Careers in Science and Technology An International Perspective (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
PART II ANALYZING TRENDS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CAREERS . . .
PART II ANALYZING TRENDS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CAREERS . . .
Pages 39-76
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 39... ...
PART II Analyzing Trends in Science and Tccbuology Carccrs: Tbc Longi~dinu1 Approach #
|
From page 41... ...
over time. However, largely for reasons of economy and investigator time, the dominant methodological tendency has been to conduct cross-sectional research to monitor development taking, for example, one snapshot of individuals of different ages, of a labor force, or of an educational cohort.
|
From page 42... ...
Moreover, longitudinal studies of single birth cohorts need to be enriched by cohortsequential studies. In summary, for life span and life course researchers, cross-sectional, one-time data are insufficient.
|
From page 43... ...
The 1972-1986 National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972 (NLS-72) is used to obtain information on years beyond high school, i.e., youth's probabilities of majoring in science, receiving science degrees at bachelor's and master's levels, and working in scientific occupations.
|
From page 44... ...
One difficulty with this conventional perspective is that an individual's career choices not only change frequently over the life course, but also change in such irregular sequences that they cannot be easily characterized by a unidirectional development model. In this paper, I redefine career process as the collective experience of a birth cohort.
|
From page 45... ...
In undergraduate and graduate years, the population can be detained as students majoring in science or obtaining science degrees. In the labor force, the population may be defined as workers in scientific occupations.
|
From page 46... ...
This paper extends it to the study of the career process of becoming a scientist/engineer with the construction of a synthetic cohort. DATA I combine data from two sources for the construction of a synthetic cohort between ages 13 and 32.
|
From page 47... ...
S/E master's degree Figure 2 presents schematic flows among the seven educational states; the solid lines represent typical flows and the dotted lines represent untypical flows.7 From He above operational definitions of the states, I calculate, separately for males and females, 13 transition probability matrices for the hypothetical cohort, given in Tables At and A2. The reported rates and counts were appropriately weighted to reflect the sampling designs and non-responses so that resulting transition rates are the best estimates of their corresponding conditional probabilities in the population.8 These transition rates are mainly used in analysis to be reported later.
|
From page 48... ...
The number of cohort members with S/E education steadily decreases from age 13 to age 23, and the decrease is faster for females than for males. After age 23, the pool increases slightly due to a small proportion of cohort members who start or resume postsecondary education after some disruption.
|
From page 49... ...
intended or actual non-S/E postsecondary education, (2) intended or actual S/E postsecondary education, (3)
|
From page 50... ...
Next, let us ask the following counter-factual question: How much induction in sex differences at age 32 would occur if there were no sex differences in initial distribution of educational states at an earlier age? To answer this question, I forced gender equality by assigning males' marginal distribution of educational states to females at ages prior to 32 and observe changes in the gender gap at age 32.
|
From page 51... ...
The exercise alternately substitutes one set of males' transition rates at a given age while keeping everything else intact. Exit and Entry Rates Given our simple "bathtub" model, women's underrepresentation in S/E educational states could result from two sources: women's exit rate from S/E states is higher than men's or women's entry rate into S/E states is lower than men's.
|
From page 52... ...
intended or actual S/E postsecondary education, (3) non-S/E bachelor's degree, (4)
|
From page 53... ...
TABLE 4 Transition Rates From Educational States to Occupational States at Are 32 bar Sex Occupational States Not Non Educational StateWorking S/E S/E (n) Panel A: Females Secondary education only Non-S/E postsecondary education25.32 S/E postsecondary education 16.67 34.41 % 65.09 0.50 (3583)
|
From page 54... ...
5. One major difference between what I propose here and conventional multistate life tables is that age is used here as a truly discrete variable (actually school age)
|
From page 55... ...
intended or actual non-SIE postsecondary education, (2) intended or actual S/E postsecondary education, (3)
|
From page 56... ...
intended or actual non-S/E postsecondary education, (2) intended or actual S/E postsecondary education, (3)
|
From page 57... ...
1977. A Markov Chain Model of Working Life Tables.
|
From page 58... ...
. is a crucial issue in the attempt to develop regional strategies that increase the potential capabilities of the less favored regions in regard to their own social and economic progression.
|
From page 59... ...
In the developed countries, education is not a first priority as it has to contend with other highly relevant issues like unemployment, the incorporation of young people into the labor force, social protection, and environmental preservation. Consequently, the public expenditure rate on education has been decreasing in most countries (see Figure l)
|
From page 60... ...
in designing, launching, and steering the educational policies, mainly in professional training and higher education. One cannot forget the high rate of unemployment for the young labor force in the less developed regions of Europe.
|
From page 61... ...
