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This study examines the post-graduation plans of international science and engineering doctoral students at a public research-intensive university, and the extent to which graduate school experiences influence post-graduation plans. The study is grounded in Tinto's Integration Model as well as Berry's Acculturation Model. Study findings highlight the variety of challenges international doctoral students go through such as adapting to a new culture, experiencing English language difficulties, and cultural, social, and academic adjustment barriers. Using survey data collected in 2013-2014, this study reveals the complexity of factors that affect post-graduation plans and need for institutional initiatives to provide socio-cultural and academic support, and recommends changes in immigration policies to sustain the retention of talented international scientists and engineers upon degree completion.

This paper aims to report stories of two Thai learners who were purposively selected from a quantitative study of 233 freshmen. They study English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the monolingual context. They were formally interviewed three times about their L2 motivation and learning experiences using narrative inquiry. Narrative data were supplemented by such personal and social artifacts as their memorable photos. The Ideal L2 self and the person-in-context relational view of motivation were used to analyze multifaceted aspects of both individual and contextual factors shaping their L2 self and identity. The findings suggested that they seemed to envision themselves becoming proficient English users. However, one student had stronger visions than another one. His L2 self and identity were highly influenced by the American pop culture, social media, and social networking from school to university. His desirable self-image tended to be strengthened by his sustained effort to communicate in English both inside and outside class. By applying the findings, stories of two participants can be used as exceptional cases, rather than generalizable, and as a basis for developing a series of pedagogical strategies which might be tested in the field of language teaching in the future.

The significant increase of international students, who leave their family at home, to study abroad, especially in the discipline of nursing, has implications for educational practice. This study's aim was to explore adult international students' experiences of leaving spouse and children--for further education overseas. A descriptive phenomenological approach to inquiry using Colaizzi's (1978) analysis framework revealed four themes: living with emotional turmoil, living in a world of negativity, living with an expectation to cope and driven by personal ambition. The findings identified a hidden world of emotional trauma, psychological stress, and negativity, specifically related to relinquishing their role in the family. The authors conclude that an "open door policy" that provides individual counselling and timely support for academic and social purposes is necessary.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of loneliness on academic participation and success among 213 students studying at Usak University. A total of 213 international students studying at Usak University, including 151 males and 62 females, were selected and participated in the research voluntarily. In the study, feelings of loneliness among international students significantly impacted academic participation and success of the students. According to research, feelings of isolation and lack of aspiration for the future significantly affect the academic performance of students in complex ways. Generally, students who have aspirations for the future tend to participate and thrive in school. However, students who feel lonely and isolated tend to spend their time idly and therefore do not thrive in academic environments.

We analyze innovation in university strategic plans to assess whether innovation is a stated priority, to what end innovation is sought, and whether innovation is a comprehensive strategy or more carefully bounded, excluding innovation opportunities. Our analysis utilized Atlas.ti software to quantify word usage and to extract and classify sentences that state innovation intentions. Innovation, entrepreneurship and transformation are mentioned often in university strategic plans, conveying aspirations to change, both inside the university (to improve the institution) and outside (for the benefit of society at large). In recent years (especially since 2015), these terms have become unifying themes of many plans aiming to modernize, improve and become more responsive to societal needs, spanning multiple mission areas. Moreover, the terminology has been adopted by a broad range of American universities, though less often by those that have the highest rankings for their undergraduate education and research programs. Though innovation strategies nudge universities toward change by promoting adoption of technology, service to diverse students, and creation of buildings and spaces for collaboration, strategic plans do not express aspirations for disruptive forms of innovation that alter the direction of higher education.

The examination of academic achievements is common in educational research literature, with most studies referring to grades (marks) as measures of success. In addition, outside the realm of research, a student's grades are usually the main criteria for admission to education programmes, nomination for honours (passing above ordinary level), award of scholarships and so forth. However, scholars have put forward several arguments against the use of grades as the sole or most important measure of academic success. This research note focuses on a specific aspect of this problem, namely the failure to consider learners' personal perspective regarding their own achievements. Many approaches to evaluating achievements call for their examination in light of previously defined goals. However, each learner defines her or his aspirations and goals differently, while achievements are usually measured on a uniform scale. This research note reviews this problem and considers alternative models (including both their advantages and their shortcomings) for defining academic success in terms of expectations and motivation. In addition, the author proposes a measure to enable the evaluation of academic achievements in terms of an individual student's goals and aspirations.

