The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to examine factors influencing community college Career Technical Education (CTE) students in their field of study choice. The problem was twofold: (1) Community college CTE performance metrics include earnings goals, but there is little research to inform the performance metric (Harrington, Mbomeda, & Casillas, 2018; Roberts, Leufgen, & Booth, 2018); and (2) CTE students, who are disproportionately economically disadvantaged, pursue fields of study that do not lead to a living wage (Bahr, 2010; Booth & Bahr, 2012; Zhang & Oymak, 2018). For this within-stage mixed model design (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004), I created an instrument to examine quantitative and qualitative data for CTE field of study choice. The Choice of College Major Survey (CCMS) had three domains: 1) student characteristics, which consisted of the 27 Likert items; 2) sociodemographic, which consisted of the seven demographic items; and 3) six open-ended items, which were the qualitative part of the study. I tested variables within the student characteristics domain and the career integration variable. I found statistically significant (p I used the conceptual model of Hirschy, Bremer, and Castellano (2011) for community college CTE student success. Although I did not set out to propose a new conceptual model, my findings led to a proposed conceptual model for CTE field of study choice, based on the model by Hirschy et al. (2011). My findings indicated a distinction between influencers, which were included in the conceptual model by Hirschy et al. (2011), and purposeful process, which was not included. Because the conceptual model by Hirschy et al. (2011) was designed to explain student attainment of educational goals rather than field of study choice, purposeful process was not relevant in the original model. Further testing and validation of the CCMS and the proposed conceptual model would add to theory and practice. In this paper I make recommendations for policy and practice and suggest further research.

Thesis (MDEV.) --University of Limpopo, 2016 / The aim of this study is to assess the impact of career guidance for career choice in the secondary schools of Sepitsi Circuit in Lebowakgomo District, Limpopo Province. The total number of secondary schools in the Circuit is twelve (12), with 20 Life Orientation Educators (LOEs) and 275 Grade 12 Learners (GR12Ls). All schools are public schools having the same features of rural and previously disadvantaged communities’ context. The study was conducted during examination time and therefore co-operation both in the part of learners and educators was not at the maximum as expected. The research is evaluative in nature as the researcher sought to assess the effectiveness of Career Choice (CC) as influenced by the implementation of Career Guidance (CG). The primary data were collected by means of two categories of questionnaires for mostly close-ended questions and open-ended questions for Grade 12 Learner (GR12L) respondents and Life Orientation Educator (LOE) participants respectively. The findings show that CG is not given the necessary attention at secondary schools as GR12Ls and LOEs struggle to understand obvious CG concepts. This research project focuses on the value of such a study both to explain how Career Guidance need to be taken as the mother of all subjects in schools as it is the nucleus in the realization of the main aim of every country’s education system, participating fully in the world of work for socio-economic growth. The study’s recommendations concluded that Career Guidance, which is part of Life Orientation (LO), should be given the status of a full subject in our schools.

This study was designed to determine the effects of the infusion of career-education concepts into the language arts and social studies curricula of fifth-grade students. Hypotheses related to differences in mean scores of students in the experimental group and the control group on the Reading Test, Language Test, Study Skills Test of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, as well as on the total battery scores. Additional hypotheses were formulated concerning the difference between proportional mean scores on the Career Education Questionnaire and three self-concept inventories designed by Instructional Objectives Exchange. The following conclusions are based on the findings of this study: (1) Infusion of career-education concepts into content areas of the curriculum can result in the increased academic achievement of-students. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that, statistically, the arithmetic mean scores for the experimental and the control groups were not significantly different. Gains in language expression and mechanics, reading vocabulary, and references study skills can result when students relate academic knowledge to the world of work; (2) Students' attitudes toward career education can be altered through the provision of factual information and meaningful experiences; and (3) The self-concepts of students are relatively stable and not altered appreciably during a brief period of time.

This dissertation study focuses on the stories that five Italian American teachers tell about their pathways to the teaching profession. The overarching question of this study is: What happens when the researcher attempts to construct interpretations of how Italian American teachers in New York City describe their pathways to becoming teachers? This question is supplemented by the following related questions and subquestions: How, if at all, do the study participants describe their choices to become teachers within the framing concept of “pathways”? What other ways, if any, do the participants speak of their chosen careers? What framing concepts do they employ, if any, other than “pathways” toward their careers as teachers? How, if at all, do participants describe their “identities” as Italian American teachers within both the confines and the possibilities offered by the concept of pathways? What assumptions and biases does the researcher bring into this study that focuses on Italian American teachers’ descriptions and understandings of their career choices? To interrogate, interrupt, and ultimately respond to these research questions in this multicase study, the researcher conducted open-ended interviews with five Italian American teachers who have taught or currently teach in New York City schools, aiming to explore both personal and culturally relevant histories of these specific Italian American teachers. Using Laurel Richardson’s (2005) creative analytic practices, the researcher aimed to present representations of her own interpretations of the “stories” that these teachers would tell about their specific “pathways” to teaching as Italian American teachers in New York City. The researcher attempted to convey a sense of the multitude of factors that could influence one’s interpretation of “story” by (re)presenting data in the format of pastiche, with textual layers of various voices intertwined. The researcher’s “non-conclusions” included a furthered wondering of her own motivation in choosing to be a creator of a collage-like work, as well as a questioning of her reliance on the metaphor of “pathway” and the original research focus, especially in light of the conversations that ultimately took place. The researcher continues to seek to re-inscribe the focus of this work as a wondering about how to disturb, disrupt, and/or unsettle the category of “Italian American teacher.”

