Research on factors that shape recruitment and retention in undergraduate science majors currently is highly fragmented and in need of an integrative research framework. Such a framework should incorporate analyses of the various levels of organization that characterize academic communities (i.e., the broad institutional level, the departmental level, and the student level), and should also provide ways to study the interactions occurring within and between these structural levels. We propose that academic communities are analogous to ecosystems, and that the research paradigms of modern community ecology can provide the necessary framework, as well as new and innovative approaches to a very complex area. This article also presents the results of a pilot study that demonstrates the promise of this approach at the student level. We administered a questionnaire based on expectancy‐value theory to undergraduates enrolled in introductory biology courses. Itself an integrative approach, expectancy‐value theory views achievement‐related behavior as a joint function of the person's expectancy of success in the behavior and the subjective value placed on such success. Our results indicated: (a) significant gender differences in the underlying factor structures of expectations and values related to the discipline of biology, (b) expectancy‐value factors significantly distinguished biology majors from nonmajors, and (c) expectancy‐value factors significantly predicted students' intent to enroll in future biology courses. We explore the expectancy‐value framework as an operationally integrative framework in our ecological model for studying academic communities, especially in the context of assessing the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the sciences. Future research directions as well as practical implications are also discussed.

This paper considers the role of social capital and trust in the aspirations for higher education of a group of socially disadvantaged girls. Drawing on data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of an underperforming secondary school, the paper considers current conceptualisations of social capital and its role in educational ambitions. The paper concludes by tentatively suggesting that whilst social capital is extremely helpful in explaining differences within groups, trust appears to be a prerequisite for the investment and generation of social capital, as opposed to the other way around. The paper also suggests that young people are not necessarily dependent on their families for their social capital but are able to generate capital in their own right.

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IntroductionIncreased funding for vocational qualifications (BIS, 2010) as well as vocational qualifications that are understood and valued by employers underpins one of the new coalition government's key aims of better vocational training for teenagers [Cabinet Office, 2010]. Whilst the future of the Diplomas may be in doubt, a commitment to vocational courses emphasises the overall recognition that the UK needs to both develop its vocationally trained workforce as well as provide alternative post-16 educational routes for young people, including those most at risk of becoming NEET [Not in Education, Employment or Training]. However, despite increasing success in both the quality and completion rates of the plethora of vocational courses now offered as well as significant rises in the numbers of students opting to undertake vocational training 1 [report to Parliament, 2010], diversity remains in the range and content of courses meaning that vocational education still largely have much lower status than more traditional and academic routes. A report by Civitas (2010) suggests that many vocational courses are rarely connected to the world of work, have little academic content and tend to be offered to low attaining, lower-income students. Also many of these do not lead to work or opportunities for study in higher education

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Good information and career guidance about which post-compulsory educational routes are available and where these routes lead is important for ensuring that young people make choices that are most appropriate to their needs and aspirations. Yet the Association of School and College Leaders (2011) expresses fears that future provision will be inadequate. This paper reports the findings of an on-line survey of 300 secondary school teachers, and follow-up telephone interviews with 18 of such teachers in the south-east of England which explored teachers' experiences of delivering post-compulsory educational and career guidance and their knowledge and confidence in doing so. The results suggest that teachers lack confidence in delivering information, advice and guidance outside their own area of specialism and experience. In particular, teachers knew little about alternative local provision of post-16 education and lacked knowledge of less traditional vocational routes. This paper will therefore raise important policy considerations with respect to supporting teachers' knowledge, ability and confidence in delivering information concerning future pathways and career guidance.

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