The influence of UAE schools initiatives on high-school students’ STEM career aspirations

Abstract

Students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career aspirations are influenced by the cultural, cognitive, and contextual factors that affect their self-efficacy, outcomes, expectation, motivation, interests, and choices (Lent et al., 1994). This study investigates the influence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) schools on high school students’ STEM career aspirations. UAE schools are considered the cultural factor, where many new initiatives and policies take place, such as the science, technology, and innovation policy and new high school equivalency policy. In this study, the students’ STEM career aspirations involved the cognitive factor and the contextual factor. The participants were high school students (n1=330) and teachers (n2=10) from different schools across UAE. A concurrent mixed-methods approach used quantitative data (online survey) and qualitative analysis (semi-structured interviews). The results reveal new initiatives in schools have a strong positive impact on students’ STEM career aspirations. However, some gaps occurred where recommendations were made.