Secondary School Career Research Articles

Cut-Laceration Injuries and Related Career Groups in New Jersey Career, Vocational, and Technical Education Courses and Programs

Investigations of young workers, including limited surveys in supervised school settings, suggested their elevated injury risk. This study identified factors contributing to cuts-lacerations among adolescents in New Jersey secondary school career, technical, and vocational education programs. Of 1,772 injuries reported between December 1, 1998, and September 1, 2010, 777 (44%) were cuts-lacerations; analyses focused on 224 reports (n = 182 post-exclusions) submitted after fall 2005 in three career groups-Food, Hospitality & Tourism (FHT 63 cuts were from knives in FH&T. In M&C, most cuts-lacerations were caused hand-held tools (n = 18) and being struck against/by or caught between hard surfaces (n = 19). Males reported more cuts-lacerations (n = 145), most commonly among 11th graders (n = 54) and ages 16 to 17 years (n = 79). Fingers (n = 117) were most often injured, usually cutting tools (n = 83). Training, supervision, and appropriate equipment, and further assessments of struck by and pinch point hazards, are needed. Language: en

Cut-Laceration Injuries and Related Career Groups in New Jersey Career, Vocational, and Technical Education Courses and Programs

Investigations of young workers, including limited surveys in supervised school settings, suggested their elevated injury risk. This study identified factors contributing to cuts-lacerations among adolescents in New Jersey secondary school career, technical, and vocational education programs. Of 1,772 injuries reported between December 1, 1998, and September 1, 2010, 777 (44%) were cuts-lacerations; analyses focused on 224 reports (n = 182 post-exclusions) submitted after fall 2005 in three career groups-Food, Hospitality & Tourism (FH&T) (n = 71), Manufacturing & Construction (M&C) (n = 84), and Automotive & Transportation (A&T) (n = 27). Most students were "struck by" tools or hard surfaces (n = 93, 51%); 63 cuts were from knives in FH&T. In M&C, most cuts-lacerations were caused by hand-held tools (n = 18) and being "struck against/by" or "caught between hard surfaces" (n = 19). Males reported more cuts-lacerations (n = 145), most commonly among 11th graders (n = 54) and ages 16 to 17 years (n = 79). Fingers (n = 117) were most often injured, usually by cutting tools (n = 83). Training, supervision, and appropriate equipment, and further assessments of "struck by" and "pinch point" hazards, are needed.

Good practice in secondary school careers programs

PurposeCareer programmes within secondary school curriculum can impact on a young person's sense of direction and meaning in life. The purpose of this paper is to report on an evaluation that was conducted in 2009 of the careers programmes in one secondary college in the western suburbs of Melbourne.Design/methodology/approachThe research team utilised a multi‐method approach collecting 273 surveys and undertaking both focus groups and interviews, ensuring the voices of young people were at the centre of the work.FindingsInnovative careers and transition programmes create opportunities for young people to plan for their future. Similarly the absence of established careers programmes can compound the disadvantage that some students experience. The findings evidence how important it is for schools to support inclusive classrooms that enable young people to make informed decisions about their career pathways.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings were used to form a model of good practice and highlight the transformational impact of career and transition programmes for young people. The current research explores student knowledge, confidence, attitudes and perceptions while they are still at school. A longitudinal study, tracking these same young people as they progress to tertiary education and/or employment, would enable more definitive evidence on actual transitions and the actual outcomes experienced by young people.Originality/valueThis paper is of value to the education sector as it looks to respond to the need to develop a more seamless approach to young people making successful transitions to further education and/or employment.

Boys’ Music Education: Using the Boy’s Music Ecosystem Model to Better Understand Successful Teaching Practices

Experienced music educators rate their senior class of musicians by often using the terms exceptional, talented, average, limited, unremarkable or apathetic. This summative evaluation considers class size, academic results, willingness to participate in extra curricula musical activities or post secondary school career choices in the music industry. Such characterisation by teachers raises the question: To what extent does this determination depend on the individual traits of the students, their musical experiences or the personal influence of their music teachers? This pilot study examined this question by comparing six cohorts of senior musicians over the six years of their secondary school music education within an action research context. Through the use of the Boy’s Music Ecosystem model (Collins, 2011) and interview results, the study revealed six themes that point to successful practices in boys’ music education and the possible benefits of a longitudinal view across a boy’s entire secondary school music experience.