This quantitative study evaluated the gains and evaluation outcomes of the compulsory Career and Technical Education (CTE) Introduction course. All Utah public school seventh-grade students are required to enroll in this school-year course. The matched-pair design used preexisting data to analyze 6,078 pre- and postsurvey responses collected at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course during the 2011-2012 school year. The evaluation was viewed through a postpositivist lens and employed a theory-based evaluation model as the framework for analysis. The research questions addressed four student variables: career planning, career self-efficacy, career knowledge, and course evaluations. Gender differences along school counselor relationships were also evaluated as possible predictors on course evaluations.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to assess the ways current higher education approaches to career education, counseling, and preparation models served, or disserved, economically marginalized first-generation Latinas (EMFGL) and their career identities. In centering EMFGL-identifying college graduates, this study used interviews to glean an understanding of what the EMFGL career education experience was like and how forms of career preparation in college equipped, or unequipped, students’ career pathways. Driven to assess how higher education institutions can come to eradicate the generalization of their career counseling and education practices and ideologies, this work further uncovers how EMFGL graduates use their career counseling and education realities as a faculty—a sensibility—to (a) critique and question the dominant forms and depictions of career success operating under Western and capitalistic paradigms and (b) to (re)define the spaces that constrain, define, and drive EMFGL steps beyond the collegiate space.

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This qualitative case study is designed to document the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on career and technical education (CTE) in Pennsylvania. The research was conducted utilizing a qualitative case study protocol on two specific CTE Centers in the suburban Philadelphia area. The study centered on the following question. Has compliance to the accountability components of NCLB impacted the delivery of secondary education in CTE centers in the Pennsylvania? The study identified the changes that have occurred to selected CTE centers in the NCLB era. The assessment mandates of federal policy NCLB are narrowly focused in academic curriculum. The data used to answer the questions was accumulated through interviews with facility staff and the examination of archival records at the two specific centers to be researched. This study determined the impacts of NCLB on the facilities. The impacts included; decreased enrollment, increased academic and testing focus, reduction in technical budgets, increase in academic budgets, increase of special education students, staff changes for the increase of academic areas, morale issues, program changes, shifts in staff development, facility changes, negative publicity and public image due to academic reporting in the media. Questions for future study. What are the costs, financial and opportunity related to the reduction in CTE for increased academics? How many students have been denied the opportunity of attending or completing CTE programs? Why there isn't an alignment of NCLB and IDEA goals? What is the emotional impact to our students who keep getting told they are below basic? The conclusion from this study suggests that the public education system in this country needs to be more centered on actual student outcomes and preparing students with marketable skills and not based on the narrow focus of academic test scores. / Educational Leadership

Locus of control, age, and sex were examined to determine the relative amount of variance each contributed to three variables: Rational, Intuitive, and Dependent decision-making styles. Subjects (N=96) who had been identified as having a disability, who were receiving financial assistance through Vocational Rehabilitation Services, and who had volunteered to complete two scales and a demographic and personal data questionnaire, comprised the sample. One scale, the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale (ANSIES) was used to measure locus of control. The Assessment of Career Decision-Making (ACOM) was used to measure decision-making styles. The results of the study provided evidence that three independent variables (locus of control, age, and sex) contributed significantly to Rational, Intuitive, and Dependent decision-making styles. / Ph. D.

The present study was focused on higher education settings and the implementation of career education programs to promote the career development of their students. The major purpose of this study was to determine if the course, Career Planning and Decision-Making (1980), which was developed by Appalachia Educational Laboratory, was effective in assisting Freshmen community college students in developing their career planning and decision-making skills and enhancing their career decision-making behavior. The secondary purpose of the study was to obtain the students' evaluations of the course. The Career Planning and Decision-Making Student Surveys, the Assessment of Career Decision- Making (ACDM), the end-of-unit evaluations, and a structured interview were used to gather data. Analysis of variance was utilized to determine the significance of the difference between the groups on the pretest scores at the -05 level of significance. The differences following treatment were determined by repeated measures analysis of variance using the .05 level of significance. The course, Career Planning and Decision-Making (CPDM) was taught during the Winter Quarter, 1981, at a small rural community college in Virginia. The population consisted of forty five freshmen in transfer programs who volunteered to enroll in the course. From this group assignment was made to the experimental group (N=18) and the control group (N=18). Analysis of the results revealed: (1) significant differences between CPDM and non-CPDM students at the .05 level of significance on achievement of course objectives as measured by the Student Surveys and (2) significant differences at the .05 level of significance between CPDM and non-CPDM students on the Rational style of decision-making, as measured by the ACDM. There were no significant differences at the .05 level on (a) progress made with regard to implementation of the decision to go to college, (b) progress made with regard to selecting a major, and (c) progress made with regard to selecting an occupation to pursue after college completion, as measured by the ACDM. A review of the structured interview and end-of-unit responses indicated that the students felt they had been stimulated by the course, in a positive way, in their career planning. They recommended that the course become a permanent course offering at the freshmen level. Through a comprehensive analysis of the findings, the conclusion was reached that overall the course, Career Planning and Decision-Making was effective in assisting college students in developing their career planning and decision-making skills as well as enhancing their career decision making behavior. / Ed. D.