Navigating Futures: Examining How High School Curricular Tracks Influence Postsecondary Aspirations Among Education Majors

Navigating Futures: Examining How High School Curricular Tracks Influence Postsecondary Aspirations Among Education Majors Purpose Recent changes in secondary education policies across nations have focused on reforming curricular pathways to better prepare students for postsecondary education or direct entry into the workforce (OECD, 2022). This paper examines how the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FIT-Choice) framework has been used in different countries to understand students’ curricular pathway decisions, specifically in the context of choosing education as a major. It also provides new empirical evidence from an investigation of Filipino students' educational and career aspirations following a national education reform adding two senior high school years and introducing academic and technical tracks. The following research questions are addressed: 1) What specific personal, academic, socio-economic, and cultural factors influence students’ choices of high school track? 2) How is the choice of track associated with students’ decision to enroll in a bachelor's degree program in secondary education? 3) What unique culture factors contribute to understanding educational pathways, particularly in non-Western contexts? Literature Review & Conceptual Framework This study utilizes the Expectancy-Value framework, which posits that students' educational choices are shaped by their expectancies for success and the values they associate with specific academic pursuits (Eccles et al., 1983). These expectations and values tend to be influenced by various sources such as parents, teachers, and peers. However, there also may be structural barriers to students’ choices, such as limited access to educational pathways and a lack of information to make informed decisions (Kurlaender & Hibel, 2018). Building on the Expectancy-Value framework, the Watt and Richardson’s (2008) FIT-Choice framework provides a more specific lens through which to examine students' decisions, particularly in the context of choosing teaching as a career. The FIT-Choice framework incorporates additional factors, such as motivations for choosing teaching and perceptions of the teaching profession. A survey with indicators for the FIT-Choice framework has been translated into 17 languages and widely adopted globally (Watt et al., 2017). Using this framework in different countries can provide insight into how various factors, like cultural and economic influences, may affect the choice of teaching as a career differently depending on the local context. Data and Methods The research employs a case study approach, focusing on Urdaneta City University in the Philippines, a large public university on the main island of Luzon. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 27 students who recently enrolled in the university's baccalaureate program in secondary education. Their experiences, having completed diverse senior high school tracks, offer valuable insights into the interplay between their exposure to different academic pathways and their current postsecondary choices. Deductive coding was used where a structured codebook was created based on prior research (Saldaña, 2021) regarding curricular pathways and educational aspirations. Findings The findings support Expectancy-Value theory, with influences from both the students’ beliefs about their abilities and their perceptions of the achievement value of the task. Personal utility value and self-perceptions of ability were key drivers, with many students selecting strands to develop skills relevant to teaching, such as communication. Social influences, particularly from family and peers, were significant, especially when students lacked information about available options. While many experienced alignment between their strands and university majors—such as STEM students pursuing science education degrees—others, particularly those from technical tracks, reported misalignment and inadequate preparation. Constraints like limited information, financial barriers, and restricted access to preferred tracks were common. Students were also motivated by intrinsic passion for teaching and its perceived social utility. These findings underscore the interplay of individual agency and structural constraints in shaping educational trajectories. Discussion This study highlights how cultural and environmental factors uniquely shape educational choices, contributing to the broader understanding of how local influences interact with global educational theories like the Expectancy-Value and FIT-Choice frameworks. For instance, students’ decisions were often intertwined with parental aspirations and familial expectations, reflecting the strong parent-child interdependence characteristic of Filipino culture, where children’s achievements are frequently seen as extensions of parental success (Jabar et al., 2023). Additionally, teaching was perceived as a prestigious and socially impactful profession, with participants citing family members as role models and referencing the social utility of education as a means to "change the world." These perspectives align with findings in Indonesia, where teaching is viewed as a high-status profession akin to engineering or law (Suryani, 2021). Furthermore, the study revealed how resource limitations in some areas constrained students’ access to their desired tracks and strands, a challenge observed in other resource-constrained regions globally (Bereményi, 2023). References Bereményi, B. Á. (2023). 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