Our purpose in this paper is to put forward an argument about both the need and the value for understanding how the constructs of science identity and the nature of science (NOS) might intersect and intertwine and offer useful insights about science participation in times of crises. Based on our knowledge and understanding of these two research areas, we maintain that science identity research has not been fully engaged in understanding how perspectives on NOS might be intersecting with the questions of who can be (or not) a scientist and who is allowed (or not) in science. In this paper, we argue that the formation of a disrupting science identity that challenges existing constructed systems of power in science, requires robust understandings of NOS that place emphasis on the socially-produced narratives about science and scientists. In doing so, we engage with the following questions: (1) How have understandings of NOS contributed to conceptualizations of who can be a scientist and who is recognized as a scientist?; (2) How have these conceptualizations contributed to producing exclusionary narratives and perpetuating inequalities in science?; and (3) How might an exploration of NOS through the lens of science identity be used to promote goals related to equity and social justice?

This study investigates how adolescents begin to demonstrate skills and approaches that help them pursue their aspirations. The qualitative study examined emergent forms of key indicators of adolescent thriving: the 5Cs of positive youth development and sense of purpose. Pre- and post-program interviews with 24 S2 (~seventh grade) Scottish adolescents who participated in a school-based character program explored the presence, absence, and elucidations of each of the 5Cs as well as their conceptualizations of a sense of purpose. Findings showed great variability within the sample, despite participants' similarities in age, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. This work informs future study and measurement of potentially nascent forms of the 5Cs and purpose among early adolescents.

Most of the literature in educational research, and in philosophy of education specifically, has been clearly appealing to hope in its various forms, in attempts to bring it back, improve it and have more of it. This paper wishes to explore a different terrain. I ask whether there can be a worthwhile education that does not require hope, and I suggest that even when hope remains a commendable attribute of education, the strict prohibition on hopelessness in education should be rejected for there is much to be gained from embracing hope's opposite--despair. Firstly, I discuss hope's faults and drawbacks, focusing on the reasons for its rejection in ancient Greece and on its privatisation and commodification in contemporary capitalist society. Here, hope's connection to transcendence and the secular attempts to overcome it will be examined. Secondly, following the conceptualisation of despair by political theorist Robyn Marasco (2015), I reassess the dialectics of hope and despair and highlight the role of hopelessness in energising and enlivening critique. Finally, reading in Martin Luther King's famous 'I have a dream' speech, I suggest that a pedagogy of despair can accommodate presentism and even, despite its name, bring about a particular dialectics of hope.

While research exists on parent expectations associated with post-school outcomes of youth with intellectual disability, limited research examines issues of parent--and youth--post-school expectations relative to issues of community, such as living in rural versus urban or suburban settings. Through a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) 2012, we examined parent and youth expectations regarding post-school outcomes for students with intellectual disability relative to school locale (i.e., rural, urban, and suburban) and severity of intellectual disability. Youth from rural schools reported high rates of positive post-school expectations with regard to independent living and being employed, and their rates relative to independent living exceeded parental expectations. However, across the different variables, school locale was only a factor in the binary or ordinal logistic regression analyses for two dependent variables: parental expectation for their child to support themselves financially and parental expectations of obtained level of education.

This paper examines critical aspects of the birth of the new generation of Myanmar's emerging elite groups and their roles in the society based on in-depth qualitative research conducted in two universities in Yangon. It particularly pays close attention to the critical roles of the two universities -- as political, social and knowledge institutions -- in the formation of the new elite groups in Myanmar. The interplay between the students' individual agency and the two elite higher education institutes implies three sets of processes: the societal context in a transitional democratic country, the institutional habitus of higher education, and the young elites' agency. Findings from observations, interviews, and field research indicate that students attending the two universities exhibit a common sense of pride in being members of academically and historically prestigious institutions. At the same time, students in each university developed distinctive understandings of their roles as elites in the transitional society of Myanmar, reflecting the disciplinary difference of each institution. More importantly, this study found that the symbolic habitus of the two universities provided the new elites with a strong desire to contribute to the nation's development, although their actual practice and outcome remains uncertain. This study thus urges careful consideration of the role of higher education, beyond merely instilling symbolic prestige, to nurture the emerging elites to thrive in the rapidly changing society.