Transition and Tertiary Education: A Case Study of Mzuzu University, Malawi

This article reviews the role of guidance and counselling in Malawi in reducing dropout and easing the transition of students to tertiary education, as well as in helping them during their time in tertiary education. It begins by identifying key success factors in guidance and counselling services for learners in both developed and developing countries. The article argues that the provision of viable secondary school careers guidance and changes to the university counselling programme could reduce the dropout rate and create a smoother transition for students during tertiary education with a positive impact on learning progression. The rationale for integrating guidance and counselling between school and tertiary provision is then explored. Drawing on case-study research carried out at Mzuzu University (MZUNI), the article presents findings on the preparation of students at secondary school for university education, the relationship of subjects offered at secondary school to courses pursued at university and the challenges faced by students as they start university and progress through the levels. The article concludes with some recommendations for enabling smoother transitions through the integration of school guidance and counselling in learning institutions.

South African Career Guidance Counsellors' and Mathematics Teachers' Perception of the Accounting Profession

The shortage of accounting professionals is well-documented. To address this shortage, greater numbers of school students should be attracted and enrolled in undergraduate accounting programmes. Unfortunately, school students may have misperceptions of the accounting profession. These misperceptions may result in potential entrants to the profession being lost to other professions. Secondary school teachers play an influential role in students' perceptions of future careers. This survey assessed the perceptions of the secondary school career guidance counsellors and mathematics teachers' perceptions of the accounting profession in South Africa in comparison to the medical, engineering and legal professions. The findings suggest that the accounting profession is held in lower esteem than the engineering and medical professions, but in higher esteem than the legal profession. The findings confirm previous research conducted in the USA, Australasia and Japan. Marketing and recruitment programmes should educate secondary school teachers as to the true nature of the accounting profession.

Non‐promotion or enrolment in a lower track? The influence of social background on choices in secondary education for three cohorts of Dutch pupils

Research on educational careers generally regards non‐promotion (grade retention) as harmful for the subsequent educational career. The present study argues that in tracked education systems, such as that in the Netherlands, non‐promotion may appear to be an attractive option for under‐achieving children, especially when the alternative is to enrol in a lower track. We hypothesise that particularly high‐status pupils and their parents will choose non‐promotion over transition to a less demanding educational track. Our analysis is based on three cohorts of Dutch pupils, who started their secondary school careers in 1989, 1993 and 1999, respectively. The findings support our hypothesis that social background has a positive effect on non‐promotion, compared to transition to a lower track. The data do not support our expectation that the attractiveness of non‐promotion increased after the introduction in 1999 of the unpopular pre‐vocational track (VMBO).

EDUCATIONAL PARTICIPATION POST-16: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF INTENTIONS AND OUTCOMES

ABSTRACT: The issue of levels of participation in post-compulsory education has been emphasised by the current policy initiatives to increase the age to which some form of participation is compulsory. One of the acknowledged weaknesses of research in the field of children's intentions with regard to participation is the lack of longitudinal data. This paper offers a longitudinal analysis using the Youth Survey from the British Household Panel Survey. The results show that most children can express intentions with regard to future participation very early in their secondary school careers and that these intentions are good predictors of actual behaviour five years later. Intentions to stay on are more consistent than intentions to leave and most children who finally leave at 16 have at some point said they want to remain in education post-16. The strongest association with participation levels is attainment at GCSE. However, there are also influences of gender and parental background and these remain, even after attainment is held constant. The results show the value of focusing on intentions for participation at a very early stage of children's school careers and also the importance of current attempts to reform curriculum and assessment for the 14–19 age group.

Locating Social Justice in Career Education: What can a Small-Scale Study from New Zealand Tell Us?

Career education occupies a pivotal position, relating school to the wider social, political and economic world. Yet it remains an under-researched curriculum area, with little attention given to issues of social justice. In this article I discuss the findings from a small-scale qualitative study, which consisted of an hour-long semi-structured interview with a secondary school careers teacher in a New Zealand provincial city. While acknowledging the limitations of this research, the findings do provide a degree of illumination when considered alongside the literature, thus contributing to the debate about the concept of career education, the role of career educators, and where social justice fits. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, the findings explore how social justice is understood and located within this particular setting, providing the reader with an opportunity to critically reflect on the conclusions reached, and consider these within the context of their own localised programs and practice(s).

Noted: Primer migrates online

The trio of books dubbed The News Manual, which grew out of a search in the mid-1980s for resources for University of Paua New Guinea students, were published in 1991 with backing from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). 
 Thorough and clear guide to basic reporting skills, including ethics, the law, and English grammar, their 700 pages formed an important resource in a region where only a lucky few got tertiary training, let alone specialised journalism coaching, and were (still are) often plucked from a short secondary school career and thrown in the deep end.

