Event Title
Navigating the Path to Work: Discrepancies Between the Educational and Occupational Expectations of Low-Income
Faculty Mentor
Dana Wood
Keywords
Dana Wood
Abstract
Research shows that students from lower-income areas have less access to education that prepares them for future occupations as compared to students living in middle class neighborhoods. The purpose of our study is to examine whether the occupation students expect to pursue aligns with the amount of education students expect to attain. Research participants include 350 Los Angeles high school juniors (50% Latino and 50% Black/African-American) enrolled at a large public high school in a highly impoverished neighborhood. We expect to find three patterns of beliefs: students expect to attain less school than their occupation requires, more school than the occupation requires, or both schooling and occupational requirements will match. We believe students who display a mismatch between expectations will exhibit fewer college preparatory behaviors than those whose expectations are well aligned.
Session Name:
Poster Presentation Session #1 - Poster #69
Start Date
4-4-2014 11:30 AM
End Date
4-4-2014 12:15 PM
Location
HSB 3rd Floor Student Commons
Navigating the Path to Work: Discrepancies Between the Educational and Occupational Expectations of Low-Income
HSB 3rd Floor Student Commons
Research shows that students from lower-income areas have less access to education that prepares them for future occupations as compared to students living in middle class neighborhoods. The purpose of our study is to examine whether the occupation students expect to pursue aligns with the amount of education students expect to attain. Research participants include 350 Los Angeles high school juniors (50% Latino and 50% Black/African-American) enrolled at a large public high school in a highly impoverished neighborhood. We expect to find three patterns of beliefs: students expect to attain less school than their occupation requires, more school than the occupation requires, or both schooling and occupational requirements will match. We believe students who display a mismatch between expectations will exhibit fewer college preparatory behaviors than those whose expectations are well aligned.