Science self-schemas are students' cognitive generalizations of their selves in learning science. Students who hold contrasting science self-schemas are hypothesized to learn consistently with their salient self-conception in science. A survey and an experiment provided complementary evidence supporting the self-congruent engagement hypothesis. Study 1 surveyed 329 Year 9 Australian students and classified them into three schematic groups based on their responses to questionnaire items assessing self-knowledge defining the science-self-schema concept. The results showed that positive, average and negative schematics held contrasting goals, strategies, and grade aspiration congruent with their self-conceptions when dealing with challenging science tasks. Due to the presence of a valued self, positive schematics compared to the other two groups had stronger intention to further their studies in science and follow a science career in the future. Study 2 used an experimental design to compare positive, negative and average schematics' coping responses when dealing with a difficult test in science. One hundred and one students who had completed the survey study joined Study 2. The findings confirmed the differences between these three groups. Positive and negative schematics completed the test in a way congruent to their self-conceptions. In the absence of an elaborated self in science, average schematics had less extreme responses compared to the polarized schematic students. The results derived from two studies indicate that science self-schemas are important identity-based conceptions for understanding students' science aspiration and coping responses to challenge science.

Universities play a critical role in the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals through the third mission, i.e. public engagement activities. However, female academics miss opportunities to be part of this mission because they are caught in many roles that prevent them from getting involved in the SDGs. In light of SDG5, "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls," we conducted interviews with twenty female academics from Iran and the Philippines to investigate their aspirations, opportunities and experiences with public engagement activities. Our findings show that, while recent gender policies have enabled female academics to develop robust careers, their contributions beyond the walls of the university remain limited because of longstanding patriarchal structures, distrust in women's professional expertise and unchanged systemic constraints. By bringing women's engagement activities forward and supporting them in the delivery of the SDGs, we reframe current debates on women's roles in academia. We argue that HE institutions may enhance their third mission and better achieve the targets of SDGs by valuing women's work and facilitating their engagement activities that may lead to significant societal impact. We conclude our paper with a series of recommendations for policy and practice that support women's journeys in academia.

This multiple case study elicited the voices of four 8th grade students, from a rural, low-income school district, who participated in STEM career explorations during their science class. Based on students' written reflections during career explorations, interviews, and from field notes, we analyzed the ways students talked about their lives and experiences as they explored STEM-related careers, reflected upon the influences in their lives, and considered their futures. Students drew upon their interests and dispositions, primarily through home-based experiences, and often in spite of negative messages at school. Students aspired to live and work in their rural community, make their families proud, and sought financial stability in a career they would enjoy. Findings highlight the importance of out of school learning for these students, the important role of their families, and the prevalence of negative and racialized school experiences that often undermined students' potential. In many ways, students held perceptions reflective of racial and gender stereotypes about who is successful in STEM, which influenced their aspirations. This study provides examples of how constructs from the expectancy-value theory are operationalized--particularly with regard to cultural and social experiences--through the voices of these rural students. The findings from this study lead to a number of recommendations related to university outreach efforts into rural communities, culturally relevant teacher professional development and pre-service teacher preparation, and dissemination to support others and draw insight from underserved students' lives when undertaking steps to promote their futures.

This paper aims to explore how refugee students construct pathways of access to higher education by drawing on interviews with 15 Syrian university students studying at different universities across Turkey. The research is located within a capabilities-based human development paradigm from which it outlines the factors that enable students' transition into university and looks at how they navigate complex higher education spaces. The refugees' narratives show that access to university is intersectionally shaped by personal ambition, family encouragement, community support, and the social and education policy. On the other hand, their educational experiences highlight that higher education works as a site of justice where the everyday racism, xenophobia, and discrimination is alleviated to a significant degree through providing a peaceful and safe space for coexistence with others despite its financial and pedagogical constraints. The paper draws attention to the agency of students in mobilising the assets they have gained for the good and well-being of their communities and fleshes out the values universities should promote for refugee students who have accessed university against the odds.

A student's 'meaning in life' and his/her connectedness to school, friends and family are believed to be factors that influence the development of life skills. Teachers could be aware of these factors in their endeavours to foster 'whole-person development' in their students. In this small-scale study, twelve secondary school teachers participated in three focus groups and reported their perceptions of students' meaning in life, connectedness and life skills. In general, they believed that having a definite goal means students have found preliminarily the meaning in life and the source of motivation. The teachers also observed that high achievers tend to set goals for "future" achievement, whereas the goals and aspirations of low achievers are much more "short-term." Teachers suggested that development of students' connectedness and life skills can be facilitated by the opportunity to converse with teachers, and the creation of a caring culture in schools that makes students feel valued. Conversely, parental expectations and strong academic orientation of the school may restrict students' personal goal-setting. The findings have practical implications for teachers, counselling professionals and other support staff in schools because specific guidance activities can be devised to strengthen students' connectedness, meaning in life, and life skills.

