Dual enrollment as a mentoring-informed pathway to teaching: high school students’ perceptions and career aspirations

This study examines how mentoring-like structures embedded within dual enrollment partnerships relate to high school students’ perceptions of teaching as a career. Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory and the FIT-Choice framework, the study explores how dual enrollment participation, demographic characteristics, and social contexts are associated with students’ motivational perceptions of teaching. Using a causal-comparative design, survey data from 131 high school students were analyzed using t-tests, ANOVA, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results indicate that students who participated in education-related dual enrollment reported higher perceived teaching ability, stronger beliefs in the social utility of teaching, and more positive views of professional rewards. Dual enrollment participation explained additional variance beyond demographic and safety-related factors. Findings suggest that dual enrollment may function as a mentoring-informed context for early career exploration and contribute to teacher recruitment pathways, particularly for first-generation and underserved students.