Sheldrake, RP;
(2018)
Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14.
Research in Science Education
10.1007/s11165-018-9739-2.
(In press).
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Abstract
In order to gain insight into which children aspire towards science-related careers and how these aspirations change over time, 7820 children in England from the nationally representative Millennium Cohort Study were considered. Few children (8.6% of the cohort) consistently expressed science-related career aspirations at age 11 and again at age 14; more children (15.7%) changed from expressing other (non-science) aspirations at age 11 to express science-related aspirations at age 14; other children (12.2%) changed from expressing science-related aspirations at age 11 to express other aspirations at age 14; and the remaining majority of children (63.5%) consistently expressed other career aspirations. Children who consistently expressed science-related aspirations had more advantaged family backgrounds, higher proportions of parents working within science-related fields, higher self-confidence (in science, mathematics, and English), higher school motivation, and higher self-esteem, compared to children who consistently expressed other aspirations. Children who changed towards science-related aspirations were more likely to be boys, children from white backgrounds, and children with higher (at age 14) mathematics self-confidence, science self-confidence, school motivation, and self-esteem. Children who changed aspirations towards science were characterised by increasing science self-confidence, while those who changed aspirations away from science were characterised by decreasing science self-confidence. The findings suggest that further support may be beneficial to help ensure that children’s aspirations are not unnecessarily limited by family disadvantage; support after age 11 may also benefit from promoting the feasibility of science careers for all children, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11165-018-9739-2 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9739-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Aspirations, Longitudinal, Social mobility, STEM |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10051499 |
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