This study employs the notion of 'flexible citizenship,' to examine how national and transnational forces and discursive logics mediate Chinese international secondary school students' educational routes and life trajectories. It draws upon a larger ethnographic research programme that followed 11 Chinese students in a Canadian international secondary school across a period of 14 months. Our current findings affirm that neoliberal logics mediated by (trans)national cultural forces shape how participants navigate their lives. In employing flexible citizenship as a lens, we seek to support more comprehensive understandings of Chinese international students as agentic "and" socially regulated citizens-in-the-making in their transnational routes. More comprehensive understandings, in turn, elicit pedagogical insights on how study abroad might better support the education and wellbeing of (Chinese) students studying internationally.

To build educational capacity for the rapidly evolving science and profession of geocomputation, the American Association of Geographers piloted an Encoding Geography research-practice partnership (RPP) composed of geography and computer science educators and researchers. This commentary describes the process, known as Collective Impact, that was implemented to investigate the persistent problems of practice that have limited the participation of women and minorities in geocomputational education and careers. We also discuss the RPP's data-driven approach for developing an inclusive curriculum pathway aligned with student aspirations.

There are an increasing number of young people with a range of life-limiting impairments in our schools, colleges, universities and communities. One of these impairments is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a rare, life-limiting genetic muscle-wasting impairment that affects predominantly males. Twenty years ago, most people with DMD did not live past the age of twenty years, but now due to a range of treatments they are living longer. However, education and social care services are often yet to catch up with this improved prognosis. The aim of this paper is to compare the findings from structured conversations with members of the DMD community in Denmark and England. Historically, adults in Denmark have reported a good quality of life with an optimal health care programme and generous social care, whereas adults with DMD in England have reported poor transition to adulthood planning leading to social isolation as an adult. Findings identified three key themes: the existence of normative goals; expertise from lived experience, and the meaning of independence for someone with a complex impairment. These themes are further discussed through the lens of 'post-human thinking', and implications for practice are explored.

Although leadership is widely considered an aspect of giftedness, few studies have examined gifted students' beliefs regarding their own leadership abilities and their potential to become leaders. We developed a survey and administered it to a cross-cultural sample of 440 gifted and 303 non-identified secondary age participants to elicit their perceptions regarding good leaders and leadership, aspirations to become leaders, and expectations regarding leadership development for gifted students. Students overall expressed a preference for leaders who are able to provide a vision for the future and who care about others' feelings. Responses indicate that students believed honesty, social responsibility, and morality to be the most important characteristics of future leaders. Compared to non-identified students, we found that gifted students showed greater aspirations to become leaders, and their ultimate life goals and beliefs regarding leadership as a part of their talents was associated significantly with their leadership aspirations. We suggested how salient dimensions of cultural difference may have influenced some specific results observed for gifted students from South Korea versus the U.S. cultural context.

This article argues the insufficiency of the traditional application of cultural, social and economic capital in conceptualising the non-traditional student experience. Built on the thematic analysis of 52 in-depth interviews with 28 mature-age women nursing undergraduates with family responsibilities in Australia, an alternative, expanded model of capital is proposed. The qualitative study, underpinned by Gadamer's Hermeneutic Philosophy, revealed multiple threats and enablers to progression throughout the degree. Dimensions of capital previously unacknowledged in the nursing literature were necessary to fully conceptualise these rich and complex findings, including important student strengths. These dimensions: aspirational, navigational, resistant, familial and experiential capital, compensated when traditional dimensions were lacking, or incongruent with university expectations. This longitudinal study further revealed how the availability and importance of capital altered with the changing curriculum and participants' personal growth.

Background and context: This study investigates differences in views of girl and boy members of a CS club. Objective: Understanding differences in the views of girls and boys regarding perceived parental attitudes and values, social support, appreciation of CS, and engagement in science and CS. Understanding differences in girls' and boys' view of CS, and future study and work aspirations related to science/CS.M Method: A survey was distributed to all members of a CS club. 115 boys and 39 girls aged 9-16 completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 16.8%. Findings: Similar parental support was perceived by both genders, although girls are less likely to appreciate CS and to aspire to work or study CS. Girls tend to primarily talk to family about CS and science. Girls and boys have a similar perception of CS, but their motivation for wanting to work with CS varied. Implications: Having support, a broad understanding of CS, and a personal interest are critical aspects when it comes to girls' participation in CS, but these are insufficient in making girls aspire to work or study CS. Educators need to reflect on other aspects of CS education that can promote girls' aspiration in CS.

