ABSTRACT

The journey to pursue and persist with a career in STEM is a complex process that begins at a young age, continues across secondary education and the end of school transition to university. Such decisions are influenced by a range of personal, social and environmental factors, highlighting the practical complexities of supporting young people in their transition to university. This paper explores the post-school transition of two students, one female and one male, with strong technological dispositions and aspirations to pursue careers in STEM fields. We focus on two STEM disciplines, Information Technology and Engineering, chosen by our participants. We employ the theory of practice (Bourdieu 1977) to analyse two students’ experience of transition. The findings from these case studies are not intended to be generalised. Rather the in-depth stories and theoretical case analysis provides a nuanced account of transition to study STEM disciplines. Importantly, the pathways into university were not equal for the participants. Class and gender intersected with university structures to enable and constrain students’ transition highlighting the significance of institutional supports within STEM disciplines to better support diverse students across the period of transition to university.

摘要

追求和坚持从事 STEM 职业的旅程是一个复杂的过程，从年轻时开始，持续到中学教育和学校过渡到大学的结束。这些决定受到一系列个人、社会和环境因素的影响，突出了支持年轻人向大学过渡的实际复杂性。本文探讨了两名学生（一名女性和一名男性）的毕业后转变，他们具有强烈的技术倾向和在 STEM 领域从事职业的愿望。我们专注于参与者选择的两个 STEM 学科，即信息技术和工程。我们采用实践理论（Bourdieu 1977）来分​​析两名学生的过渡经历。这些案例研究的结果并不打算一概而论。相反，深入的故事和理论案例分析为研究 STEM 学科的过渡提供了细致入微的描述。重要的是，参与者进入大学的途径并不相同。阶级和性别与大学结构相交，以促进和限制学生的过渡，突出了 STEM 学科内机构支持的重要性，以在过渡到大学期间更好地支持多样化的学生。