This article describes a reverse-engineering project where female students take a part a hair dryer--giving them an opportunity to see the many different kinds of engineering disciplines involved in making a hairdryer and that they work together. Mechanical Engineer, Lyn Gome, describes her experience leading a group of middle school girls through…

This paper examines why teaching is chosen as a career, and considers the extent to which a range of factors identified within a sample of 173 students from kindergarten and primary school pedagogy, early childhood education and applied didactics in primary school. The study is based on the responses to a questionnaire applied to students involved…

Despite the efforts of researchers and national science organizations to recruit more women and minorities into the science and engineering workforce, these fields are still largely dominated by White males. Research suggests that children's mental prototypes of the scientist include a variety of negative and stereotypical features that may…

This qualitative and exploratory research is aimed at investigating the underlying reasons for the professional choice of Brazilian teachers who work within early education. Seventeen teachers (seven from public schools and 10 from private schools) were interviewed in depth in a semi-structured manner. Questions concerned the reasons that guided…

Today's society, shaped by demographic changes and a global economy, has created different employment trends and work lives that result in adults' engaging in postretirement second careers. This phenomenon is a common occurrence in rapidly aging societies like Korea. This qualitative study examined the postretirement career transition process of…

Reports have shown that many students that graduate as secondary teachers from the University of Malawi do not enter the teaching profession. The purpose of this study was to investigate the wastage rate of education graduates from University of Malawi, Chancellor College from 2005 to 2009. Cross-sectional data were collected from the total…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the variables of acculturation to the host culture, acculturation to the home culture, and hope predict career decision self-efficacy among international undergraduate students from South Korea. The secondary goal of this study was to examine the moderating roles of hope and post-graduation…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine factors that motivate individuals to become principals, the connection of these factors to their leadership style approach (relationship and task behaviors), and their perceived effectiveness as leaders. Determining whether principal candidates were personally motivated, or driven, to become…

This study examines between-country differences in the degree to which teachers' working conditions, salaries, and societal evaluations about desirable job characteristics are associated with students' teaching career expectations. Three-level hierarchical generalized linear models are employed to analyze cross-national data from the Programme for…

Purpose: Current college students in the USA are reporting higher levels of anxiety over career planning than previous generations, placing pressure on colleges to provide effective career development opportunities for their students. Research has consistently found that increasing career-related self-efficacy is particularly effective at…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how students' high school experience, math and science efficacy, and student, parent, and teacher expectations affect their plans for college major choice after controlling for students' gender, ethnicity, and parental variables. Over 1500 9th grade students participated in the study. Using logistic…

I present a two-year case study of one pre-service teacher (PST), Johnny, as he moved through his education-based coursework at a large, public university in the US Southeast. In his final year of college, Johnny chose to forego the remainder of student teaching and not to receive a teaching certificate. To better understand Johnny's choice to…

This article presents an interview with Thuy Vu, Research Coordinator at the University of Washington and Project Director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington. In this interview, Vu talks about what she does, how she got these jobs, how her education ties in, and her first job out of college. The interview concludes…

Despite growing research on the perceived desirability and positivity of callings, there is intriguing evidence that while many experience personal benefits associated with viewing their work as a calling, others may experience detrimental effects. This discrepancy highlights the need to better understand when pursuing a calling might be positive…

The authors analyze the various factors that highly recognized economists cite as reasons for pursuing a career in economics. They obtained data for 62 of the 67 Nobel Laureates in economics and included another 22 prominent economists who have made significant contributions in economic research. The authors' basic quest was to discover how these…