This study explored how collegiate norms of independence characterized the early collegiate experiences of men of color. More specifically, this study focuses on how men of color received cues and responded to collegiate norms that accentuate independence. Two prevalent themes that centered on internalization of normative expectations of independence emerged from the data. The first theme highlighted how participants received spoken and unspoken cues about autonomous academic expectations that affected their academic success. The second theme linked normative expectations of independence with suppressed help-seeking behaviors. Findings provide a holistic perspective for understanding why this population may not proactively seek out help. Implications for practitioners are discussed.

In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, the impetus to create open learning spaces that afford spatial and pedagogical flexibility have disrupted the nature of teachers' work. In redesigned education facilities, teachers engage in sophisticated processes of collaboration and ongoing teacher professional learning. Moving from traditional classroom designs brings with it a shift in how knowledge is transmitted, co-produced and engaging with aspirational pedagogy and attending to the power dynamics of students and teachers and teachers as co-collaborators. Using a patchwork metaphor to frame our methodological approach, examples from research projects into teachers' work from across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia addresses the question: "What is involved in high-quality teacher collaboration in Innovative Learning Environments?" This patchwork of practice is intended to support the work of those charged with researching, reviewing and enhancing collaboration in ILEs. Specifically, dimensions of alignment, acculturation, adaptation, aspiration and agency can inform teacher professional learning and development. By examining the complex conditions of ILEs in a range of projects, where teachers are no longer alone in teaching but contribute to both short-lived and sustained collaborations, we identify examples from research that illustrate new teaching realities in ILEs, and frame possibilities for action.

African Nova Scotians constitute the largest multigenerational Black Canadian community, with 400 years of presence in Atlantic Canada. Despite the end of "de jure" school segregation in 1954, African Nova Scotians' social and cultural capital were not incorporated in curricular and pedagogical practices. Using the theoretical framework of cultural trauma, this article draws from a qualitative study conducted using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with sixty participants. A cultural trauma process takes place after a traumatic event and involves a cycle of meaning-making and interpretation that can result in demands for reparation or civic repair. This study illustrates how through the cultural trauma process grounded in their collective memory, African Nova Scotians articulate an aspiration for culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy as a form of civic repair. This transformative pedagogy would facilitate a reconnection with their heritage and a fulfilment of the democratic goals of public education.

The author explores the words and writing of Rocky, Reyna, Blanca, and Elizabeth (grades 6-12) through their participation in Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers, a creative space for Latina girls and their parents. For 6 weeks, alongside their parents, girls used drawing and personal writing to dialogue about their experiences and bring into language the issues most important in their lives and worlds. Alongside one another, their writing served as a tool to define themselves and supported them in developing visions for the future. Their voices illuminate the urgency of connecting our writing classrooms and community spaces to the lives of youth to make writing relevant and meaningful in order to move our words into action.

Increasing and diversifying participation in science remains a key educational policy concern for governments across the world. "Science capital" has been proposed as a useful theoretical lens that can explain patterns in science aspirations among young people aged 11-16 -- but to date it has not been explored in relation to educational outcomes among older age groups. This paper reports findings from a new survey of 7,013 17/18 year old English secondary school students. It replicates and extends previous findings, showing that among older students, levels of science capital remain patterned by gender, ethnicity, cultural capital and science set. Comparison of effect sizes with previous findings from a younger cohort also reveal that, overall, levels of science capital seem to decrease with age. However, the proportion of students with 'high' science capital remained stable while the proportion of those with 'low' science capital increased. Analysis also revealed a small but significant increase in the proportion of boys with high science capital. Findings confirm that science capital relates to outcomes at age 17/18, with high science capital students being relatively more likely to be pursuing post-compulsory STEM qualifications and routes. Implications for educational policy and practice are identified, particularly with regard to goals of diversifying and increasing science participation.

From the independence of Ghana in 1957 to the ouster of the socialist President Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 more than 600 Ghanaians studied at universities and professional-technical schools in the Soviet Union. For both Ghana and the USSR these students were expected to become the socialist-minded elite that would build up postcolonial Ghana and reinforce the country's relations with the socialist camp. This paper retraces the history of this student migration which, by that time, was the biggest one from a postcolonial African country to the Soviet Union. It surveys the premises, visions, and policies of the Soviet-Ghanaian cooperation, and investigates the students' aspirations, before shedding light on their disappointing experiences and subsequent mobilisations in several cities around the USSR. This disillusionment, however, soon gave place to another one. With the ouster of Nkrumah, students studying in the Eastern Bloc came under attack. Back in Ghana, they were depicted as second-class specialists and often saw their ambitions shattered. Under those circumstances, Nkrumah's students sought support from the Soviet Union and mobilised to defend their degrees and professional rights. In some respects, the post-1966 disillusionment rekindled their relationship with the Soviet Union.

