Smitashree Biswal, Rajib Chakraborty
ABSTRACT
Given the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, a certain culture of inclination towards careers associated with this field must be developed at school level. In this context, certain psychological variables such as self- efficacy and science identity play a crucial role for developing career commitment in STEM related fields. The present study aims to analyze the relationship between science self-efficacy, science career commitment and the possible mediating role of science identity among secondary school students. Data was collected from 1125 students with boys (N= 659,58.57%) and girls (N=466, 41.43%) from secondary schools of Odisha, India. The instruments used for the study were, the Science Career Commitment scale(SCCS), originally developed by Chemers et. al. (2011), Science Identity (SciID) scale, originally developed by Lockhart et al., (2022) and Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ-II) scale, originally developed by Glynn and Koballa (2006), which were validated in Indian context. The results of the study revealed that there are significant correlations between science self-efficacy, science identity and science career commitment. The high correlation among the three variables indicates that the students with high self-efficacy in science, identify himself or herself as science person and also show commitment towards science related field. It was also found that, science identity plays a mediatory role between science self-efficacy and science career commitment. The implications of the study indicates that by promoting such psychological entities, STEM career culture can be deeply rooted among the secondary school students.
