Dimensions of science capital: exploring its potential for understanding students’ science participation

DeWitt, Jennifer; Archer, Louise; Mau, Ada

doi:10.1080/09500693.2016.1248520

Cited by 120 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…This is consistent with some families being potentially able to provide specific science capital, which is likely to be facilitated when parents work within science (Archer et al 2015a;DeWitt et al 2016). Additionally, more children from Pakistani and from Bangladeshi backgrounds consistently expressed science-related aspirations, which links with prior research highlighting that families from some ethnic backgrounds may have more science capital through parents holding positive views about science and/or science-related careers and encouraging sciencerelated aspirations in their children (Archer and Francis 2006;Archer et al 2014).…”

Section: Findings Contextualisation and Implicationssupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Specifically, the idea of science capital (somewhat following from sociological ideas of capital) encompasses multiple dimensions that include someone's self-confidence in feeling that they know about science, thinking that science is useful and relevant for careers, having parents who work in science and/or who find science interesting, engaging in extra-curricular science-related activities, and being encouraged to study science (Archer et al 2015a;DeWitt et al 2016;Godec et al 2017). Essentially, science capital aimed to collate dimensions that associate with personal identification with and aspirations towards science, and combines aspects that might otherwise be conceptualised as distinct motivational attitudes or beliefs (within someone's habitus and/or within an expectancy-value model of social-cognitive theory) and/or as distinct forms of social capital or family capital that reflect aspects of available resources, networks, and/or support and encouragement (Archer et al 2015a).…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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 also 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).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14

Sheldrake

2018

Res Sci Educ

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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 sciencerelated 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.

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Section: Findings Contextualisation and Implicationssupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14

Sheldrake

2018

Res Sci Educ

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“…For example, the theory of planned behaviour proposes that intentions/choices follow from someone's confidence and subjective values and also from social norms or other pressure, guidance or advice (Ajzen 1991). Students' science intentions and choices have indeed associated with advice and encouragement from various sources, although at varying and sometimes low magnitudes (Archer et al 2015a;DeWitt et al 2016). Students have infrequently mentioned that influences from other people were relevant to their choices (Holmegaard et al 2014), although some students have cited a lack of support and encouragement as a reason, together with other reasons, for not studying science (Aschbacher et al 2010).…”

Section: Students' Attitudes and Beliefs Within Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other research in England has highlighted the relevance of advice and encouragement, although at varying magnitudes (Archer et al 2015a;DeWitt et al 2016). Due to prior research covering different samples, analysed through different approaches, it remains difficult to definitively conclude whether any one factor is more important than any other.…”

Section: Predictive Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ Changing Attitudes and Aspirations Towards Physics During Secondary School

2017

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Many countries desire more students to study science subjects, although relatively few students decide to study non-compulsory physics at upper-secondary school and at university. To gain insight into students' intentions to study non-compulsory physics, a longitudinal sample (covering 2258 students across 88 secondary schools in England) was surveyed in year 8 (age 12/13) and again in year 10 (age 14/15). Predictive modelling highlighted that perceived advice, perceived utility of physics, interest in physics, selfconcept beliefs (students' subjective beliefs of their current abilities and performance) and home support specifically orientated to physics were key predictors of students' intentions. Latent-transition analysis via Markov models revealed clusters of students, given these factors at years 8 and 10. Students' intentions varied across the clusters, and at year 10 even varied when accounting for the students' underlying attitudes and beliefs, highlighting that considering clusters offered additional explanatory power and insight. Regardless of whether threecluster, four-cluster, or five-cluster models were considered, the majority of students remained in the same cluster over time; for those who transitioned clusters, more students changed clusters reflecting an increase in attitudes than changed clusters reflecting a decrease. Students in the cluster with the most positive attitudes were most likely to remain within that cluster, while students in clusters with less positive attitudes were more likely to change clusters. Overall, the cluster profiles highlighted that students' attitudes and beliefs may be more closely related than previously assumed, but that changes in their attitudes and beliefs were indeed possible.

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Longitudinal associations between parent degree/occupation, parent support, and adolescent motivational beliefs in STEM

Hsieh

Simpkins

2022

Journal of Adolescence

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Introduction The United States struggles with racial/ethnic disparities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) degrees and occupations. According to situated expectancy‐value theory, the experience and knowledge parents gain through STEM degrees and occupations shape the STEM support they provide and relatedly their adolescents' STEM motivational beliefs. Methods We analyzed data from the High School Longitudinal Study (N = 14,000; 50% female; Mage = 14 years old at 9th grade), which is a recent U.S. data set that surveyed a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Results and Conclusions Results showed that parent STEM support in 9th grade and adolescent STEM motivational beliefs in 11th grade were lower in families where parents did not have a STEM degree/occupation than in families where at least one parent had a STEM degree/occupation. Our within‐group analyses suggested that parents' STEM support was generally positively related to adolescents' STEM motivational beliefs among families where parents did not have a STEM degree/occupation for all racial/ethnic groups except Black adolescents. However, these relations were not significant among adolescents who had a parent STEM degree/occupation. Furthermore, although Asian and White adolescents' parents were more likely to hold a STEM degree/occupation than Latina/o and Black adolescents' parents, the associations between parent STEM support and adolescents' STEM motivational beliefs emerged for Asian, Latina/o, and White adolescents.

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Dimensions of science capital: exploring its potential for understanding students’ science participation

Abstract: As concerns about participation rates in post-compulsory science continue unabated, considerable research efforts have been focused on understanding and addressing the issue, bringing various theoretical lenses to bear on the problem. One such conceptual lens is that of

Cited by 120 publications

References 33 publications

Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14

Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14

Students’ Changing Attitudes and Aspirations Towards Physics During Secondary School

Longitudinal associations between parent degree/occupation, parent support, and adolescent motivational beliefs in STEM

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