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 reports on research investigating the aspirations of pupils in primary schools located in low-socioeconomic areas in one English county. The research adopted a qualitative approach to explore aspirations, self-efficacy, opinions regarding the merits of investment in education, and notions of perceived future selves. The research also…

Not all students who could benefit from college apply. With novel data on over 1.2 million high schoolers, we show that nearly 25% start but never complete a college application. We use descriptive techniques, data visualizations, and fixed effects models to explore this population of college-interested "non-submitters" to observe…

This paper looks at the phenomenon of upward mobility through education from a comparative and historical perspective. Pierre Bourdieu referred to upwardly mobile individuals in France as the miraculous ("les miraculés"), oblates ("oblats"), or, less often, defectors ("transfuges"). A difficulty with applying a theory…

Research has shown that experiences that occur during adolescence directly affect an individual well into adulthood. There is still much to understand in terms of how those factors, adverse or benevolent, influence career decision-making in the future. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to explore how young adults describe the…

Much of the research on mindsets has focused on implicit theories of intelligence. However, there are other types of mindsets that might have important implications for learning and achievement. Among those that have received less attention is mindset of socioeconomic status (SES), which pertains to the belief that SES is changeable (i.e., growth…

Careers advisers in schools are of great importance. In order for the counselling to be effective, a social capital-intensive relationship must be built up between adviser and student, characterised by trust and shared understanding of roles and expectations. The aim of this quantitative study is to investigate the influence of a student's…

The "optimism hypothesis" claims that immigrant students do better in the Norwegian education system than their socioeconomic status would suggest, due to the strong educational aspirations that immigrant parents might have for their children. Grounded in an educational equity paradigm, this study aims to test this hypothesis by…

This study investigated the development of educational aspirations (EAs) among Chinese youth (n = 2228, 48.61% female, 87.66% Han, M[subscript age_2010] = 11.48 years) for 6 years. Five latent classes of EA trajectories were identified. They varied greatly during early adolescence but converged around an associate degree in middle adolescence and…

This study examined adolescents' social-emotional skills profiles before the educational transition to upper secondary education. Further, the study examined differences in gender; socioeconomic status (SES); and perceived social relationships, educational aspirations, and school anxiety across the profiles. The study used OECD data collected from…

Drawing on interviews with nine PhD students and twelve PhD graduates from a research university in Taiwan, this paper explores students' motivational profiles for pursuing a PhD at a time when that degree is increasingly decoupled from academic employment. Using self-determination theory as a conceptual lens, the paper identifies common enrolment…

To explore the differential impact of job automation for different groups of primary and secondary school students, an analysis of variance was conducted using survey data on the occupational aspirations of British school students (aged 7-18) and probability statistics derived from a model of job automation. Results indicated that students aged…

Previous studies have shown that educational expectations of individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES) are relatively unaffected by low academic performance, a phenomenon called "sticky expectations." However, this result might be biased by endogeneity and reverse causality between academic achievement and educational…

Background: Differences in competence gains between academic and non-academic track schools are often attributed to selection effects based on students' primary school performance and socioeconomic status (SES). However, how the competencies of comparable students (in terms of school performance and social background) at different tracks develop…

Graduating from college is widely associated with social and personal advancement, yet many young graduates are not experiencing these benefits. Drawing on 127 interviews with college graduates in the United States and Spain who face employment precarity or economic instability, this study asks: How do these graduates understand their social…