Despite acknowledgment that character operates as a multi-faceted system of multiple attributes, few efforts have examined this system by investigating how character attributes may combine in profiles and how profiles are related to individual internal strengths and contextual assets. Using data from 552 adolescents from the Northeastern United States (M[subscript age] = 14.11 years, 60% girls, 56% identified as White), we identified five latent profiles including the character attributes honesty, humility, persistence, future orientation, and purpose (beyond-the-self life goals). Three profiles were characterized by Low, Middle, and High levels of all attributes, respectively, the fourth profile by low levels of future orientation and persistence (termed Present-oriented), and the fifth profile (termed Aspirational) by low levels of honesty and humility with high levels of future orientation, purpose (beyond-the-self life goals), and persistence. The internal strength of intentional self-regulation differentiated between profile membership, whereas prosocial socialization from a known character role model did not. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Among a sample of 472 Indigenous high school students, juxtaposed with 15,884 non-Indigenous students from the same 54 schools, we investigated variation in motivation and engagement from school to school, and the role of motivation and engagement in predicting various academic outcomes (aspirations, buoyancy, homework completion, and achievement). We found significantly lower mean-levels of motivation and engagement among Indigenous students. Importantly, however, after accounting for age, gender, socio-economic status (SES), and prior achievement, the motivation and engagement differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students were markedly reduced. We also found that Indigenous students' positive motivation and engagement (e.g. self-efficacy, mastery orientation, etc.) predicted academic outcomes to a significantly greater extent than their negative motivation and engagement (e.g. anxiety, self-handicapping, etc.) predicted these outcomes. Findings are discussed with particular focus on how they may be helpful in identifying ways to enhance the educational outcomes of Indigenous students.

Despite the steps taken to improve support in universities, many students and graduates with autism face a substantial employment gap when completing university as compared to any other student group with disabilities. The literature shows that often students with autism do not have appropriate support to prepare them for entering the workforce. Therefore, it is imperative that this under-researched topic be studied. Utilising a participatory approach, in this article, we sought to investigate perceptions of students and graduates with autism about the employment support they received when preparing for university-to-work transition. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 30 university students and graduates with autism from Finland, France, the Netherlands, and the UK. Data were analysed using an inductive content analysis approach. Findings indicate that organisational enablers consisting of career-focused support and internships and practicums facilitated preparation for employment. Supportive and caring relationships emerged as forms of support that included mentors, committed and caring academics, and family members. Further, the findings indicated the aspiration for individualisation that consists of improving work and academic support, and awareness and understanding. These findings have also important practical implications.

The utilisation of non-formal educational methods has long been advocated as a means of supporting marginalised young people. For many in this cohort, the adverse social circumstances that confront them can limit their sense of hope and leave them susceptible to educational under-achievement and/or engagement in anti-social behaviour. Research indicates that sport can act as an effective back-drop for the promotion of non-formal educational programmes especially in relation to marginalised youth. However, there is contention over the role that such programmes play in providing a foundation for enhanced aspirational goals and social integration. Drawing upon research conducted on one UK-based sporting intervention, this paper explores how project engagement enabled participants to enhance their sense of hope, especially around education, training and employment. In so doing the paper demonstrates how the pedagogical approach adopted by project staff, drew parallels with critical education, and nurtured an increased sense of hope amongst participants.

Research on international students' post-study plans centres on factors influencing migration and career decisions. However, few studies have considered the impacts of individual institutions on students' aspirations and their subsequent transitions after graduation. In this paper, I employ the notion of institutional habitus in order to explore the extent to which higher education institutions expand or limit the range of options that international students could envisage or realise. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 55 non-EU international postgraduate students from three different UK universities, this study aims to uncover the complex diversity that underpins ostensibly similar UK higher education degrees. Notwithstanding the overlapping influences of individual, family, friends and institution, I argue that individual institutions play a significant role in shaping the ways in which participants imagine and experience the field of possibilities after graduation. This perspective also enables a more detailed examination of differences between and within the institutions.

Graduate student mentoring is a key component of successful university experiences, specifically, improved student retention, completion, and satisfaction. Tensions in application of existing mentoring frameworks create difficulties with university-wide approaches. We used a descriptive qualitative study design to explore graduate students' perspectives about mentoring. We interviewed 54 Canadian participants in 12 focus groups, including masters' (n= 19), unclassified (n= 1), and PhD (n= 34) students from multiple disciplines. Focus groups ranged in size from two to seven students. After transcribing interviews, we used inductive content analysis to develop themes. Students described mentoring as a transformative experience because mentors smoothed their paths. Receiving mentoring required students to advocate for themselves and access university structures that promoted mentoring. Transformative mentoring supported students' aspirational goals. Mentoring strengthens institutional supervisory practices and graduate student retention and success but it requires systematic approaches.

