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Career Related Content in Psychology and Sociology Courses

Findings from a survey of fall 2024 psychology and sociology faculty members.

YWM Ascendium Grant Leads Meeting, 3/26/26

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Same for me of not having any discussion of careers in my classes and I’m in my final semester. It’s not the most motivating thing. I think it’s a conversation avoided sometimes because even among academics there’s that thing out there that you really can’t do anything with a bachelor’s in psychology.�

COMMENT FROM A FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT

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Methodology, Faculty Surveys

Mercy Faculty Survey

  • Conducted in fall of 2024
  • Psychology and sociology undergraduate faculty
  • Anonymous
  • 13 questions
  • 17 respondents, 19.31% response rate

NACE Faculty Survey

  • Collaborative effort between National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Sociate for Experimental Education (SEE)
  • Conducted in fall of 2023
  • 6,880 faculty respondents
  • https://www.naceweb.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2024/publication/free-report/nace-2024-faculty-attitudes-and-behaviors.pdf

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Barriers

What prevented faculty from incorporating career content into their classes?

Faculty were asked to report what prevented them from incorporating career-related content into their psychology and sociology courses.

  • LACK OF TIME.
    • Faculty were most likely (57%) to report that there was not sufficient time within the class to add new/additional material.
    • Some faculty (21%) also reported that they did not have enough time to modify their courses to add the material and/or didn’t want to sacrifice time devoted to other topics.
    • “Career content included was minimal due to time factor”; “To find a balance between course content and career information”
  • INSUFFICIENT BACKGROUND EXPERTISE. In addition, some faculty (21%) reported that they had insufficient background knowledge or expertise to incorporate career-related content into their classes.

Similarly, the main reasons NACE survey respondents reported for not integrating career readiness/career information into their classes was insufficient time/space in the course, insufficient background expertise, or concerns that it would take away from the academic rigor/disciplinary focus of the course.

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Perception of Self-Preparedness

Areas of Higher Self-Preparedness

The percent of NACE social science faculty survey respondents who rated their knowledge as high/very high in the following areas:

  • career pathways for students in their disciplinary area (excluding academia) (62%)
  • broad labor market information and trends (40%)
  • labor market trends associated with recent graduates (36%)
  • and job-search process for recent graduates (35%)

Survey respondents were provided with a list of topics and asked to report the degree to which they felt prepared to address each topic in their psychology/sociology classes.

Note. Survey items listed here are shortened for visibility.

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How We Have Used This Information So Far

NACE survey respondents frequently reported that in order to better serve students’ career needs they needed labor market information, professional development related to career readiness, and funding or course releases to allow them to integrate career content into their courses.

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Kelly Colby

Lead Data Analyst, Institutional Research

kcolby@mercy.edu

914-674-7152