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…

How do youth placed in foster care aspire to and access college? This book chronicles the lives and experiences of 49 college students navigating the challenging terrain of the United States' foster care system. Through in-depth interviews, Johnson provides insight into the harsh realities of how our nation's educational and welfare systems often…

This article explores the intersecting desires and anxieties of Chinese middle-class families and students in their pursuit of studying abroad in the United States. Through the qualitative analysis of narratives from students and interview data, the findings reveal that the decision for studying in the U.S. is deeply intertwines with anxieties…

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…

Asset-based approaches to public service reform suggest a need for policymakers to shift attention from 'fixing' the perceived deficits of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, to recognising and building on the resources, or assets, they hold. However, these approaches have also been critiqued for interpreting assets so broadly that they effectively…

To inform higher education and student affairs (HESA) professionals who work with college students outside of the classroom, we asked the research question: How do undocumented Latinx college students use aspirational capital to navigate higher education? Aspirational capital is the ability to maintain hopes and dreams for the future in the face…

This article uses Yosso's (2005) framework of cultural capital and Matos's (2011, 2015, 2019) findings on cultural capital to examine how these frameworks can be used to recruit and retain Latinx college students. The article discusses the engagement of Latinx parents in higher education and offers suggestions on how higher education professionals…

This correlational research study examined simultaneously the following, with regards to the outcome variable of whether students fulfilled their educational expectations 8 years after graduating high school across a nationally representative sample of participants: (1) the extent to which parents' academic expectations predict students'…

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…

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…

In this qualitative case study, we conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 16 Pennsylvania State University librarians who hold, or are considering pursuing, a doctoral degree. Through a thematic analysis using NVivo, we found that the benefits of earning a doctorate included gaining credibility, building relationships with teaching…

Scholarship on adult education throughout the life course focuses on the relationship between education and upward mobility. Scholars rarely examine how adults' educational aspirations or trajectories are affected by downward mobility or an increasingly precarious labor market. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 21 job seekers in the…

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.…