This longitudinal study of Mexican-American youth and emerging adults examines several ecodevelopmental factors longitudinally predicting high school and college graduation. Data from 1257 Mexican-American youth (including those born in Mexico and whose families are from Mexico) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were utilized. Predictors were measured when participants were in grades 7 through 11 and high school and college graduation data was surveyed 13 years later. Individuals' aspirations and expectations about college, parent-child relationship quality, expectations for graduation, and friends' GPAs were the important predictors of both high school and college graduation. Friends' lack of substance use was also a significant predictor for college graduation. The longitudinal method and examining both high school and college graduations are useful and unique in this area of research, and therefore important for future research and interventions.

This study aims to describe and interpret the critical aspects of the development of PhD candidates' professionally relevant, practice-near research competence in the fields of health, welfare and education. To provide knowledge regarding their development, a qualitative research design and phenomenological hermeneutic approach were used. Ten PhD candidates at a Norwegian multi-disciplinary research school were recruited through non-probability sampling. The following four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) relinquishing the professional status as a practitioner; (2) struggling at a low level of competence; (3) achieving autonomy as a PhD candidate; and (4) wanting to advance professional practice. The PhD candidates experienced loss when they relinquished their former professional status to become researchers while simultaneously struggling at a low level of competence compared to that of other qualified researchers. Thus, the importance of achieving autonomy to advance professional practice cannot be too strongly emphasised when PhD candidates are newcomers in a peripheral position within research communities.

This paper explores how young asylum seekers learn to belong to a local community. It takes its point of departure from a biographical and socially situated learning perspective and uses four analytical aspects of belonging: biographical experiences, engagement, imagination, and alignment. The data on which this paper is based are biographical interviews with five asylum seekers and field notes from a small mill town in Sweden. The findings show three types of learning: learning to be marginalised, learning to be disconnected, and learning to become a co-participant in the local community. Furthermore, the paper discusses how these learning processes are shaped by biographical experiences as well as access to the various communities of practice in and outside the local community, and how the asylum process negatively impacts their learning to belong to the local community and wider Swedish society.

The objective of the study was to analyse whether young people with physical disabilities have lower global self-esteem and less positive domain-specific self-concepts than peers without physical disabilities, as well as which processes protect their self-esteem. Data were collected from 179 German adolescents with physical disabilities and 296 adolescents without physical disabilities. Both groups did not differ in global self-esteem. However, adolescents with physical disabilities had lower self-concepts of athletic competence and social acceptance. Perceived athletic competence tended to show weaker associations with self-esteem in adolescents with physical disabilities than in the control group. Regarding processes of protecting self-esteem, adolescents with physical disabilities reported higher levels of emotional support when dealing with problems, a stronger tendency to present oneself in a favourable light, and stronger selection of goals that are easily attainable. A regression analysis indicated that a lower self-esteem of young people with physical disabilities compared to the control group emerged after statistically controlling for the elevated levels of self-protective processes in the former group. We conclude that social support, goal adjustments, and positive self-presentation protect the reports on self-esteem in young people with physical disabilities. Practitioners should be sensitive to the risk for biased self-reports when assessing self-esteem.

While three million youth in South Africa are not in education, employment or training (NEETS), not much is known about their schooling experiences nor their aspirations for the future. Eighty-seven post-school youth (PSY) were enrolled at a youth development and organisation (IYDO) centre in a Black township to the south-east of Johannesburg. This paper analyses the perspectives of these post-school youths of their formal schooling experiences and their aspirations for the future. The paper is framed by Willis's (2000) theory of the basic educational paradigm at the heart of the teaching relationship and intentional resistance from working class boys. Analysis of data showed the failure of the schools attended by the participants in providing a reasonable standard and quality of education as the main cause of dropping out of school. In spite of challenging structural constraints both historical and current, these post-school youth are not disaffected nor disengaged from quality education. Contrary to the literature, they aspire for a better life and for educational opportunities that would enable them to access professional and managerial jobs and upward social mobility. Appadurai's (2004) theory of culture of aspiration enabled making sense of participants' aspirations. The issue of post school youth requires not only alternative post school programmes but also attention to schooling practices within formal secondary school education.

