Education and learning are embodied experiences that unfold in time.
We aim to understand how identities, aspirations and learning opportunities coevolve to shape lives and life chances.
We use many data sources, methods and frameworks to understand how people navigate academic progress.
sequences and forecasts
Using computational, qualitative and archival techniques to understand how learning paths unfold.
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Learn more about this projectstudent narratives
Utilizing a cache of hundreds of thousands of essays submitted with applications to a large public university system, the student narratives team is exploring how young people make sense of their life experiences and represent their accomplishments to others.
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Learn more about this projectpaths to work
The relationship between schools and workplaces is complex and changing rapidly. Our work informs public discourse on how best to scaffold education and learning opportunities over the entire life course.
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Learn more about this projectplatforms and toolkits
Powerful, user-friendly tools to aid in course search and path discovery.
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Learn more about this projectonline learning
What works, what doesn't, and what the future of online learning might be.
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Learn more about this projectresponsible use
The ubiquity, detail and fidelity of data describing learning interactions brings extraordinary opportunity to improve education -- but also obliges educators to share and deploy data responsibly. Pathways Lab takes these responsibilities seriously and continuously.
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Learn more about this projectWe share our work.
Should I start at MATH 101? Content repetition as an academic strategy in elective curriculums
Drawing on serial interviews (N = 200) of 53 students at an admissions-selective university, we show that incoming students with disparate precollege experiences differ in their orientations toward and strategies for considering first college math courses. Content repeaters opt for courses that repeat material covered in prior coursework, whereas novices opt for courses covering material new to them. Content repeaters receive high grades and…
Sociology of Education, 2022
Read this paperFrom bat mitzvah to the bar: Religious habitus, self-concept, and women’s educational outcomes
This study considers the role of religious habitus and self-concept in educational stratification. The authors follow 3,238 adolescents for 13 years by linking the National Study of Youth and Religion to the National Student Clearinghouse. Survey data reveal that girls with a Jewish upbringing have two distinct postsecondary patterns compared to girls with a non-Jewish upbringing, even after controlling for…
American Sociological Review, 2022
Read this paperApplication essays and the ritual production of merit in US selective admissions
US colleges and universities are defined by their exclusivity, and the most prestigious schools reject most of those who apply. Yet these same schools also widely advertise their inclusiveness, encouraging students from all backgrounds to submit applications and highlighting evaluation protocols that identify many characteristics worthy of consideration for admission. We surface this paradox and use it as motivation to…
Poetics, 2022
Read this paperSignaled or suppressed? How gender informs women’s undergraduate applications in biology and engineering
Analyzing 60,000 undergraduate applications to the University of California, the authors find that extant gender segregation of academic disciplines also manifests in intended major choice. Gender and SAT Math scores together strongly predict intent to major in biology and engineering, the most popular and gender-segregated majors. Using natural language processing, the authors also find that author gender is more predictive…
Socius, 2022
Read this paperForecasting undergraduate majors: A natural language approach
Elective curriculums require undergraduates to choose from a large roster of courses for enrollment each term. It has proven difficult to characterize this fateful choice process because it remains largely unobserved. Using digital trace data to observe this process at scale at a private research university, together with qualitative student interviews, we provide a novel empirical study of course consideration…
AERA Open, 2022
Read this paperSupporting interviews with technology: How software integration can benefit participants and interviewers
Drawing on their own design for a longitudinal cohort study of undergraduate students, Harrison and Hernandez share techniques for smoothing research relationships and logistics through widely available digital media.
Contemporary Social Science, 2022
Read this paperWe are a diverse team.
The Pathways Seminar assembles researchers to share work and build community.
Our common thread is that we all seek to model academic progress as a longitudinal, sequential and interactive phenomenon.
Winter 2023 schedule