Browsing by Subject "Career choice"

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Determinants influencing college major choice and their relationship to self-determined motivation, achievement, and satisfaction
(2009-12) Walls, Stephen Marc; Svinicki, Marilla D., 1946-
Postsecondary curricula are often the first opportunity where students can and are compelled to make choices regarding their adult professional life and the first opportunity students have to engage in serious and focused exploration of the various career options that might be available to them. While the general impact of a postsecondary education on career experience, including job satisfaction and success, is well documented, the factors influencing postsecondary students' career choice and how those factors impact college outcomes, including motivation towards, satisfaction with, and achievement in their chosen major field, appear to be more obscure and uneven. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a well-established motivational construct in the educational psychology field and the goal of this study is to explore the role that SDT may play in the relationship between determinants influencing a student's choice of major and their satisfaction and achievement outcomes. Using self-reported survey data from students across five disciplines at a large public four-year university, a cluster analysis was performed to determine if students could be grouped meaningfully based on their self-determination and the determinants that influenced their choice of major. Meaningfulness was assessed based primarily on the differences across the clusters on the satisfaction and achievement measures. Students were found to be too similar across the clusters on the achievement measure for meaningful interpretation on that outcome, but there did appear to be an important relationship between the influence of future outcomes and personal experiences in choosing a major and the students' satisfaction with their major. Multiple regression analysis was also employed to assess the degree to which achievement could be predicted by students' satisfaction, self-determined motivation, and determinants influencing choice of major. Self-determined autonomy was an important mediator and moderator of the effects that the determinants influencing choice of major had on satisfaction and achievement. Future directions in the research program, as well as the practical implications of the results, are discussed.
Female IT professionals in Brazil
(2011-05) Swim, Jamie Lynnora; Barker, Lecia J.; Bailey, Diane
São Paulo is considered to be the hub of technology in Brazil and many Brazilian women are finding jobs in the growing technology industry there. While questions about women‟s low involvement in technical careers in the United States are being researched by organizations such as the National Center for Women & Information Technology, the American Association of University Women, and the Anita Borg Institute, research on this topic in Brazil is considerably more limited. In January 2011, 10 interviews were conducted with women in São Paulo, Brazil working in information technology (IT) careers. In an effort to understand how they got to their current careers interviewees were asked for their personal stories, perceptions, views, and opinions on career choice, work/personal life balance, employment history, and education. The majority of the responses in these interviews revealed a similar situation and similar perceptions to those expressed in the United States. Participation by females in the male-dominated IT sector in Brazil has been decreasing over the past decades and reasons for low female participation in IT are complex. Interviews revealed that 1) women working in technical careers believe that IT jobs are considered appropriate for Brazilian women, but that technical programs and workplaces are mainly occupied by men, 2) Brazilian women feel constrained by the expectation for women to be primary caretakers of domestic responsibilities even when both partners work full time, and 3) women are considered to be better communicators in Brazil, but most upper-level leadership positions in IT are held by men. This study is meant to be an initial effort on which further research can expand.
Tenure-track, alt-ac, or post-ac : understanding career choice for women doctoral students in the social sciences
(2017-05) Struve, Laura Elizabeth; Reddick, Richard, 1972-; Bukoski, Beth Em; Saenz, Victor; Schudde, Lauren; Gonzalez-Lopez, Gloria
Women have made tremendous gains in degree attainment at all academic levels, including doctoral degrees. However, as women become the new majorities of their fields, an increase in their proportional representation in their career advancement and economic outcomes has not followed. The “educational pipeline,” a metaphor for the series of successful transitions between educational stages, degrees, and the workforce, has been used to understand how women “leak out” or advance through academia. Although the pipeline concept is useful in understanding the model of women’s progression, it does not capture the reality of how women advance in academia today. The purpose of this study was to understand women doctoral students’ perceptions and meaning-making of their career choices, in the context of two majority-women fields at a Predominantly White Institution. Utilizing social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), this study explored: 1) What, if any, barriers do women perceive regarding their career choice and how do they make meaning of these barriers? 2) What, if any, supports women perceive regarding their career choice, and how do they make meaning of these supports? 3) What, if any, opportunities women perceive regarding their career choice, and how do they make meaning of these opportunities? 4) How do women make meaning of gender, race, class, and other intersectional aspects of identity regarding their career choice? This study applied a critical qualitative approach with a quasi-phenomenological instrumental case study design. Drawing from 22 semi-structured interviews with women doctoral students in the social sciences, in addition to other data sources, three key findings emerged: women perceived their faculty advisors as gatekeepers to their academic success and thus, career choices; women made meaning from intersectional aspects of their identities, which informed their doctoral student experiences and perceptions of career trajectories; and lastly, women made meaning from constrictive workplace structures, both inside and outside of academia, which influenced their career choices. Ultimately, the goal of this study was to understand how women may be better supported by university faculty, staff, and institutional structures, as they make meaning of their career choices.