Useful now, valuable later: everyday relevance, career awareness, and STEM aspirations in students’ interest in school science

Students’ declining interest in school science remains a concern in science education, particularly during adolescence when students begin to connect school learning with future educational and occupational possibilities. Drawing on Expectancy-Value Theory, this convergent mixed-methods study examined how Grade 9 students’ reported interest in school science was associated with perceived everyday relevance, career awareness, and STEM career aspirations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Quantitative data were obtained from 382 students in participating public schools across approximately 30 identifiable school contexts in five emirates using selected items from the ROSES questionnaire. Qualitative data were generated through focus-group interviews with 19 independently recruited students from two private schools. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlations, multiple regression, and thematic analysis were used. Everyday relevance ( r = 0.827), career awareness ( r = 0.792), and STEM career aspirations ( r = 0.718) were each positively associated with interest ( p < 0.001). The joint regression model explained 73.4% of the variance in reported interest ( R 2 = 0.734; adjusted R 2 = 0.732); F(3, 378) = 348.57, p < 0.001. Everyday relevance ( β = 0.496, p < .001) and career awareness ( β = 0.362, p < 0.001) retained significant unique associations, whereas STEM career aspirations did not ( β = 0.052, p = 0.287). Exploratory factor analysis indicated substantial empirical overlap among the predictor indicators rather than clearly separated latent dimensions. Qualitatively, students connected science to health, everyday activities, educational and occupational pathways, economic security, family expectations, and social contribution. The findings suggest that students’ interest is closely associated with both the immediate relevance they perceive in school science and their awareness of possible future opportunities. The study, therefore, conceptualises “useful now and valuable later” as a temporal interpretive framework rather than as two empirically independent forms of value.