Parent/guardian visualization of career and academic future of seventh graders enrolled in low-achieving schools.

These findings are from the first phase of a 5-year longitudinal interpretive study that seeks an understanding of how students enrolled in academically low-achieving schools located in economically disadvantaged areas socially construct their academic and career aspirations. This article describes the general perceptions that parents/guardians of 7th graders hold regarding the future of the students. The research revealed that although family support was evident, many students seemed to develop their ideas about their future in a nondirective environment in which parents/guardians frequently evoked a sense of regret about their own earlier decision making. Implications for practitioners and researchers are provided.

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Two consistent features of academic enrichment programs for low-income students at risk for failing in school are (a) relating academics to possible career choices and (b) parental involvement. Although there is increasing overlap in both practice and theory, these two concepts are frequently explored in different literatures.

Brown and Associates (2002) stated that career development theories have emerged from psychology; sociology; and, most recently, social constructionism. Primarily concerned with a proper fit between the person and a particular job, psychologically based theories focus on personality characteristics (e.g., interests, values, personality, and self-concept). Although these theories include environmental variables that affect personal agency, these factors tend to be underplayed.

Career choices from a sociological perspective focus on environment. Lent, Brown, and Hackett (2000) divided environmental variables into proximal factors (e.g., an individual's informal career contacts) and distal factors, which include contextual variables that affect the learning experience. These include role models as well as the support an individual receives for engaging in particular activities.

Blustein (1997) indicated that a compelling view is emerging in which the experience of a safe and secure set of relationships within one's family is an important antecedent to career exploration. In a survey of junior high students, Otto (2000) reported that the most cogent finding was that most young people look to their mothers for help with making career plans. In a study of seventh- and eighth-grade students, Turner and Lapan (2002) reported that perceived parental support was a predictor of career self-efficacy. Their results suggest that early adolescence may be a critical time for parental involvement in the career development of their children.

Recently, career development theories have been explored from a social constructionist position (Brown & Associates, 2002). As individuals understand and participate in their environments, they define themselves and their world (Creswell, 2003). This approach to career development is evidenced in Young, Friesen, and Borycki's (1994) use of narrative to understand how young people retrospectively make sense of parental influences.

Although references to parents as important contextual influences are often made in the career development literature, in education parental involvement is a specific, albeit challenging, goal. Yet, Baker and Soden (1998) reported that there is inconsistent definition of parental involvement. Some researchers have focused on attitude (e.g., parental aspirations or expectations for the child's educational success). Others have focused on behavior, such as assistance with homework or attendance at parent-teacher conferences. In other cases, parental involvement has been conceptualized as parenting style or family interaction patterns. Such differences in definitions make it difficult to assess cumulative knowledge across studies. Because of this lack of clear definition, Baker and Soden recommended exploration through open-ended techniques to provide rich data, shed light on multifaceted interactions and relationships over time, and generate new hypotheses about parental involvement.

Greater elucidation of parental involvement in schools that are located in economically disadvantaged areas is particularly important in that Lott (2002) indicated that institutions, including educational institutions, frequently create barriers to exclude low-status groups. Thus, although both career exploration and parental involvement are frequently commingled goals in these schools, there is a lack of understanding of how students reconcile their own interests with external influences.

Purpose of Study

The findings presented in this article are the first phase of a 5-year longitudinal interpretative study. One of the tasks facing any student is to craft a career path, a process influenced by ecological factors (e.g., opportunities presented, parents, schools). This task is especially complicated for low-income children for many reasons. Constructivist theory offers a way to conceptualize how students translate environmental pressure into career possibilities for themselves. The students are the primary focus of the longitudinal study; however, parents play an important and unique contextual role in how young people make meaning of their lives. In addition to providing baseline information about the family context in which the students are living, the initial round of interviews has offered some salient perspectives on how parents/guardians of seventh graders understand and visualize their child's academic and career future. As such, the purpose of this article is to describe the general perceptions that the parents/guardians of seventh-grade students attending schools in which students did not meet state standards of academic achievement (academically low-achieving schools) that are located in economically disadvantaged communities hold regarding the career and academic future of the students.

Method

Participants

The participants were drawn from 13 urban and rural middle schools that are partners in a state GEAR UP Project. This statewide project follows a cohort model, whereby the seventh-grade class of the 2001-2002 school year is provided consistent support for 5 years. Seven of the 13 schools were urban with 250 to 450 students in the cohort. The other schools were located in remote areas and ranged in size from 5 to 25 students in the cohort. Three of the rural schools were either on or in close proximity to Indian reservations, 2 were in agricultural areas, and 1 was in a remote mining community.

The average poverty level of the 13 schools, as determined by the percentage of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches, was 74%, substantially above the state average of 33%. The average mobility rate was 42%. Furthermore, these schools were some of the lowest performing schools in the state, with mean national percentile ranks of 25 in mathematics, 30 in reading, 38 in language arts, and 31 in science, compared with statewide averages of 52 in mathematics, 50 in reading, 52 in language arts, and 48 in science. No school was performing at or above the statewide average in any core area.

The Social Behavioral Institutional Review Board approved this protocol. Depending on the size of the cohort, two self-selection sampling procedures were used. Because the study is longitudinal, in large urban schools where mobility tended to be high, two school employees most directly involved in the GEAR UP project and representing different job categories (e.g., principal, teacher, counselor, program assistant) were asked to identify a cross section of students likely to remain in the community and who fit into one or more of the following groups: (a) leaders, (b) shy/quiet students, and (c) students perceived to be disruptive in class. From these pools, I provided an overview of the study so that students could choose to participate of their own free will. The potential bias of asking school personnel to create the pool from which the participants would self-select is recognized. Attempts to mitigate the bias were undertaken by asking a total of 14 employees in seven schools to identify the pools. In small rural schools, an invitation was made to the entire seventh-grade class.

In all, 57 students participated in interviews. Because of the voluntary requirement for participation, of utmost importance was ensuring that shy/quiet students were included, and this did occur in both the urban and rural schools. The sample included a balanced mix of students who were doing well and enjoyed school, who were struggling either academically or socially, or who fluctuated under different circumstances. There were leaders, followers, and students who described themselves as "outside the norm."

After receiving informed assent from the students, I contacted the parents/guardians; therefore, the parents/guardians did not self-select, but agreed to become part of the study. All 57 parents/guardians gave consent to interview their son/daughter and agreed to be interviewed. Only 47 parents/guardians participated in this round of interviews because no convenient interview time could be found for 10 of the parents/guardians. Only one parent or guardian of each of the students was interviewed.

Of the 57 students interviewed, there were 25 boys and 32 girls; 23 of the students were White, 15 were Native American, 10 were Latino/Hispanic, 7 were African American, and 2 were Pacific Islanders. Of the parents/guardians, there were 31 mothers, 12 fathers (the majority single fathers), 1 aunt, 1 uncle, 1 grandmother, and 1 legal guardian.