It is noteworthy to highlight the rise in the number of qualified professionals, administrative personnel, traders, and dealers. This pattern denotes an evolutionary trend from developing countries to that of western developed countries before reaching a labor force profile of industrialized countries.
|
From page 62... ...
This figure conceals the quick increase in many of the less favored regions Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Southern Italy- with a much more moderate growth, even a decrease, in the labor force in other member states. This does not, however, take into account the impact of immigration from countries outside the community.
|
From page 63... ...
An additional problem is the re-skilling needed by an aged labor force in declining industrial areas. In less favored regions the lack of skilled personnel is due to the absence of modern and appropriate education and training facilities; the lack of cooperation of potential employers; rigid and outdated curricula; the lack of specialized and updated teaching staff; a very low degree of participation of active economic agents (union, firms, regional economic boards, etc.)
|
From page 64... ...
All these difficulties are absolutely relevant for the purpose of this study, and so pervade it. Therefore, one of the conclusions of this study will ask for better homogenization of indicators in terms of regional distribution and for an improvement in the type of indicators measuring human resources, both in absolute terms and in connection with education and employment.
|
From page 65... ...
oo ox ·= CQ a: · u)
|
From page 66... ...
TABLE 4 Regional Distribution of Total Expenditure in R&D, Public Sector and Undertakings in Italy, 1987 Regions Northern Italy Piemonta Valla d'Aosta Lombardia Trentino A.A. Veneto Friuli V.G.
|
From page 67... ...
Data on Human Resources in Less Favored Regions of EC-12 The data currently available confirm the trends outlined before: (1) an absence of homogeneity in the information, and (2)
|
From page 68... ...
- - +/ Regi one ~Expendi ture Distribution < LPersonnel _ Key: + denotes complete information +/- denotes incomplete information no information / + +/ +/ SO - CE: Copol 1990, Tendances de la recherche scientifique et du developpement technolgique dans la CEE; Trends Research and Technological Development in the ECC (Rapport/Report EUR 13795, FR/EN) ; Greece, Copol 88, Report EUR 11983 EN; Portugal, Copol 91, Rapport EUR 14343 FR; Italy, Copol 90, Report EUR 13313 EN Ireland, Copol 88, Rapport EUR 11980 FR; Spain, Copol, Report prepared by Mr.
|
From page 69... ...
2 It appears as such in breakdown by sector of activity. SOURCE: Copol 1990, Tendances de la recherche scientifique et du developpement technolgique dans la CEE; Trends in Scientific Research and Technological Development in He ECC (Rapport/Report EUR 13795, FR/EN)
|
From page 70... ...
(VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE: Less favored regions are named Objective 1 Regions in the terminology of the EC. This survey is addressed to research units in this kind of region.
|
From page 71... ...
However, there also seems to exist a potential for doctoral training inside the regions or even for attracting foreign doctors to them. This is a puzzling situation since I consider doctoral training as part of a learning by doing teaching process, a first and necessary step to improve the scientific environment in the less favored regions.
|
From page 72... ...
The fundamental point is that studies of career choice are studies of human behavior. We are interested in changes in the plans, expectations, skills, and behaviors of individuals, and Me data from good longitudinal studies provide the level and kind of measurement that supports the development and testing of models of human choice and change.
|
From page 73... ...
Fourth, in an effort to develop a synthetic cohort over a longer time span, Xie combined the precollege data from the LSAY and the college and postcollege data from the National Longitudinal Study of 1972. This linking might work in areas that have been relatively stable over the last two decades, but it does not work for We purposes of Xie's analysis.
|
From page 74... ...
While it clearly works for some kinds of economic development, it is not clear that it will work equally well for scientific and technical development. Given the long period of training needed for many higher level scientific and engineering positions, it is more likely that skilled personnel from other regions will be drawn to new job opportunities in less developed regions, unless there is a general shortage of skilled personnel in all regions.
|
From page 75... ...
In the United States we have initiated a number of important national longitudinal studies, but there are still important misunderstandings about the nature of and need for these studies. Some policy leaders and agency personnel seem to think that one national longitudinal study every eight years is sufficient to answer every possible question about the educational process.
|
From page 76... ...
And it is essential that parallel longitudinal studies be developed in several countries at the same time, using common metrics. Unfortunately, even the best single national longitudinal study cannot measure some system level variables because most nations have a relatively common educational system.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.