Synopses & Reviews
Education and Career Choice reports on a research project that offers a new perspective on post-sixteen transitions. Using an approach that combines a synthesis of secondary data with the collection and analysis of narrative accounts it describes how young people in the UK make choices at the end of their compulsory schooling. It presents a dynamic model of decision-making that is unconstrained by currently fashionable theoretical concepts and provides a thorough critique of the current state of research in this area.
Synopsis
This research project offers a new perspective on post-sixteen transitions. Combing secondary data with narrative accounts it describes how young people in the UK make choices at the end of their compulsory schooling and provides a dynamic model of decision-making and a thorough critique of current research in the area, beyond fashionable concepts.
Synopsis
Education and Career Choice reports on a UK research project that offers a new perspective on post-sixteen transitions. Following the emerging 'new political arithmetic' approach, a synthesis of secondary data is combined with the collection and analysis of narrative accounts to both describe how young people make education and career choices, and to relate this to contextual factors and recent historical trends. Unlike most recent research in the area, it presents a model of the decision-making that is both dynamic and unconstrained by currently fashionable, yet fundamentally problematic, theoretical concepts. The research findings are accompanied by a thorough critique of the methods of data collection and analysis used in several highly influential studies, and many commonly accepted substantive findings are shown to be unwarranted.
About the Author
PATRICK WHITE is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Leicester.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements * List of Tables * List of Figures * Abbreviations and Terms * Introduction * Educational and Career Decision Making: An Introduction to the Issues * Methods, Conext and Sample * Contextualising Post-Sixteen Transitions: National, Regional and Historical Trends * Conceptualising Choice: Types, Stages and Models * Choice Motivations in Year 9 * Choice Factors and Rationales in Year 11 * Destinations, Aspirations and Trajectories * Concluding Remarks * Appendix * Index