Unexpected Educational Pathways

The authors consider various forms of non-normative educational pathways within the cultural contexts of Canada, England, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America. Rather than conducting cross-cultural comparisons of normative educational pathways, the authors focus on (a) identifying unexpected educational pathways across various ages using various analytic methods and (b) examining a wide range of factors that may promote, inhibit, or result from these diverse forms of educational progress. The results are intended to help researchers and policy-makers understand why some students who appear to be on promising educational pathways fail to succeed and why other students, who appear to be at risk for failure, nevertheless go on to negotiate successful educational pathways.

Dr. Peck is a Research Investigator at the Research Center for Group Dynamics in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. He uses a combination of variable- and pattern-centered methodological approaches to study how personal and contextual multilevel systems interact to produce more or less healthy forms of human development. Dr. Feinstein is Professor of Education and Social Policy at the Institute of Education, Univeristy of London and Director of the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, a centre funded by the UK Government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families and others to investigate the economic, social, and personal effects of education and other policy interventions. Dr. Eccles is the McKeachie Collegiate Professor of Psychology, Women's Studies, and Education at the University of Michigan. Her most recent work focuses on: (1) ethnicity as a part of the self and as a social category influencing experiences and (2) the relation of self beliefs and identity to the transition from mid to late adolescence and then into adulthood.

INTRODUCTION Unexpected Pathways through Education: Why Do Some Students not Succeed in School and What Helps Others Beat the Odds?. Leon Feinstein and Stephen C. Peck.THE PERSON AS THE SOURCE OF DEFLECTION.School Engagement Trajectories and Their Differential Predictive Relations to Dropout. Michel Janosz, Isabelle Archambault, Julien Morizot, and Linda Pagani.Causes and Consequences of Unexpected Educational Transitions in Switzerland. Markus P. Neuenschwander and Jessica L. Garrett.Trajectories Based on Post-Comprehensive and Higher Education and Their Correlates and Antecedents. Katja Kokko, Lea Pulkkinen, P+ivi Mesi+inen, and Anna-Liisa LyyraMESO-LEVEL SOURCES OF DEFLECTION: THE FAMILY AND WIDER SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS.Exceptions to High School Dropout Predictions in a Low-Income Sample: Do Adults Make a Difference?. Michelle M. Englund, Byron Egeland, and W. Andrew Collins.Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Preschool Center Experience Upon Literacy and Numeracy Development in Early Primary School.Edward C. Melhuish, Kathy Sylva, Pam Sammons, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda Taggart, and Mai B. Phan.Individual Differences in the Pathways Into and Beyond Higher Education in the UK: A Lifecourse Approach. Leon Feinstein and Anna Vignoles.Exploring the Roles of Extracurricular Activity Quantity and Quality in the Educational Resilience of Vulnerable Adolescents: Variable- and Pattern-Centered Approaches. Stephen C. Peck, Robert W. Roeser, Nicole R. Zarrett, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles.MULTILEVEL SOURCES OF DEFLECTION.Mapping Swedish Females' Educational Pathways in Terms of Academic Competence and Adjustment Problems. Kari Trost and Bassam Michel El-Khouri.When Predictions Fail: The Case of Unexpected Pathways Toward High School Dropout. Linda S. Pagani, Christa Japel, Frank Vitaro, Richard E. Tremblay, Simon Larose, and Pierre McDuff.When Can We Expect the Unexpected? Predicting Educational Attainment When It Differs from Previous Expectations. Emily E. Messersmith and John E. Schulenberg.COMMENTARIES.What to Make of "Unexpected" Pathways?. Greg J. Duncan.Developmental Science in the Melting Pot. John Bynner.The Value of an Off Diagonal Approach. Jacquelynne S. Eccles.Issues in Progress.Intragroup Conflict and Cooperation. Alexander Chizhik, Robert Shelly, & Lisa Troyer.The Social and Psychological Dynamics of Collective Action: From Theory and Research to Policy and Practice. Aarti Iyer & Martijn van Zomeren.New Perspectives on Human-Animal Interactions: Theory, Policy, and Research. Sarah Knight & Harold A. Herzog.International Perspectives on Gender and Political Socialization. Hans-Peter Kuhn, Connie Flanagan, Lonnie Sherrod, & Angela Ittel.Democracy and Disenfranchisement. Kevin Lanning.Young People's Perspectives on the Rights of the Child: Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice. Martin D. Ruck & Stacey S. Horn.The Landscape of the Multiracial Experience. Diana Sanchez & Margaret Shih.Ethnic Prejudice and Discrimination in Europe. Andreas Zick, Thomas F. Pettigrew, & Ulrich Wagner.Editorial Advisory Board.Harold L. Arnold, Jr., Temple University, United States.B. Ann Bettencourt, University of Missouri, United States.Herbert H. Blumberg, Goldsmiths College, University of London, United Kingdom.Marcella H. Boynton, University of Connecticut, United States.Heather E. Bullock, University of California, Santa Cruz, United States.Gillian Finchilescu, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.I-Ching Lee, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.Susan Clayton, College of Wooster, United States.Sara McClelland, City University of New York, United States.Rupert W. Nacoste, North Carolina State University, United States.Noraini M. Noor, International Islamic Univer