A cultural perspective on individual choices of STEM education and subsequent occupations

Attention to health and maintenance of a skilled IT workforce is an issue that will not disappear any time in the near future. There is also multi-disciplinary support for a new cultural approach to understanding student attraction to specific IT educational programs and the IT occupation. This paper proposes a new cultural framework to study influences on, and the specific nature of IT cultural assumptions and values of students that affect attraction to information technology (IT) related Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, and careers. We integrate two cultural theories specific to IT: Kaarst-Brown's (1995) theory of underlying assumptions that reflect one of five specific "IT Cultural Archetypes," and Guzman's (2006) theory of IT Occupational Culture and Commitment. This paper presents theoretical foundations, an investigative model with propositions, a discussion of methodological considerations, and implications for research.