Alignment Of Career Aspiration With The Choice Of French Subject Among Secondary School Students In Ngara District

ABSTRACT

Career information is important when students are choosing French subject since it gives them confidence in their aspirations. Failure to access French subject-related career information may result into choosing other subjects that might be irrelevant to their aspirations. Thus, this study assessed alignment of students‟ career aspiration with the choice of French subject. Objectives were; to determine if students‟ career aspirations led them to the choice of French subject. Secondly, to explore the accessibility of French subject-related career information in schools; and lastly, to solicit opinions on the availability of careers that can attract Form III students to the choice of French subject. A mixed approach was used through a concurrent design where both purposive sampling and disproportionate stratified random sampling were applied during data collection. A total of 240 respondents (213 students and 27 teachers) participated in this study. Qualitative data were analysed thematically whereas chi-square test was performed for quantitative data by the aid of a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Findings of the study indicated no significant relationship between career aspirations and the choice of French subject among Form II and III students. French subject teachers were the main source of French subject-related career information though they were not satisfying students. Majority of the schools had academic masters or mistresses who were also appointed as career masters or mistresses with little career guidance and counselling professional skills. Taking into consideration the findings of this study, it was recommended that career information related to French subject should be made available to students so that they can understand how French subject relates to their career aspirations.