Footprints Forwards Blocked by a Failure Discourse: Issues in Providing Advice about Medicine and other Health Science Careers to Indigenous Secondary School Students

A dominant discourse constructs Indigenous secondary school students as likely to leave school early and unlikely to take up a health career. We believe that this failure discourse shapes the school and tertiary transition experience for the majority of Indigenous students, regardless of their capabilities and aspirations. Career development practitioners have the potential to change the experiences of Indigenous school students and play a part in closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health outcomes. However, only 18% or 26 out of 144 Victorian secondary school career advisers or guidance counsellors who responded to our survey demonstrated the knowledge, skills and understanding to effectively advise and support an Indigenous student who expressed an interest in a health career.

Bernstein e a Classe Média

This paper explores Basil Bernstein’s insights into education and social class, and in particular the relevance of his work for understanding the British middle class. Bernstein is one of the few sociologists of education to recognise and explore differences and tensions within the middle class. We begin by exploring some of the infl uences of Bernstein’s theorisation of social class in general, and outline his main ideas on the relationship between the middle class and education in particular. We then examine the relevance of his work for research on education and middle-class differentiation through drawing on data from our ‘Destined for Success’ project. This project traced the educational biographies of 300 young men and women from the beginning of their promising educational secondary school career to their mid-twenties. We argue that the distinctive dispositions and orientations of the ‘new’ and ‘old’ middle class proposed by Bernstein are evident within parental preferences for types of school, processes of student engagement and, ultimately, differentiated middle-class identities.

Dropout and Downward Mobility in the Educational Career: An Event-History Anaylsis of Ethnic Schooling Differences in the Netherlands

While many aspects of educational careers have been examined ill the literature on ethnic minorities, such as truancy, turnover and grades, downward mobility has rarely been studied. Using data on more than 10,000 students who entered secondary school in The Netherlands in 1989, we develop an event-history model for secondary school careers and we use this model to analyse the determinants of dropout and downward mobility simultaneously. Our findings show that students from Mediterranean and Caribbean immigrant families are about 3 times as likely to drop out from secondary school without a degree compared to Dutch children. They are also more likely to be downwardly mobile during their secondary school career, but this differential is weaker Compositional differences with respect to individual ability and parental resources explain a large part of these differences. When holding constant parental resources and individual ability, ethnic students are less likely to experience downward mobility than Dutch students. In other words, when there is failure in the school career Dutch children are more likely to follow the route of downward mobility whereas children from ethnic minorities are more likely to drop out altogether. The multitrack nature of the Dutch educational system thus may have a negative impact on ethnic inequality.

The Causes and Consequences of Student Mobility

Student mobility-students making nonpromotional school changes-is widespread in many schools and districts throughout the United States. Mobility not only can harm the students who change schools, it can also harm the classrooms and schools they attend. This article examines the incidence, causes, and consequences of student mobility in the United States. Research reveals that the causes and consequences of mobility are more complicated than many people assume. The final part of the article discusses what parents, schools, districts, and policymakers can do to address this growing educational problem. [S]ince I've been here it's well over 800 students from July through December who have left. They have been replaced by 800 more coming in. We're about 3800 as far as active students right now . . . so you're constantly dealing with 1000 students leaving, 1000 students coming in. (Principal from California high school, as quoted in Rumberger, Larson, Ream, & Palardy, 1999, p. 29) Student mobility is widespread in many schools and districts through the United States. Student mobility is the practice of students making nonpromotional school changes, often during the school year. Mobility not only can harm the students who change schools, it can also harm the classrooms and schools they attend. Many educators believe that student mobility is an inevitable result of students changing residences. Indeed, the majority of student mobility in the United States is a result of families changing residences. But not all student mobility is the result of residential mobility, particularly at the high school level. Schools contribute to mobility due to such things as overcrowding, class size reduction, suspension and expulsion policies, school choice, and the general academic and social climate. Schools can also help address the problem by both reducing unnecessary mobility and mitigating its harmful effects. This article examines the issue of student mobility. It first examines data on the incidence of student mobility in the United States. It then reviews the research literature on the social and academic consequences of mobility for both students and schools. Next, it reviews the research literature on the causes of mobility. Finally, it discusses what parents, schools, districts, and policymakers can do to address this growing educational problem. THE INCIDENCE OF STUDENT MOBILITY Student mobility is pervasive in the United States. According to data collected through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Math Assessment, 34% of 4th graders, 21% of 8th graders, and 10% of 12th graders changed schools at least once in the previous two years (see Figure 1). The incidence of student mobility varies by race, ethnicity, and family income. For example, data from the 1998 NAEP show that: (a) 41% of Hispanic American and 45% of Black fourth-grade students changed schools in the last two years, compared to 27% of White and 33% of Asian American fourth-grade students; and (b) 43% of fourth-grade students who were eligible for the national school lunch program (i.e., low-income students) changed schools in the last two years, compared to 26% who were not eligible (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). The incidence of student mobility is even higher when viewed over a student's entire elementary and secondary career. Based on data from a national longitudinal study of a cohort of eighth graders in the United States, more students made nonpromotional school changes during their elementary and secondary school careers than remained in a stable pattern of attending a single elementary, middle, and high school (Rumberger et al., 1999, p. 23). School changes were more common during elementary school than during secondary school. In fact, mobility is the norm during elementary school, while it is the exception during high school. Student mobility not only varies widely among students, but also among schools. …

