‘I Felt Like Being Upgraded’: Emerging Adults’ Experiences of Socioeconomic Resources in Relation to Their Vocational Identity Development in Turkey

The present study aimed to explore how economic and social resources interact with emerging adults’ vocational identity development. Emerging adults ( N = 108) from different socioeconomic backgrounds in Turkey were interviewed. Participants' reflections on the intersection between socioeconomic resources and vocational identity development were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results revealed that access to economic and social resources was described as a mediating factor between vocational choices and identity expression. Participants’ reports also showed that economic and social resources interacted with vocational identity development by affecting vocational exploration, expectations of vocational choices, perceived support and guidance, and future projections. While participants’ socioeconomic background was a significant factor affecting the prevalence of participants’ experiences, connections between the subthemes also indicated different clusters of experiences. Results provide important insights regarding the intersection between socioeconomic resources and vocational identity and the boundary and promoting factors leading emerging adults to pursue their vocational aspirations.

Introduction

The introduction examines the concept of spirit, which, thanks to psychologists like Gordon Allport and theologians like Winifred Kirkland, had become synonymous with the term “personality.” Thus, to the extent that prostheses were regarded as spiritual extensions of their wearers, they could reveal the fuller dimensions of amputees’ personalities—their emotional and spiritual strivings, not just their practical or vocational aspirations. These prosthetic designs were in keeping with vitalist Henri Bergson’s hope that the war would instill in the Allied forces not a “mechanization of spirit,” but rather a “spiritualization of matter.” Then drawing on prosthetic theories outlined by Vivian Sobchack, the introduction articulates the book’s thrust: designed and depicted to transcend their materiality in the hopes of offering disabled veterans a new start in the postwar world, prostheses often possessed the insidious potential to physically and psychically mechanize their wearers. Finally, the introduction offers a chapter-by-chapter summary.

Teacher Motivational Strategies for EFL Learners: For Better or Worse

This study examines how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ motivational practice affects learners based on a motivational design for learning and performance, the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction (ARCS) model of motivation. There was also an examination of how learners’ perceptions of teachers’ motivational practices were contributing to learners’ L2 proficiency. A total of 242 high school EFL learners completed questionnaires on their teachers’ motivational practice, and 12 of the learners’ teachers completed complementary questionnaires to indicate their use of motivational tactics or strategies. One-to-one interviews with eight learners were additionally conducted. Results indicated that the learners were underutilizing the motivational strategies (MS) that their teachers claimed to use. On the other hand, teachers’ attention-getting strategies and confidence-building strategies were significant predictors of learners’ language proficiency. Interview data revealed that the learners’ underutilization of teachers’ motivational practices was due to problems in lack of MS variability, motive mismatching, and natural consequences. Although teacher’s use of MS is generally believed to enhance learners’ motivation, the findings provide empirical evidence on how MS need to be implemented to accommodate learners’ vocational aspirations, and support classroom climates that can promote communicative language teaching practices.

Stedlige perspektiver på skoleliv og yrkesfag

The articles featured in this special issue aim to investigate the importance of places and social space for the understanding of young people's educational choices, vocational aspirations, and educational results in Norway. In a country priding itself of its comprehensive educational system across social class and large geographical distances, a comparative perspective on education in different local contexts, allow to open the "black box" of spatial educational inequalities. A long overdue emphasis on vocational education in structurally differentiated contexts, that is, Oslo, Telemark, Hordaland, Rogaland, Trøndelag, Troms and Finnmark, contributes to this aim. The articles are organised in two sections: firstly, perspectives of place and space as opportunity structures leading to differences and inequality, secondly, contributions to understand place and space as a subjective frame of reference. We hope that the discussions presented will offer valuable insights while stimulating further debate, both on the study of young people’s spatialised school lives, and on the broader societal questions that they highlight.

A Meta-Analysis of the Correlates of Educational and Vocational Goals for Latina/o Students

Among Latina/o Americans, the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, disparities exist in educational and career attainment. The emergence of research on Latina/o students has resulted in varied findings that make it difficult to draw conclusions as to which predictors are most closely associated with goal outcomes for this population. Using meta-analytic techniques, the current study examined the magnitude, direction, and heterogeneity of effect sizes across multiple educational and vocational goal outcomes for Latina/o students (i.e., educational/vocational aspirations, expectations, goals/plans, and persistence). Across 34 independent samples from 33 studies, career-related self-efficacy, peer support, adult support, barriers, and Anglo acculturation had moderate effects on at least one of the outcomes, with career-related self-efficacy and peer support being moderately related to two or more outcomes. If replicated, this research suggests that interventions focused on career-related self-efficacy and peer support could enhance the development of educational and career goals for Latina/o students.

AN ANALYSIS OF YOUNG ADULTS’ CAREER ADAPT-ABILITIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF VARIOUS SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

The purpose of this study is to investigate young adults ‘career adapt-abilities with a view to various socio-demographic variables in the socio-cultural context of young adults in Turkey. The survey data were collected through a structured questionnaire consisting of a personal information form and career-related questions, and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) developed by Savickas and Porfeli, 2012, and adapted into Turkish by Kanten (2012). The findings of the study corroborated the significance of miscellaneous demographic variables in accounting for the variability in young adults ‘career adapt-abilities. The most robust predictors of overall career adapt-abilities are the existence of a future career plan, and conscious choice of department (p< .05). Previous experience contributes to boosting young adults’ confidence. Gender, income, hometown, and future vocational aspirations to practice in the same field as one’s studies do not significantly predict overall career adaptability.

Universities' Engagement with Vocationalism: Historical Perspective

The aim of this article is to explore the historical context of vocationalism in universities. It is based on an analysis of the history of the university from a vocational perspective. It looks for evidence of vocational engagement in the activities of universities over time, taking a long view from the birth of the Western University in the Middle Ages to the 1980s with the emergence of current issues of vocationalism in university education. It adopts a chronological perspective initially and then a thematic one. The main findings are: (1) vocationalism in university education is as old as the Western University itself, (2) there is evidence from the start of the Western University of vocational engagement in terms of the provision of vocationally relevant subjects, vocationally relevant skills and the development of vocationally relevant attitudes, (3) whereas most graduate employers used to be concerned with the vocationally relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes students acquired on their degree courses, most are now more concerned with graduate capacity and disposition to learn within their employment after graduation and (4) subject-centred education is compatible with university education that supports the vocational aspirations of students.