Schooling, Labor Markets, and STEM Occupational Expectations: A Comparative Perspective

Encouraging more students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and occupations has been a prominent part of the national agenda in many countries. Policymakers and researchers consider improvement of STEM literacy for all students a lynchpin to promote student engagement in STEM education and occupations. However, there has been little focus on fostering educational and occupational expectations in STEM. However, prior research has shown that career expectations for STEM in high school matter for students' educational and occupational attainments.;Several international studies have revealed cross-national differences in both science-related career expectations and gender gaps in these expectations, but little is known about their sources. In this dissertation, I investigate the degree to which features of national education systems and labor markets are associated with cross-national variation in STEM occupational expectations among students by using large-scale international surveys and student achievement data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003, and 2006.;This study finds that cross-national differences in both education systems and labor markets are associated with students' STEM occupational expectations, but this association differs across STEM subfields (computing and engineering, and health services). For example, students' health services occupational expectations are negatively associated with both curricular standardization and stratification in secondary education, whereas computing and engineering occupational expectations are not associated with any of the characteristics of secondary education systems measured in the current study (the standardization of curriculum, the number of school types available to 15-year-old students, or early tracking). The association between curricular standardization and health service occupational expectations differs by gender and across performance levels. This study provides evidence that postindustrial economies are negatively associated with expectations for STEM occupations, particularly, engineering and health services occupations.;The results of this study may encourage policy makers and researchers to consider the unintended consequences of educational reforms. Several countries have attempted to implement national curricula and assessment standards, and although these reforms may improve students' test scores as intended, the results of this study suggest that such reforms may also lower students' interests in pursuing STEM occupations.