Bernstein and the Middle Class

This paper explores Basil Bernstein's insights into education and social class, and in particular the relevance of his work for understanding the British middle class. Bernstein is one of the few sociologists of education to recognise and explore differences and tensions within the middle class. We begin by exploring some of the influences of Bernstein's theorisation of social class in general, and outline his main ideas on the relationship between the middle class and education in particular. We then examine the relevance of his work for research on education and middle-class differentiation through drawing on data from our 'Destined for Success' project. This project traced the educational biographies of 300 young men and women from the beginning of their promising educational secondary school career to their mid-twenties. We argue that the distinctive dispositions and orientations of the 'new' and 'old' middle class proposed by Bernstein are evident within parental preferences for types of school, processes of student engagement and, ultimately, differentiated middle-class identities.

Liberalizing Career Education: An Aristotelian Approach

Liberal education is traditionally defined in opposition to vocational study. This article proposes an expanded approach to liberal education that encompasses contemporary career preparation programs by implementing an Aristotelian intellectual virtue framework. Although liberal study typically reflects its lineage to theoretical wisdom, or sophia, it virtually ignores the fundamental role played by productive wisdom, or techne, in Aristotelian thought. By applying the intellectual virtue framework to various career education programs, areas of required reform are identified. Two central questions are addressed by the article: (a) how can career education be integrated into secondary school curriculum without compromising student agency and democratic citizenship? and (b) how can secondary school career education prepare students more effectively for the challenges of contemporary working life? The final section offers a series of proposals in response to these two key questions.

Secondary School Identities and Career Decision Making

Within this article we shall examine the assumption of the inevitability of applying for promotion. For this purpose we consider those who are interested in applying for promotion beyond Principal Teacher (head of subject department) level. We seek to identify the factors relating to self concept which might distinguish these teachers from those who plan to go no further up the ladder. The findings we report derive from a study of the identities of Scottish secondary school Principal Teachers and Assistant Headteachers, drawing on five elements of identity. While some elements of identity are found to vary with role, this only occurs when career intention is taken into account. A considerable proportion of both groups of staff do intend to seek further promotion, and links are drawn between these intentions and gender, age and length of time in post.

The Importance of Nutrition Re-defining Ideal Womanhood in the 20th Century

Increasingly historians have been studying the importance of popular culture, such as film, radio, and popular music, in the lives of adolescents. Receiving less attention has been the role of less dramatic, but perhaps more pervasive print media provided through the school system and through girls' organizations. In 20th-century America, hundreds of thousands of girls attended home economics classes during their primary and secondary school careers. In these often mandatory courses students were exposed to textbooks that presented complex, but still clear images of the appropriate social roles for girls and women. Popular youth organizations, such as the Girl Scouts, presented similar messages.This paper examines these crucial, but under-studied sources of American culture. These materials encouraged girls to prepare themselves for domestic life in general and motherhood in particular. They emphasized the defining, gendered role of cooking, insisting that through nutrition, girls--and the women they were...

Electronics—a career opportunity or a passing phase?

This paper was originally written to support a presentation given to Scottish secondary school teachers and career advisors and explains why electronics offers a really exciting, rewardingand intellectually stimulating career for school leavers.

Researching Education Policy: Ethical and Methodological Issues

Part 1 Theory, Scholarship and Research into Education Policy: Where we are now - reflections on the sociology of education policy, Charles D. Raab Coming to terms with research - the contract business, May Pettigrew Scholarship and sponsored research - contradiction, continuum or complementary activity?, Robert G. Burgess. Part 2 The Ethics of Research into Education Policy: The constraints of neutrality - the 1988 Education Reform Act and feminist research, Beverley Skeggs, Researching inside the state - issues in the interpretation of elite interviews, Stephen J. Ball Sex, lies and audiotape - interviewing the education policy elite, Jenny Ozga and Sharon Gewirtz. Part 3 Methodological Perspectives on Research into Education Policy: Ethnography, policy-making and practice in education, Martyn Hammersley Students' secondary school careers - research in a climate of moving perspectives, Gwen Wallace, Jean Rudduck and Susan Harris.