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.
Highlights
Across many countries, science-related fields increase prosperity through industry and innovation (ACOLA 2014; EngineeringUK 2017; Institute of Physics 2012)
While many graduates and scientists have believed that they always had an interest in science, almost a third of a sample of scientists from the USA (Maltese and Tai 2010; Maltese et al 2014) and over half of a sample from across Australia and New Zealand (Venville et al 2013) have reported that their interest developed during secondary school, which highlights the importance of this time
On average across the children in England surveyed by the Millennium Cohort Study (Table 1), 20.8% expressed science-related career aspirations at age 11, while 24.3% expressed science-related career aspirations at age 14; the other children expressed aspirations towards other careers or did not answer the questions
Summary
Children’s aspirations may be facilitated or constrained by many aspects of life, including the following: their family’s level of general Badvantage^ and/or resources, including family socio-economic status (Ashby and Schoon 2010; Bukodi et al 2015; Moulton et al 2018); their family’s level of science-related advantage and/or resources, including whether family members work within science-related fields (Archer et al 2015a; DeWitt et al 2016; Godec et al 2017); and by their own attitudes concerning science and their beliefs about themselves, including their self-confidence in Bdoing well^ or Bbeing good^ at science (Regan and DeWitt 2015; Tripney et al 2010; Vidal Rodeiro 2007) These various aspects of life are interrelated, where children’s attitudes towards science, for example, may be fostered or limited by their family’s background or resources (Archer et al 2015b). Aspirations during secondary school may be especially important, as some studying choices may potentially enhance or restrict future career options
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