and 13 axial codes.…

Completing a college degree is major accomplishment under the best of circumstances. The economic and societal value of a college degree has the potential to produce residual benefits for one of the most vulnerable populations, foster care alumni. A specific group of foster care alumni, those who "age out" of foster care share the same…

"Research that positions students as primary stakeholders occupies space at the margins of higher education scholarship" (Iloh, 2016, pp. 428-429). This fact is especially true in the realm of for-profit, post-secondary education where much of the research has been focused on institutional operations and quantitative outcomes. As…

In this study, we examined the relationships among personal resources (i.e., psychological capital, perceived employability, and career resources), constraints, and work volition of university students. Two undergraduate samples from the United States and Hong Kong were collected. In both samples, results showed that personal resources were…

The purpose of this study is to compare the college enrollment and STEM college major choice rates of graduates of a STEM-focused charter school system to those of students who graduated from traditional public schools in the state of Texas and the USA for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented groups. In addition, the factors students…

A total of 126 domestic and international undergraduate students attended a research experience program in engineering during the summers of 2017 to 2019. We explored how the programs affected domestic and international undergraduate students' experiences in research, mentoring, and career goals differently from their expectations. A total of 87…

The study examines beginning teachers' and pre-service teachers' motivation to teach in China. Data are drawn from questionnaires completed by 107 beginning teachers (full-time teachers with fewer than six years' working experience) and 122 pre-service teachers, and semi-structured interviews with 19 of them. The respondents all emphasised social…