Anticipating Academic and Career Future among African Undergraduate Students in The United States: A Focus On Student Possible Selves

Abstract

Steering one’s own course by mastering own destiny is one of the powerful theorems often used to motivate individuals’ power to elating their future. Academic and career preparedness among undergraduate students in the twenty-first century is strengthened by student possible selves. While the American educational culture upholds this concept in higher education institutions, ethnic marginalization may explain why African undergraduate students in the United States have limited individual choice and control. The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of student possible selves among undergraduate students in the United States with attribution to their academic and career future. This study was undertaken using descriptive and multiple regression methods in the Spring Semester of 2007. The study involved undergraduate students registered in any of the semesters in the Spring semester, 2007 and the year 2006. They had to be African students with both parents having been born in Africa and have a willingness to participate in the study. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) Version 12.0. The found out that during the middle school years, students and teachers in the United States focused on performance goals and less on mastery goals than in other years, however, the case was not the same for African students enrolled in college. This study informs educators and policy makers about African undergraduates in USA whose minority status may affect their achievement in school and stereotypically may group them into one of the marked identities that elicit vulnerability to academic under-achievement. School admission administrators and officials need to be cognizant of the motivators and future beliefs of the students they admit. It would help in providing the support and counseling required as the students move along the academic and acculturation trajectory in the United States.

Key words: Academic achievement, Career, Goal orientation, Possible selves, African undergraduates