A Mixed-Method in Identifying the Harms of Educational-Vocational Guidance Process Students and Graduates of the University of Tehran

The present study aimed to identify the harms of the educational-vocational guidance of students of University of Tehran with a mixed-methods approach. In the first part the level of academic major satisfaction was compared with a quantitative approach which was applied in terms of purpose and a descriptive survey in terms of method. The population of the study included all bachelor, master and doctoral students of the University of Tehran in four departments of engineering, experimental sciences, humanities and basic sciences that a sample was selected by non-randomly convenience strategies with a volume of 361 people who answered the Nauta’s Academic Major Satisfaction questionnaire. The results showed that there is no significant difference between academic major satisfaction according to the variables of gender, grade and having the experience of changing major. However, there was a significant difference between students studying in different semesters and departments. The second part was conducted with a qualitative approach using phenomenological method in order to identify the negative consequences of undesirable educational-vocational guidance and the ways of facing with consequences. Research data were collected by semi-structured interviews with 25 students and graduates of University of Tehran who were selected by purposeful method. Findings showed that the negative consequences were classified into 25 sub-themes and six general themes of educational, psychological, family, economic, individual-social and physical consequences. Moreover, by extracting 11 sub-themes, it was shown that individuals did a variety of activities, including academic, social, vocational, adaptive and coping activities in order to reduce the consequences.