This paper identifies and examines the narratives of the lived experience of young adults who had been previously disconnected from mainstream education but who are completing, or have successfully completed, an education in an alternative education programme in a regional city in Australia. It highlights the factors that contribute to successful educational outcomes and foregrounds the pedagogical practices that contribute to success. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven current and/or past participants. The narratives and narrative portraits reveal that the structure of learning and teaching environments, supportive relationships, as well as opportunities to identify goals and ambitions and manage fear and anxiety were key factors in achieving successful educational and personal outcomes. Success is influenced by pedagogical practices that are underpinned by an ethos of care, respect and flexibility.

This study explores experiences of 50 culturally and linguistically diverse African immigrant students attending public urban middle and high schools in the US. Drawing on in-depth interviews, and through constant comparison analysis, emerging findings highlight pedagogical, linguistic, and curricular variation struggles in the classroom; transitional contextual challenges; cultural mismatch; miscommunication, and stereotypes. In light of these experiences, African immigrant urban youth draw on familial, navigational and aspirational capital to resist stereotypical assumptions and to develop resilient skills necessary to navigate the inherent challenges. Findings underscore the importance of appreciating ways of knowing that deviate from the host country knowledges as instrumental to meeting the instructional needs of African immigrant students in United States schools.

The presence of gender disparities in academia was assessed by analysing the characteristics of the research agendas of academics. Multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modelling coupled with multi-group analysis were used to identify different gender trajectories. The research agenda preferences of women were less risky and less focused on fields likely to lead to scientific discovery, but were organised in a more collaborative way than those of men. In addition, institutional characteristics were found to influence the research agenda preferences of both women and men. However, the perceived autonomy allowed by a university was more important for female than for male academics to develop more ambitious, collaborative, risky and multidisciplinary efforts. Female academics also needed more time after completing their PhD to develop a preference for riskier research agendas, but past research outputs, the number of co-authors and mobility did not change their agendas.

This paper presents the experiences of mature students at a satellite campus of an English higher education institution. Twenty students over age 25 who fit various widening participation criteria were interviewed at four points during their first two years of bachelor's level study at a higher education (HE) centre in an area underserved by HE. Three aspects (familial, aspirational and social capital) of Yosso's model of community cultural wealth emerged as assets supporting students' success. Staying in their home communities allowed them to benefit from family and community networks, and their aspirations for their children fuelled their motivation. The study extends critical race theory to mature mostly white working-class students in English HE, contributing to policy debates about the role of satellite centres in supporting widening participation agendas. HEIs need to consider the capitals that mature students bring with them to their studies and how those support persistence.

Purpose: Entrepreneurial identity aspiration refers to the desire to occupy an entrepreneurial role in the future and is an essential impetus for initially engaging in entrepreneurial activities. Building on identity theory, the article investigates the effects of personal attitudes, experiences and inclination towards specific practices on the strength of entrepreneurial identity aspiration. Design/methodology/approach: This article applies multiple linear regression analysis to test the developed hypotheses on an original sample of 127 vocational college students in Austria. Findings: Results show that risk-taking propensity, proactiveness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and competitiveness drive entrepreneurial identity aspiration. The effects of innovativeness and need for achievement motivation are nonsignificant. Data further suggest that entrepreneurial identity aspiration is related to gender, while entrepreneurial exposure and previous entrepreneurship education show no or adverse effects. Practical implications: Based on our findings, the authors argue that education should focus on teaching and discussing the identified attitudes and inclinations to foster the formation of entrepreneurial identities. Doing so increases students' aspirations and provides them with the necessary cognitive underpinnings for subsequent entrepreneurial action. The article suggests action-based teaching to achieve this goal. Originality/value: This article is the first to investigate antecedents of entrepreneurial identity aspiration by connecting it to essential concepts of entrepreneurship research. The authors extend previous work on entrepreneurial identity and add to the theoretical approaches for research in entrepreneurship education. Furthermore, the article points out central aspects that should receive additional attention in educational settings.

The link between marriage and premature school-leaving among females in the Global South is a major preoccupation within the field of international development and education, yet theoretically-grounded qualitative scholarship unpacking this relationship remains scarce. This paper uses models developed to conceptualise female agency in constrained circumstances, combined with theory on youth's educational aspirations, to analyse several ethnographic case studies of the ways female pupils in northern Senegal attempted to 'get the best of both worlds', namely fulfiling the competing ideals of marrying and finishing secondary school. Findings are used to inform recommendations to guide future research, policy and programming on marriage and premature school-leaving in the Global South more widely.