The influence of parents ethnicity on agricultural students career choice

Abstract

Agriculture education programs in Malaysian Schools were introduced to prepare human resource for Malaysia’s agriculture sector. Agricultural programs relevant to jobs are offered in schools to ensure agricultural students are ready to choose a career in the agriculture sectors. However, several issues have emerged concerning career development in adolescents are. Career development among adolescents is always influenced by significant people around them. The aim of this paper is to discuss the influence of parents’ ethnicity on agricultural students’ career choice based on the theory of reason action. According to the theory, beside a person’s attitude (positive or negative) the behavior towards performing particular behavior (e.g., choosing a career path) is affected by the perception of significant people around us (e.g., parents, spouse, teachers, etc.). This is known as a person’s normative belief. Logistic regression found significant differences in students’ normative beliefs (mother and father) in choosing agriculture as a career according to their parents’ ethnicity.