Development and Validation of the Motivations for Career Choice Scale: Illustrated Empirically in 2 Priority Fields of STEM and Teaching

Motivations within the Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) impact particular choices of career including STEM (e.g., Watt, Shapka et al., 2012) and teaching (Watt & Richardson, 2007). Measurements until now have highlighted the particular career of interest within the survey question stem or items. In our new Motivations for Career Choice scale (MCC) we provide a measurement platform that can apply across career types to compare and contrast motivations. The MCC is a generalisation and extension of the Factors Influencing Teaching (FIT-)Choice scale. Prefaced by the stem, “It is important to me to have a career that…”, the MCC transposes SEVT constructs previously adopted in the FIT-Choice scale, adding features of the interpersonal environment. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis using two independent samples (1,225 grade 12 students in Australia, 1,152 grades 11-12 students in Germany) supported the theorised structure and established metric measurement invariance across contexts and language translations, with the MCC presenting as a promising measurement platform for researchers and policymakers interested to compare and contrast motivations for individuals aspiring to different types of career. I illustrate its application to adolescents’ career aspirations in two priority fields – for STEM and teaching – and discuss implications for future research and educational practice.

Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3551416611792?p=n8sUC57wg70xw24DRq