The STEM education concept, abbreviated to the initials of science, technology, mathematics, and engineering disciplines, is one of the key approaches on the agenda of many countries. The past literature on the subject indicates that STEM education has positive effects on 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and…

This study aims to evaluate the mediating role of career futures in the relationship between prospective teachers' career adaptability and career calling. This aim was carried out according to the quantitative research patterns relational model. The sample of this study consists of 225 prospective teachers between 18 and 39 years of age ([x-bar]=…

Participation in post-compulsory physics is a matter of longstanding concern from economic and equity perspectives. The current study draws upon Bourdieu's theory of social practice, particularly notions of the 'cultural arbitrary', to explore what insights into post-compulsory physics choice might be provided by students who chose other sciences.…

The present paper discusses the potential of the capability approach in conceptualizing and understanding lifelong learning as an agency process, and explores its capacity to guide empirical studies on lifelong learning. It uses data for 20 countries from the Adult Education Survey (2007; 2011) and focuses on aspirations for lifelong learning. The…

This paper presents insights from a broader study on doctoral students' educational and professional trajectories, with a particular focus on female international doctoral students in the United States. It explores how these women navigate their career paths while balancing the dual responsibilities of academic demands and motherhood. Drawing on…

It is widely agreed that attitudes about mathematics play an important role in students' performance, choice, and persistence in STEM. Motivational theories posit this link and suggest that differences in these attitudes should explain in part why female, Black, Hispanic, low-income, and first-generation students are underrepresented in STEM…

This research presentation seeks to illustrate how tracking produces within-school segregation, which, in turn, shapes the future aspirations of students. Scholars have shown that while schools have become more racially integrated over the years, another sociological phenomenon has occurred: within-school segregation as brought on by tracking.…

The problem of motivation is one of the most important in determining the driving mechanisms that force a person to learn, work, master something new. Motivation to work is one of the key elements of challenging yourself on the way to self-development. Motivation has deep psychological and moral roots and is a complex multifaceted phenomenon that…

This study seeks explores how Latina student mothers mediate their educational success by understanding how students balance their educational responsibilities with motherhood. This qualitative study utilizes funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992) as a theoretical framework to identify and document the wealth of knowledge,…

Given the urgent need for increased diversity in the scientific workforce, this paper explores Underrepresented Minority (URM) students' paths to the biomedical science doctorate. The Ph.D. pathways of first-generation and continuing generation students were compared. Surface features, such as timing of initial Ph.D. pursuit considerations and…

The current global focus on expanding access to early childhood education (ECE) is accompanied by calls to professionalize the ECE teaching force. In Tanzania, efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning at the pre-primary level led to the development of a new pre-primary diploma training program. In this article, I examine this effort…

Occupational resilience contributes teachers to adapt difficult conditions of teaching, to deal with obstacles and to maintain professional commitment. The purpose of this research is to compare the occupational resilience beliefs of early childhood education teachers and preservice teachers. In accordance with this purpose, whether there is a…

This paper highlights the year-one (pilot) findings of a three-year project on emerging technologies where students engaged in computer modeling, 3D printing, flight simulation, and drones during summer camps and afterschool programs in rural and urban districts. The pilot was iterative as different interventions were field-tested in specific…

This paper will include details on knowledge and ambition levels found between Latino-ethnic K-5 students located in a Southern Region of Texas from a college going culture presentation. The purpose is to understand how ambition and knowledge about higher education was influenced among Latino-ethnic K-5 students in impoverished areas. A low-income…

The study explored a taxonomy of alternative latent models to understand the weight of expectancy-value and approach-related goal orientations in predicting students' achievement behaviors (scientific career interest and math achievement). A full model where all the factors contribute to explaining the total variance of outcomes and two models in…